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Serious insight for serious situations.

Serious insight for serious situations.

Ontario’s new Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act and why workplace investigations have suddenly become more important

On October 27, 2015, the Ontario government tabled its Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act (Supporting Survivors and Challenging Sexual Violence and Harassment) 2015 (the “Act”).  The Act amends the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and in particular, those provisions brought in through Bill 168 in 2010 that set out employers’ obligations to have

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The intersection of workplace violence and occupational health & safety: A tragic reminder marks the fifth anniversary of Bill 168

On June 7, 2015, a Calgary gas station attendant attempting to prevent a “gas-and-dash” was run down by the vehicle; and she later died of her injuries. This tragedy made headlines across the country; and reports indicate that the employee, Maryam Rashidi, was only on her third day on the job when the incident occurred.

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2015: An important year for workplace violence laws?

In response to the recent cases of violence against nurses at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) has stated that nurses face an epidemic of workplace violence. In December 2014, the Ontario Ministry of Labour laid charges against CAMH relating to an incident involving the alleged beating of

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Punch causes nose bleed, but is not enough to be cause for dismissal

A recent decision from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice proves how challenging just cause dismissals can be for employers. In this case, the Court found that an employee who punched a co-worker in the nose did not deserve the “capital punishment” in employment law – dismissal for cause. The employee had 15 years of

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Let’s talk workplace incivility

Last week, I traveled to York University to give a lecture on workplace incivility to students in the Human Resources Management program. Other than marveling at some of the new buildings on my old university campus, I was also surprised by the discussion that was occurring in the classroom about incivility. The solutions that these

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Trick or treat or legal issues?

Halloween usually brings out the creative side in all of us, whether through designing costumes, putting up decorations, or at times the choice of what treat to hand out to eager trick-or-treaters (I personally still recall the lady on our street who handed out a six-pack of Sprite!). Although Halloween is meant to be a

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Harassment: The Saskatchewan experience

Is Saskatchewan, birthplace of Tommy Douglas, the co-operative movement, and curling champions galore, a hotbed of harassment? In 2007, Saskatchewan amended its Occupational Health and Safety Act to address workplace violence and personal harassment. This made Saskatchewan the second province in the country to extend this type of protection to employees. The first province was

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A few words about workplace violence risk assessments under Bill 168

For those of you following the progress of Bill 168, which proposes to add explicit protections for employees against workplace violence and harassment, you will know that one of the trickier elements of the Bill is the requirement that employers perform a risk assessment of the workplace. The purpose of this assessment is to determine

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