List of employer and designated recipient duties to prevent harassment and violence in the workplace

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Definitions

The following definitions apply to this list of duties:

Applicable party
The policy committee, or if there is no policy committee, the workplace committee or health and safety representative.
Designated recipient
The person or work unit that the employer or organization has designated to receive notices of occurrences.
Occurrence
An occurrence of harassment and violence in the workplace.
Principal party
An employee or employer who is the victim of an occurrence of harassment and violence.
Responding party
The person identified in a notice of an occurrence as being responsible for the occurrence.
Witness
A person who witnessed an occurrence of harassment and violence or is informed of an occurrence by the principal party or responding party.
Workplace
Any place where an employee is engaged in work for the employee’s employer as per 122(1) of the Canada Labor Code (the Code)

List of employer duties

In this section

Note: the following list provides a summary of all the employer duties under the Work Places Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations (the Regulations).

Subsection 5(1) and sections 8 and 9

As the employer (referred to as you hereafter), you must carry out (with the applicable partner) a workplace assessment, which involves:

  • the identification of risk factors (section 8)
  • the development and implementation of preventive measures (section 9)

Subsection 5(2)

You must monitor (with the applicable partner) the accuracy of the work place assessment and, if necessary, update it.

Subsection 5(3)

You must review (with the applicable partner) the work place assessment every 3 years and, if necessary, update it.

Subsection 6(1)

You must review (with the workplace committee or the health and safety representative) and, if necessary, update the workplace assessment if:

  • the responding party in a notice of an occurrence is not an employee or the employer
  • the principal party chooses to end the resolution process and the occurrence is not resolved

Subsection 10(1)

You must develop (with the applicable partner) a workplace harassment and violence prevention policy.

Subsection 10(3)

You must make the policy available to all employees.

Subsection 10(4)

You must review (with the applicable partner) and, if necessary, update the policy at least once every 3 years and following any change to an element of the policy.

Subsection 11(1)

You must develop (with the applicable partner) emergency procedures.

Subsection 11(2)

You must make emergency procedures available to all employees.

Subsection 11(3)

You must review (with the applicable partner) and, if necessary, update the emergency procedures after every implementation of the emergency procedures.

Subsection 12(1)

You must develop (with the applicable partner) or identify the training on workplace harassment and violence.

Subsection 12(3)

You must review (with the applicable partner) and, if necessary, update the training at least once every 3 years and following any change to an element of the training.

Subsection 12(4)

You must provide all employees with the training.

Subsection 12(5)

You must provide the designated recipient with the training.

Subsection 12(6)

You must ensure the employer undergoes the training.

Section 13

You must make available to all employees information respecting the medical, psychological or other support services that are available within their geographical area.

Subsection 30(3)

You must provide a copy of the investigator’s report to the principle party, responding party, the work place committee or health and safety representative and, if applicable, the designated recipient.

Subsection 31(1)

You must determine (with the workplace committee or the health and safety representative) the recommendations to be implemented from the investigator’s report.

Subsection 31(2)

You must implement the recommendations in the investigator’s report that have been jointly agreed to with the workplace committee or health and safety representative.

Section 35

You must maintain all health and safety records prescribed at section 35 of the Regulations for a period of 10 years.

Section 36

By March 1 of each year, starting in 2022, you must report to the Labour Program aggregate data on all occurrences of harassment and violence for which a notice of an occurrence was provided in the preceding calendar year.

Section 37

You must report to the Labour Program a death of an employee resulting from an occurrence of harassment and violence within 24 hours of becoming aware of the death.

List of designated recipient duties

In this section

Note: the following list provides a summary of all the employer or designated recipient’s duties under the Work Places Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations (the Regulations).

Section 20

As the employer or designated recipient, you must contact the principal party within 7 days after they provide you the notice of an occurrence and inform them:

  • that their notice has been received or that they have been named or identified as the principal party in a notice of an occurrence provided by a witness
  • how to access the workplace harassment and violence prevention policy
  • of each step of the resolution process, and
  • that they may be represented during the resolution process

Section 21

You must confirm with a witness that their notice of an occurrence was received, within 7 days after they provided it to you.

Section 22

You must inform the responding party when you first contact them:

  • that they have been named or identified as the responding party in a notice of an occurrence
  • how to access the workplace harassment and violence prevention policy
  • of each step of the resolution process, and
  • that they may be represented during the resolution process

Section 23(1)

You must initiate negotiated resolution with the principal party within 45 days of receiving the notice of an occurrence.

Section 23(2)

You must review the notice of an occurrence with the principal party and consider whether it describes an action, conduct or comment that constitutes harassment and violence as defined in subsection 122(1) of the Canada Labour Code (the Code).

Section 26

You must provide notice that an investigation is to be conducted if the principal party requests one.

Paragraph 27(1)(a)

You must select a person to act as an investigator from the list of investigators developed jointly with the applicable partner, if such a list exists.

Subparagraph 27(1)(b)(i)

You must select a person to act as an investigator who is agreed to by yourself, the principal party and the responding party, if there is no jointly developed list of investigators.

Subparagraph 27(1)(b)(ii)

You must select a person to act as an investigator from the list provided by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), if the parties cannot agree on an investigator within 60 days of you providing notice of an investigation.

Section 29

You must provide the investigator with all relevant information to an investigation.

Section 34

You must provide monthly updates regarding the status of the resolution process to the principal and responding parties.

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