Harassment at work | Light at the end of the labyrinth

Six years after the #metoo hashtag appeared, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

In the workplace, heads rolled. From Canadian Olympic Committee president Marcel Aubut to star host Éric Salvail, bosses have learned that they cannot touch their employees without consent or expose their private parts in the middle of a meeting.

However, harassment at work, both sexual and psychological, remains endemic. Hold on: one in ten workers say they have been the victim of harassment in the last year, according to a survey by the Order of Certified Human Resources Advisors.¹

We must therefore welcome the initiative of the Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, who decided to tackle harassment by tabling Bill 42 which will be the subject of parliamentary consultations, starting on Tuesday.

So yes, there is light, but it is at the end of a labyrinth. Because filing a complaint for harassment is a tortuous path that can leave victims even more traumatized.

While Bill 42 brings significant progress, it misses the opportunity to offer victims a simplified path that would allow them to obtain the compensation to which they are entitled, without having to know all the intricacies of labor law. .

Among the advances, we must highlight the abolition of amnesty clauses contained in a large number of collective agreements. These clauses make it possible to erase the actions committed by a union member after a certain period (e.g.: one year), which prevents the imposition of a more severe sanction in the event of a repeat offense. Notice to unions: it is the victims who must be protected, not the harassers who are often repeat offenders.

Another step in the right direction: the minister wants to create a specialized team, within the Administrative Labor Tribunal, to deal with cases of sexual violence with the required tact and expertise, like the new Tribunal specializing in sexual violence and domestic violence, on the criminal side.

But for the victims, we still have to go that far. Incredibly complex, the legislation surrounding harassment in the workplace is more difficult to unravel than spaghetti.

Has the victim suffered discrimination? Other harms? Did she find herself on sick leave? The remedies are different, depending on the case.

Should we knock on the door of the CNESST? File a grievance? Contact the Commission on Human Rights and Youth Rights? Victims who take the wrong path find themselves going in circles, forced to tell their story like a nightmare that keeps repeating itself.

Too many victims settle along the way, with a cut-rate agreement, because they are poorly informed or because they have run out of financial resources. Others see their appeal completely fail because they failed to file a complaint with their employer from the start. Misery !

The findings of the committee responsible for analyzing recourse to sexual harassment at work, which submitted a 300-page report in 2023, are as sad as they are shocking.²

If we want things to change, employers need to have a clearer and better known complaints process. And above all, complaints must be handled by a duly trained and objective person within the company, or by an external expert if that is what is needed to ensure neutral and credible follow-up.

And why not create a “1 800 Harassment at work” line to help victims find their way? All we have to do is take inspiration from the Rebâtir line, a flagship measure to offer legal support to victims of sexual or domestic violence, which has been very successful.

Many other very technical elements of the bill deserve to be improved.

Just one example? It is not normal that young victims who are still in school receive compensation for only 17 hours per week, while other workers are entitled to 40 hours. We see young girls who start a summer job suffering a very serious attack which prevents them from working full time and even returning to their studies afterwards. They are entitled to full compensation.

Harassment is a public health issue that affects not only the victims, but also their loved ones, their colleagues, the company and society as a whole.

Minister Boulet had the courage to undertake a long-awaited reform. He must not miss the opportunity to go all the way to clean up the toxic work climate.