2023 annual report – Taking action against harassment and violence in workplaces under Canadian federal jurisdiction

Key findings from the 2023 annual report

1. 2023 is the third reporting year for which the Labour Program has provided an annual report since the Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations came into force. This year's report is based on 5,393 EAHVOR submissions, an increase from the 4,777 EAHVOR submissions received during the 2022 reporting year.
2. The number of harassment and violence (HV) occurrences reported by federally regulated employers increased from 6,226 in 2022 to 7,114 in 2023. The increase in occurrences by 14.3% is partially due to the larger number of submissions received for 2023, which increased by 12.9% compared to 2022.
3. A single fatality related to harassment and violence was reported to the Labour Program in 2023. Previously, 3 fatalities related to harassment and violence were reported in 2022, and 0 in 2021.
4. The number of reported sexual HV occurrences rose from 722 in 2022 to 1,029 in 2023.
5. Five industries reported a combined 5,811 HV occurrences, representing approximately 81% of all occurrences reported in 2023. These industries also reported most of the occurrences in 2021 and 2022:
   • Federal Public Services, Public Service Departments and Crown Corporations (reported 2,129 occurrences)
   • Road Transportation (reported 1,242 occurrences)
   • Air Transportation (reported 1,094 occurrences)
   • Postal Services and Postal Contractors (reported 776 occurrences)
   • Banking and Banks (reported 570 occurrences)
6. Employers in the federally regulated public sector and private sector reported more HV occurrences than in 2022. The public sector, which reported 1,885 occurrences in 2022, reported 2,129 occurrences in 2023 (a 12.9% increase). The private sector, which reported 4,341 occurrences in 2022, reported 4,985 occurrences in 2023 (a 14.8% increase).
7. The share of medium employers (those with 100 to 499 FTEs) that reported at least 1 HV occurrence rose from nearly 34% in 2022 to roughly 41% in 2023.
8. The most frequently used method for resolving HV occurrences in 2023 was investigation, which was used to resolve 2,287 occurrences in 2022 and 2,520 occurrences in 2023 (a 10.2% increase). This was followed by negotiated resolution, which was used to resolve 1,475 occurrences in 2022 and 2,355 occurrences in 2023 (a 59.7% increase).
9. The most common relationship type between a principal party (who reports being the victim of an HV occurrence) and a responding party (who is alleged to have been responsible for the occurrence) in 2023 was employee to employee. This relationship type was reported in 2,650 occurrences in 2022 and in 3,053 occurrences in 2023 (a 15.2% increase). The second-most common relationship type was employee to supervisor, manager, or business owner. This relationship type was reported in 2,178 occurrences in 2022 and in 2,704 occurrences in 2023 (a 24.2% increase).
10. 1,416 instances of discrimination linked to the grounds of discrimination defined in the Canadian Human Rights Act were identified among the HV occurrences reported by employers in 2023. This is an increase of 11.2% from the 1,273 instances reported in 2022.
11. Discrimination based on sex was the most frequent type of discrimination reported in 2023 and was identified in 325 occurrences (23% of all instances of discrimination reported). This was followed by discrimination based on race, which employers reported as a factor in 307 occurrences (21.7% of all instances of discrimination reported). These forms of discrimination were also the most commonly reported in 2021 and 2022.

Industries under federal jurisdiction

According to the Canada Labour Code (the Code), federal jurisdiction encompasses any work and/or undertaking or business that is within the legislative authority of the Parliament of Canada. This includes all work deemed to be for the common good of at least 2 provinces and outside the exclusive authority of provincial legislatures. Part II of the Code also applies to employers and employees covered under the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act.

EAHVOR submissions

Since 2021, federally regulated employers have been required to submit an EAHVOR to the Labour Program by March 1 each year. An EAHVOR must include the following information:

• the total number of HV occurrences reported to the employer, including:
  • non-sexual HV occurrences
  • sexual HV occurrences
  • HV occurrences that resulted in the death of an employee
• the final resolution method used by an employer to resolve each HV occurrence
• the relationships between all parties involved in each HV occurrence
• the number of HV occurrences that fell under each prohibited ground of discrimination set out in subsection 3(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act
• the location where each HV occurrence took place
• the average number of months taken to complete the resolution process for all HV occurrences

As shown in Table 1.1, the Labour Program received 5,393 EAHVOR submissions that meet the reporting requirements for the 2023 reporting year. The number of submissions received increased by approximately 600 compared to 4,777 in 2022. There were 639 employers who reported at least 1 HV occurrence, which represents 11.8% of all federally regulated employers who submitted an EAHVOR. This is an increase from 2022, when 541 employers reported at least 1 HV occurrence. Notably, 81.6% of all HV occurrences were reported by 102 employers (1.9% of the employers who submitted an EAHVOR).

