Workplace Harassment

By its nature, the term workplace harassment evokes an expansive definition of conduct by someone in the workplace that is unwelcome, whether known or ought to be known to be offensive, embarrassing, humiliating, or demeaning to an employee or group of employees. Harassment doesn’t have to be linked to legislative prohibitions against discrimination, but it can be.

Workplace sexual harassment is a sub-category of workplace harassment. The scope of what could constitute workplace sexual harassment is broad and depends on a comprehensive review of all the facts and circumstances. It can include overt acts and more subtle behaviour. What constitutes workplace sexual harassment has included everything from leering, inappropriate comments, touching, inappropriate jokes, solicitation, abuse of power for a sexual purpose, to sexual assault.

The Ontario Human Rights Code

The Ontario Human Rights Code prohibits workplace sexual harassment in sections 5(2) and (3) as follows:

Harassment because of sex in workplaces

(2) Every employee has a right to freedom from harassment in the workplace because of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression by his or her employer or agent of the employer or by another employee. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19, s. 7 (2); 2012, c. 7, s. 6 (2).

Sexual solicitation by a person in position to confer benefit, etc.

(3) Every person has a right to be free from,

• a sexual solicitation or advance made by a person in a position to confer, grant or deny a benefit or advancement to the person where the person making the solicitation or advance knows or ought reasonably to know that it is unwelcome; or
• a reprisal or a threat of reprisal for the rejection of a sexual solicitation or advance where the reprisal is made or threatened by a person in a position to confer, grant or deny a benefit or advancement to the person. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19, s. 7 (3).

Workplace Policies

Consensual sexual relationships arising out of a workplace, even between a supervisor and a subordinate, involve complicated legal and factual issues surrounding consent and the conferring of benefits or rewards. Most employers will have drafted policies and conducted educational seminars or training related to harassment and sexual harassment in the workplace. Lack of such training or policies, including any vagueness or ambiguity in the terms of any relevant policies, may provide the basis for a partial or complete defence to the challenged conduct.

Workplace Harassment Lawyer

If you need a workplace harassment lawyer, Contact Evans Law Firm  today for a free no-obligation consultation with a workplace harassment lawyer. Sometimes time limits can bar an otherwise good claim from being advanced. Please don’t delay and contact us as soon as possible. There is no cost until we are formally retained and a written retainer agreement is in place.