# 2020-161 Harassment

Case summary

F&R Date: 2021-10-28

The grievor filed a harassment complaint alleging that her supervisor had verbally and physically harassed her in a sexual manner. A Military Police (MP) investigation did not result in charges against the supervisor. Without further investigation, the responsible officer (RO) then closed the complaint file citing the MP investigation, past unsubstantiated harassment claims and the lack of corroborating witnesses as reasons for doing so. 

There was no Initial Authority decision in relation to this grievance. 

The Committee found that the RO failed to fulfill his obligations in assessing the harassment complaint. Once the MP investigation had concluded without charges, the RO had a duty to continue investigating the complaint. The Committee noted that the RO was not justified in relying on past, unsubstantiated complaints as a reason to question the validity of this complaint since there was no evidence that the grievor had submitted unsubstantiated complaints in the past. Furthermore, the Committee observed that the RO could not rely on a lack of corroborating witnesses because the grievor had specifically indicated that the harassment occurred when she was alone with her supervisor. 

The Committee recommended that the investigation process of the harassment complaint be started all over again.