The number of EAHVOR submissions from every industry rose from 2022 to 2023. The Federal Public Service had the largest increase in its number of submissions, more than doubling from 233 in 2022 to 480 in 2023. This was followed by the Road Transportation industry, which submitted 2,518 reports in 2022 and 2,673 reports in 2023. Since an organisation’s industry is determined by the nature of its activities in terms of products and services delivered, some Crown corporations are not classified under Federal Public Services, Public Service Departments and Crown Corporations. As an example, Canada Post is classified as a Crown corporation under the Postal Services industry due to the nature of its work.

A factor that contributed to the increased number of submissions in 2023 is that employers in the federal jurisdiction have become more aware of their annual requirement to complete the EAHVOR. The higher number of submissions received in 2023 suggests that employer awareness has grown since the reporting requirement was introduced in 2021. This was achieved through promotion and awareness notifications on social media and improved online resources for the public, which highlighted the reporting requirements.

It is important to note that the data presented in this report covers only the HV occurrences for which a notice of occurrence was provided to the employer (designated recipient) under subsection 15(1) of the Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations (the Regulations), which the employer then reported to the Labour Program on the EAHVOR. Because of this data collection process, the number of HV occurrences analysed in this publication may differ from the number of occurrences reported in anonymous employee surveys.

Information on full-time equivalent (FTE) employees is used to estimate the size of employers who submitted an EAHVOR. FTE data contained in this report comes from Employer's Annual Hazardous Occurrence Report (EAHOR) submissions from federally regulated employers.

Out of the 5,393 employers who submitted an EAHVOR in 2023 that were included in this report, 5,187 (approximately 96%) have reported their organisation's number of FTEs on an EAHOR. The EAHVOR data in the business size analysis sections is slightly different compared to the rest of the report because 206 submissions could not be matched with FTE data from an EAHOR and were excluded from the business size analysis. This included 3 submissions where a total of 4 HV occurrences were reported.

Industry analysis

As Table 2.1 illustrates, the majority of HV occurrences reported in 2023 came from 5 industries:

• Federal Public Services, Public Service Departments and Crown Corporations (2,129, 29.9%)
• Road Transportation (1,242, 17.5%)
• Air Transportation (1,094, 15.4%)
• Postal Services and Postal Contractors (776, 10.9%)
• Banking and Banks (570, 8.0%)

*The sum of sexual HV occurrences, non-sexual HV occurrences, and fatalities related to harassment and violence does not equal the Total Number of HV occurrences since the type of some occurrences was not reported in employer EAHVOR submissions.

These 5 industries (AIRT, BANK, POST, PUBS and ROAD in Table 2.1) reported a total of 5,811 HV occurrences, 81.7% of all occurrences reported in 2023. This is similar to 2021 and 2022, during which these industries also reported the majority of HV occurrences. The number of occurrences reported by these industries increased from 2022 to 2023, with the exception of the Road Transportation industry, where it decreased by 11.5%, from 1,403 in 2022 to 1,242 in 2023.

It should be noted that these 5 industries account for approximately 1 million FTEs in the federal jurisdiction. As Chart 2.1 illustrates, this corresponds to roughly 82% of all FTEs covered by employers who submitted an EAHVOR in 2023.

Please note that percentage values in some charts and tables may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

Chart 2.1 - Text description

Industry	Share of total HV occurrences	Share of total FTEs
BRID	0.04%	0.03%
GRAIN	0.5%	0.6%
FEED	0.5%	0.8%
PIPE	0.6%	0.5%
LONG	0.9%	1.2%
ENER	1.1%	0.6%
BROAD	1.2%	1.9%
WATER	1.4%	1.1%
COMM	2.8%	6.4%
RAIL	3.1%	2.6%
INDG	6.1%	2.2%
BANK	8.0%	20.8%
POST	10.9%	4.5%
AIRT	15.4%	8.8%
ROAD	17.5%	13.7%
PUBS	29.9%	34.4%

Sexual harassment and violence occurrences analysis

The number of reported sexual HV occurrences has risen for the second year in a row, from 722 in 2022 to 1,029 in 2023. As Chart 2.2 demonstrates, the majority of sexual HV occurrences in 2023 (82%) were reported by the following 4 industries:

• Road Transportation (334, 32.5%)
• Federal Public Services, Public Service Departments and Crown Corporations (191, 18.6%)
• Air Transportation (183, 17.8%)
• Banking and Banks (136, 13.2%)

As explained above, these industries are the largest in the federal jurisdiction in terms of FTEs. The size of these industries is a possible reason why they reported the most sexual HV occurrences in 2023. However, another possible contributing factor is that organisations in these industries may have adopted a culture where employees are more open to reporting sexual HV occurrences.

