As of January 1, 2021, the new stand-alone Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations (the “Regulations”) will come into force to ensure employers prevent harassment and violence in federally regulated industries and workplaces. The Regulations will apply to all federal work places covered under Part II of the Canada Labour Code (the Code), including the federally regulated private sector, the federal public service and parliamentary work places. It will replace Part XX (violence prevention) of the Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations (COHSR), as well as portions of two other regulations that include violence prevention provisions.

Key Takeaways

Once the Regulations come into force, employers must:

1. Prepare the workplace harassment and violence prevention policy working jointly with the policy committee, the workplace committee, or the health and safety representative;
2. Assess the risk of workplace harassment and violence;
3. Inform and train employees, and participate in training themselves;
4. When an incident of harassment or violence is reported, respond within seven days;
5. Keep records on every incident of harassment and violence in the workplace and report annually to the Labour Program; and
6. Implement corrective measures in response to the investigation report of an investigator to prevent future occurrences of harassment and violence.

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