In March of 2013, WorkSafeBC's Board of Directors approved three Occupational Health and Safety Policies (the "OHS Policies") dealing with workplace bullying and harassment.

The new OHS Policies impose a positive duty on B.C. employers to "take all reasonable steps to prevent where possible, or otherwise minimize, workplace bullying and harassment." Flowing from this, employers are now required to establish internal policies and procedures to prevent and address bullying and harassment in the workplace. A toolkit was released by WorkSafeBC last month to assist employers in complying with these obligations.

The OHS Policies follow amendments to the Workers Compensation Act (the "Act"), which came into effect July 1, 2012 and expanded the scope of compensation claims involving mental disorders ("Bill 14"). The recently enacted section 5.1 of the Act provides that, in certain circumstances, a worker may be compensated for a mental disorder that does not result from an injury. This includes where the mental disorder is the result of workplace bullying and harassment.

Bullying and harassment is defined in the OHS Policies as follows:

"includes any inappropriate conduct or comment by a person towards a worker that the person knew or reasonably ought to have known would cause that worker to be humiliated or intimidated, but excludes any reasonable action taken by an employer or supervisor relating to the management and direction of workers or the place of employment".

The OHS Policies also provide examples of behaviour or comments that might constitute bullying and harassment, including insults, verbal aggression, spreading malicious rumours, and vandalizing personal belongings.

Whereas Bill 14 addresses workplace bullying and harassment from a compensatory perspective, the new OHS Policies focus on preventing its occurrence in the workplace. Specifically, they identify what WorkSafeBC considers to be reasonable steps for an employer to take to prevent or minimize workplace bullying and harassment. These include the following:

  1. Developing a policy statement to prevent and address workplace bullying and harassment as not being accepted or tolerated;
  2. Developing and implementing reporting procedures;
  3. Developing and implementing procedures for dealing with incidents and complaints;
  4. Informing workers about the policy statement and steps taken to prevent or minimize bullying and harassment;
  5. Training supervisors and workers about recognizing, responding to, and reporting incidents and complaints of bullying and harassment;
  6. Annually reviewing the policy statement and procedures;
  7. Not engaging in bullying and harassment of workers and supervisors; and
  8. Consistently applying internal policies and procedures on bullying and harassment.

Developing Bullying and Harassment Policies

Employers should use the definition of bullying and harassment, as well as the examples and sample policies available online, as a guide. However, they should also carefully consider how the wording and content of their policies can be customized to their specific industries and workplaces.

For employers who already have respectful workplace or similar policies in place, these policies should be revised to incorporate the new OHS requirements. For example, employers may want to consider:

  • Including the organization's bullying and harassment policy statement in existing policies or programs;
  • Updating existing reporting procedures to specifically include bullying and harassment; and
  • Providing bullying and harassment training at the same time as other OHS training.

Finally, the OHS Policies and the toolkit do not expressly state how employers should implement the requirements. However, it is clear that employers should have been in a position to distribute their policies and procedures on or around November 1, 2013, and should soon have a plan in place to train supervisors and workers shortly thereafter. Supervisors and workers should be trained on what is and what is not to be considered bullying and harassment, including the significant distinction between exercising legitimate managerial authority and bullying and harassing behaviour.

Supervisors should also be properly trained to recognize the difference between bullying and harassment and interpersonal conflict: not every workplace disagreement or uncomfortable interaction is considered bullying and harassment.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.