Sexual violence at work | “You have zero support”

As the tabling of a bill on sexual harassment at work approaches, voices are being raised to demand the creation of a specialized division at the Administrative Labor Tribunal (TAT). It was a key recommendation of the committee mandated by the Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet.

“He was shouting insults at me a foot away from me. I was leaning against the wall and couldn’t do anything. That’s apart from all the times he hit me, grabbed my ass, forced me to sit on his knees. »

The episode, which occurred after five years of harassment, plunged this worker – who asked not to be identified – into recurrent major depression and an adjustment disorder with anxiety-depressive mood.

It is an occupational injury, recognized the Administrative Labor Tribunal (TAT). This victim, however, found the process “difficult” – particularly the questions about sexual abuse she suffered 40 years earlier, when she was a minor.

Being heard by a specialized division would have been more “appropriate”, she believes.

Another worker told us that she “froze” when a colleague showed her a video of a sexual assault in the shuttle taking them back from the construction site.

“I experienced it as if it were a warning telling me: “Hey, this is going to be you!” »

The TAT recognized his post-traumatic stress disorder. But between the initial complaint to the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) and this decision, it took almost three years of procedures, deplores this woman, who wishes to remain anonymous.

“It’s extremely difficult because you have zero support. It affects everyone around you. » This construction employee would have wanted “empathy”, and not to hear that “I was used to that”.

Secondary victimization

The complainants “engage in an exhausting medical-administrative process” which leads to “a medicalization of harassment and secondary victimization,” noted researcher Célia Favre, who interviewed 10 women who had applied to the CNESST for her master’s degree in labor law.

“The whole process was so cumbersome that it was like it destroyed them even more than the basic harassment,” M told us.^me Favre.

Subjecting victims “to situations of minimization or insensitivity” constitutes “secondary victimization”, underlined the Committee responsible for analyzing remedies in matters of sexual harassment and sexual assault at work, in its report published in spring.

In it, the Committee proposes “two key recommendations”. First, that “basic training in matters of sexual harassment and assault of a sexual nature be provided to all TAT judges”, as well as the “establishment of a Division dedicated to hearing of cases involving sexual violence.

Quebec should in short take inspiration from its new specialized court for sexual violence and domestic violence to provide the TAT with such a specialized division, recommended this committee of three experts chaired by Ms.^e Rachel Cox.

“It’s an avenue, it’s not the only one,” said Minister Boulet in an interview with The Press.

“I find that a shame,” reacted M^e Cox in telephone interview. “The minister is missing an opportunity to send a clear message that labor law institutions will henceforth make room for victims of sexual violence. »

That a minority of cases reach a decision by the TAT is not an obstacle, in his eyes. “Small numbers do not equal little influence,” objects this professor in the legal sciences department at UQAM.

The Minister of Labor promised to table a bill before the end of the parliamentary session, i.e. by December 8. “All I can say is it’s coming,” he said in a telephone interview last week.

The idea of ​​a specialized division at the TAT is part of a “certain number of options” analyzed, and “we went with the option that allows us to most effectively meet the objectives targeted by the three experts” , specifies Mr. Boulet.

“I am concerned about the nature and quality of support, […] of conciliation and the people who do the conciliation. I am concerned about the possibility of a pre-hearing conference [et] by the knowledge of administrative judges who would hear this type of case, added the minister. Basically, these are the objectives that were targeted by the three experts, and to which I ensured that the most adequate response possible was given. »

In the meantime, “the victim is not heard in any sensitive way and is not at all at the center of the process,” told us a worker who requested anonymity because her case is still before the TAT. A specialized division would change “everything”, this woman argued, giving the example of the new specialized court for sexual violence and domestic violence. “We are not a subcategory of victims, we are entitled to the same kindness as a victim of criminal law! »