Ontario’s Bill 168: 1 year later

Ministry of Labour surprised at volume of harassment complaints

It’s been about one year since Bill 168, Ontario’s workplace violence and harassment legislation, came into force. And it’s been a tough transition for some smaller companies, according to experts.

“If you’ve got a workplace that’s say 100 employees or under, you may not have a human resources person, you may have a plant manager that takes care of it and they’re busy making sure the lines are running,” said Lisa Stam, a lawyer with Baker and McKenzie LLP in Toronto, adding the legislation has brought a lot of new responsibilities to the employer.

While most large companies already had policies and procedures that just needed tweaking to comply with Bill 168, many small- to mid-size companies were starting from scratch, she said. 

“I think the big folks are on board because they were already and they have the professional staff in house that already had policies in place and they just had to tweak it a bit,” she said.

1,100 Bill 168 orders issued

From June 15, 2010, to March 31, 2011, Ministry of Labour inspectors investigated more than 400 complaints involving workplace violence and issued about 600 orders associated with the new legislation. They also investigated more than 1,000 complaints involving workplace harassment. Altogether, they issued about 1,100 orders associated with the new law.

The ministry’s data system doesn’t identify whether orders were written against a small or large workplace, but it’s probable that more of the orders were issued to smaller businesses, said Wayne De L’Orme, provincial co-ordinator of the industrial health and safety program.

“I think it’s a fair comment to say that smaller workplaces have had a more difficult time complying with the legislation than large workplaces,” he said.

Many large employers probably already had workplace violence and harassment programs in place when the bill came out, he said.

De L’Orme said he believes that in smaller workplaces most employers have thought about violence issues, but maybe they didn’t have a policy in writing, which Bill 168 requires.

“It’s a little harder for smaller places I think.”

Some small businesses were concerned about the task of creating a workplace violence and harassment policy, said Elizabeth Mills, president and CEO of Workplace Safety and Prevention Services, a Health and Safety Ontario (HSO) partner.

But once employers get into the process and use simple tools to address risk assessments, they are using that as a conversation starter with staff and are gaining confidence in the process, she said.

“They find out they know a lot more than they thought and they also realize they can actually do something about it practically,” said Mills.

Small businesses that have survived the recession are concerned about costs and time, so breaking down the process is important, she said.

Businesses owners that have gone through the process are telling HSO they were more concerned about complying with the legislation than they should have been. After starting the conversation, they found implementing a policy opened up important conversations with staff that helped the work environment, Mills said.

“When you’re being bullied or harassed in the workplace, or when you are preoccupied with the presence of risk, they’re actually even less productive anyway,” she said. “You are actually reinforcing the fact that you care and therefore they can be safe and productive at work.”

Large number of harassment complaints

One thing that was a bit surprising for workplace inspectors after the bill passed was the number of workplace harassment complaints that were coming in to the ministry, said De L’Orme.

The ministry has had about 500 complaints for violence and about 1,300 to 1,400 for harassment.

De L’Orme said he thinks the reason for the high number of complaints is the new legislation gives workers a venue to express concerns they may have had for years.

When the ministry is looking into a harassment complaint, it is looking to ensure there is a framework for dealing with harassment in the workplace. Inspectors are checking to make sure there is a policy and program in place and workers know how access the program.

“We don’t really investigate specific issues,” he said.

“I think for harassment what the legislation is really trying to do is provide a way for workers and managers to talk about issues that are not easy to talk about at times.”

A year is too early to really see all of the legal ramifications a new legislation will have for employers, said Stam, but she said she suspects that there will be many cases in the future where Bill 168 comes into play.

“It’s a tool and so the question we’ve wondered right from the beginning is it going to be a sword or a shield,” she said. “And it depends. Both sides of the fence are using it.”

Check out our video interview of Elizabeth Mills talking about the impacts of Bill 168 over the past year at www.safety-reporter.com.

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