Reflections and news direct from Rubin Thomlinson.
Subscribe to receive updates of interest to you.
Filtered By:
Recently, my partners, Janice Rubin and Christine Thomlinson, and I presented Rubin Thomlinson’s “Top 10 Workplace Investigation Cases of 2024” webinar. We had a packed agenda and, as a result, we were unable to get to two cases that revisited two arbitral decisions that had been “top cases” in previous webinars.
While we are probably best known for conducting and supporting investigations and providing investigation training, our firm’s passion is elevating workplace culture overall. One of the ways we do that is by facilitating Respectful Workplace Training (RWT) – while often narrowly viewed as harassment and discrimination training, RWT more broadly refers to any “training that will provide [workers] with information intended to help foster a respectful workplace.”
I sometimes find it hard to believe that we are already coming up to the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic forcing us to quickly learn to work online. Here at RT, we remember having to rapidly adjust to conducting investigation interviews virtually (meaning by videoconference or telephone). Up to that point, most workplace investigation interviews were conducted in-person.
One of my favorite traditions this time of year is reviewing the annual top 10 lists. These lists are fun to read but also inspiring, filling me with the hope that I will somehow manage to watch all the top movies, read the best books, and binge the must-see TV series from 2024.
One of our core responsibilities as workplace investigators is to be impartial. The reasons for this are probably obvious: if we were to conduct an investigation with a predetermined idea of the outcome, or if we were to favour one party over the other, our investigation would not be fair, and participants would have no reason to trust in the integrity of the investigation process.
There is no question that internal investigations are resource intensive. They need to be done fast, but thoroughly. They need to be done by people who have an appropriate skill level. Parties to an investigation need to be treated fairly and in a manner that is trauma informed.
In my last blog, I wrote about different types of employee misconduct, other than harassment and discrimination, that may warrant an investigation; for example, conflicts of interest, time theft, fraud, and the disclosure of confidential information.
Dans la plupart des juridictions canadiennes, les employeurs sont tenus d’adopter des politiques visant à traiter d’enjeux comme le harcèlement, la discrimination et la violence en milieu de travail. Notre travail d’enquête nous mène à lire beaucoup de ces politiques de « respect au travail » et il appert que la grande majorité d’entre elles sont clairement rédigées dans le but de se conformer aux exigences législatives.
Follow us:
Rubin Thomlinson LLP
Tel: (416) 847-1814 | Fax: (416) 847-1815
Privacy Statement | Terms and Conditions
Copyright © 2026