Chart 2.2 - Text description

Industry	Sexual HV occurrences	Non-sexual HV occurrences
ROAD	334	900
PUBS	191	1,932
AIRT	183	910
BANK	136	434

Although the number of reported sexual HV occurrences increased in all 4 industries from 2022 to 2023, Road Transportation saw the largest increase from 225 in 2022 to 334 in 2023. Furthermore, nearly 27% of all HV occurrences reported in the Road Transportation industry were sexual in nature, the largest share among the 4 industries. The Banking industry reported the second-largest share of 23.9%.

Chart 2.3 shows how the number of non-sexual HV occurrences reported has also increased from 4,915 in 2022 to 6,060 in 2023. It should be noted that while cases of sexual and non-sexual harassment and violence have risen for 2 years, this does not mean that occurrences are happening more often. One possible explanation is that employers might be better at identifying and resolving these issues in the workplace. Another is that employees might feel more comfortable reporting them than they did before due to greater awareness of their rights and obligations.

Chart 2.3 - Text description

Year	Sexual HV occurrences	Non-sexual HV occurrences
2021	447	3,838
2022	722	4,915
2023	1,029	6,060

As previously discussed, a small number of employers are driving the growth in total reported HV occurrences. A similar pattern exists specifically for sexual HV occurrences. The 10 employers that reported the largest increases in sexual HV occurrences accounted for 220 more occurrences in 2023. The average percentage change in sexual HV occurrences from 2022 to 2023 of these 10 employers was nearly 593%.

There were 301 employers who submitted an EAHVOR in both years and reported at least 1 sexual HV occurrence in either 2022 or 2023. Of these employers, 49.2% (148 employers) reported an increase in occurrences, while 40.9% (123 employers) reported a decrease in occurrences, and approximately 10% (30 employers) reported the same number for both years.

Public vs private sector analysis

The public sector, represented by the Federal Public Service, reported 2,129 HV occurrences in 2023, after reporting 1,885 occurrences in 2022. The remaining federally regulated industries (the private sector) reported 4,985 occurrences in 2023, an increase from the 4,341 occurrences they reported in 2022. Please note that for analysis comparing the public sector and the private sector, not all Crown corporations are consolidated into the Federal Public Service. A few Crown corporations are classified under different industries. For example, Canada Post is treated as part of the Postal Services industry (the private sector) and the Bank of Canada is included in the Banking industry.

The number of reported HV occurrences increased by a larger number in the private sector compared to the public sector in 2023. This caused the private sector's proportion of total occurrences to increase to slightly over 70%, while the public sector's proportion of total occurrences decreased to just under 30%.

As Chart 2.4 demonstrates, this marks the second consecutive year that the private sector's share of HV occurrences has increased.

Chart 2.4 - Text description

Year	Public sector share of total HV occurrences	Private sector share of total HV occurrences
2021	33.6%	66.4%
2022	30.3%	69.7%
2023	29.9%	70.1%

As Table 2.2 demonstrates, sexual HV occurrences increased in the public sector from 103 in 2022 to 191 in 2023. Meanwhile in the private sector, reported sexual HV occurrences increased from 619 in 2022 to 838 in 2023.

In addition to the number of sexual HV occurrences reported by the public and private sectors, the percentage share of sexual HV occurrences out of the total reported HV occurrences also increased in both sectors in 2023. As shown in Chart 2.5, this share increased in both sectors during 2022 as well, meaning that the share of sexual HV occurrences increased while the share of non-sexual HV occurrences decreased in both the public and private sectors. It should be noted that the size of the share of sexual HV occurrences out of the total HV occurrences increased more in the public sector than in the private sector, 3.5% and 2.5% respectively.

