legal words
Bill 132 – Fresh Amendments to the
Occupational Health and Safety Act
ANOTHER STEP INTO THE NEW FRONTIER OF HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE WORKPLACE
The Sexual Violence and Harassment
Action Plan Act (Supporting
Survivors and Challenging Sexual
Violence and Harassment), 2016
– otherwise known as Bill 132 – came
into force on Sept. 8, 2016 and introduced
amendments to a number of statutes, including
the Ontario Occupational Health
and Safety Act (OHSA).
In that regard, Bill 132 builds on the
Bill 168 amendments to OHSA, which
in 2010 explicitly recognized workplace
violence and harassment as occupational
health and safety issues.
Pursuant to Bill 132, OHSA’s definition
of “workplace harassment” has
been updated to expressly include “sexual
harassment,” which is now itself defined
under OHSA as follows:
“(a) engaging in a course of vexatious
comment or conduct against a worker in
a workplace because of sex, sexual orientation,
gender identity or gender expression,
where the course of comment or conduct
is known or ought reasonably to be known
to be unwelcome, or (b) making a sexual
solicitation or advance where the person
making the solicitation or advance is in
a position to confer, grant or deny a benefit
or advancement to the worker and
the person knows or ought reasonably to
know that the solicitation or advance is
unwelcome.”
Together with this new definition,
a number of new obligations have also
arrived for employers, including the
following:
■■ A more stringent requirement
to provide an effective complaint
mechanism that will not directly or
indirectly discourage workers from
bringing issues forward.
In particular, employers are required to
update their anti-harassment policies and
procedures to “include measures and procedures
for workers to report incidents
of workplace harassment to a person other
than the employer or supervisor, if the
employer or supervisor is the alleged harasser,”
and to “set out how information
obtained about an incident or complaint
of workplace harassment, including identifying
information about any individuals
involved, will not be disclosed unless the
disclosure is necessary for the purposes of
investigating or taking corrective action
with respect to the incident or complaint,
or is otherwise required by law.”
By Jason Beeho
StudioIcon/Shutterstock.com
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ OCTOBER 2016 ❚ 19