Chart 2.5 - Text description

Sectoral data	2021	2022	2023
Public sector share of total HV occurrences that were sexual	5.4%	5.5%	9.0%
Private sector share of total HV occurrences that were sexual	10.9%	14.3%	16.8%

Business size analysis

As Table 2.3 shows, large employers (those with 500 or more FTEs) were the most likely to report at least 1 HV occurrence on their EAHVOR submission. Considering that 84.8% of large employers reported at least 1 occurrence, this could suggest that organisations with more FTEs are more likely to report incidences of harassment and violence. One explanation is that having a large number of employees makes it statistically more likely that harassment and violence will occur. Notably, the share of medium employers that reported at least 1 HV occurrence rose from nearly 34% in 2022 to roughly 41% in 2023.

In terms of which business size reported the most HV occurrences overall, Table 2.4 demonstrates that large employers reported more sexual and non-sexual HV occurrences than small and medium employers combined. This is not unexpected, considering that large employers reported approximately 1 million FTEs in 2023, a much larger amount than small and medium employers did.

*The sum of sexual HV occurrences and non-sexual HV occurrences does not equal the total number of HV occurrences since the type of some occurrences was not reported in employer EAHVOR submissions.

Industry analysis

The most common HV occurrence resolution method varied among the industries that reported the most occurrences in 2023 (Air Transportation, Road Transportation, Banking, Postal Services and the Federal Public Service). As shown in Table 3.1, negotiated resolutions were the most common method in the Postal Services industry and the Federal Public Service. For the Air Transportation, Road Transportation and Banking industries, investigations were the method most often used to resolve an HV occurrence.

*Occurrences where the principal party could not be identified are not included.

Public vs private sector analysis

The most common resolution method varied between the public and private sectors in 2023. Chart 3.2 illustrates that negotiated resolutions were the most used method in the public sector. Although investigations were the most frequent approach in the private sector, the share of investigation resolutions in the private sector decreased by approximately 11% since 2022. Furthermore, workplace assessments were more than twice as common in the public sector compared to the private sector (used in 19.7% of resolutions in the public sector compared to 7.5% of resolutions in the private sector).

Chart 3.2 - Text description

Sector	Investigation	Negotiated Resolution	Workplace Assessment	Conciliation
Public	32.0%	43.4%	19.7%	4.9%
Private	45.6%	38.0%	7.5%	8.9%

Business size analysis

By examining the resolution method data by business size, the 4 methods vary in how often they are used. As Table 3.2 demonstrates, while investigation was the most common method for resolving HV occurrences in small and medium businesses, negotiated resolution was used the most by large businesses. This is a change from 2022, when all business sizes reported investigation as their most frequently used method. Conciliation is notably more common for small businesses, with an 18.8% share of all completed resolutions, than for medium and large businesses.

Industry analysis

Employee to employee, and employee to supervisor, manager, or business owner were the most frequent HV occurrence relationship types in the industries that reported the most occurrences in 2023. Table 4.1 establishes that employee to employee was the most common relationship type in the Air Transportation and Road Transportation industries. In contrast, employee to supervisor, manager, or business owner was the most common relationship type in the Federal Public Service and the Postal Services and Banking industries. It should be noted that the Banking industry reported nearly the same amount of both relationship types (238 occurrences with an employee as the responding party vs 240 occurrences with a supervisor, manager or business owner as the responding party).

*Occurrences where the principal party could not be identified are not included.

Employers in several industries require their employees to maintain relationships with individuals outside of their organisation, such as members of the public, outside clients, contractors and others. These individuals are identified on the EAVHOR as "third party, client, contractor, or member of the public". Among the 6 relationship types, a third-party relationship can be the most challenging to control since the responding party is external. It is therefore important to analyse this commonly reported relationship type separately.

In 2023, there were 958 occurrences reported that involved a third party as the responding party, an increase from 843 occurrences involving a third party in 2022. Although this relationship type has been reported more often since the EAHVOR was first submitted in 2021, this could be due to the greater number of submissions each year.

Chart 4.2 illustrates how many HV occurrences involving a third-party relationship were reported by each industry. Based on the 2023 EAHVOR submissions, nearly 3 quarters of all these occurrences happened in the Federal Public Service and the Postal Services and Road Transportation industries.

Chart 4.2 - Text description

Industry	HV occurrences involving a third-party relationship
PUBS	275
POST	221
ROAD	216
INDG	63
BANK	62
AIRT	57
COMM	24
WATER	13
FEED	7
GRAIN	7
ENER	6
BROAD	3
LONG	2
PIPE	1
RAIL	1

Out of all HV occurrence relationship types reported in the federal jurisdiction in 2023, 13.1% involved a third party, client, contractor, or member of the public as the responding party. As Table 4.2 shows, 5 industries reported a share of this relationship type in their HV occurrences that was larger than the federal jurisdiction's share. These industries include:

• Postal Services and Postal Contractors
• Grain Handling and Grain Elevators
• Feed, Flour and Seed
• Road Transportation
• First Nations, Band Councils, and Indigenous Self-Governments (certain activities)

Public vs private sector analysis

When comparing the public sector and private sector, employee to employee and employee to supervisor, manager, or business owner are the most reported relationship types, but the size of their shares varies between the sectors. As shown in Chart 4.3, HV occurrences involving an employee as the responding party were more common in the private sector, while occurrences where the responding party was a supervisor, manager or business owner were more common in the public sector. Furthermore, occurrences with a third party as the responding party were slightly more common in the private sector. The share of occurrences where a supervisor, manager or business owner was the principal party and an employee was the responding party was nearly equal for both sectors.

Chart 4.3 - Text description

Sector	Employee to employee	Employee to supervisor, manager, business owner	Employee to third party	Supervisor, manager, business owner to employee
Public	29.3%	51.1%	12.1%	4.8%
Private	47.6%	30.8%	13.6%	5.2%

*Nearly 3% of reported HV occurrences in the public sector and private sector involved the employee to other and employee to a domestic partner relationships. These types are not included in this chart.

Business size analysis

As Table 4.3 demonstrates, employees who were responsible for harassment or violence against another employee were the most common responding party for small and medium businesses and the second-most common for large businesses. Supervisors, managers, or business owners were the top responding party for large businesses, representing nearly 40% of all relationships reported. This relationship type was notably less common for small businesses, where its share was roughly 23%, and for medium businesses, where its share was slightly more than 26%.

*Other types include identified relationships where the responding party was a domestic partner or someone who did not fall into 1 of the other identified categories and was labelled "other".

Industry analysis

The 5 industries with the most HV occurrences in 2023 reported varying numbers of the top 4 grounds of discrimination. Sex was the most common ground in Banking and the Federal Public Service, while Race was the most common ground in Air Transportation, Postal Services and Road Transportation. The second-most frequent ground of discrimination also varied across the 5 industries. Disability was the second-most frequent ground of discrimination in Postal Services and the Federal Public Service, while national or ethnic origin was the second-most frequent ground in Air Transportation and Banking. Road Transportation reported a nearly equal number of occurrences where discrimination because of sex and race occurred (62 vs 65).

*All other grounds include the remaining prohibited grounds of discrimination outside of the top 4, as identified by the Canadian Human Rights Act: 1) Age, 2) Colour, 3) Religion, 4) Sexual Orientation, 5) Family Status, 6) Gender Identity or Expression, 7) Genetic Characteristics, 8) Marital Status, 9) Conviction, Pardon Granted, or Record Suspended

As Chart 5.2 shows, the number of reported grounds of discrimination has grown in 2023 compared to 2021 in the Federal Public Service and the Road Transportation, Air Transportation and Postal Services industries. This increase is likely due to the growing number of submissions that have been received since the requirement to report HV occurrences became mandatory in 2021. In contrast, the Banking industry reported 112 instances of discrimination in 2021 but 105 instances in 2023. It should also be noted that although the Federal Public Service reported more discrimination in 2023 than in 2021, its reported instances of discrimination decreased from 551 in 2022 to 523 in 2023.

Chart 5.2 - Text description

Industry	2021	2022	2023
PUBS	416	551	523
ROAD	122	176	247
AIRT	97	198	214
POST	53	47	135
BANK	112	135	105

Public vs private sector analysis

The 4 most common grounds of discrimination in HV occurrences were reported in varying amounts by the public sector and private sector. As Chart 5.3 demonstrates, while sex had the largest share in the public sector, race had the largest share in the private sector. Another notable fact is that the public sector's share of instances of discrimination because of disability was nearly double compared to the private sector's share. There is also a prominent difference in the share of racial discrimination between the sectors. The private sector's share of this form of discrimination was nearly 9% higher than the public sector's share.

Chart 5.3 - Text description

Sector	Sex	Race	Disability	National or Ethnic Origin
Public	25.0%	16.3%	20.3%	9.2%
Private	21.7%	24.9%	10.3%	12.4%

Business size analysis

Large businesses reported significantly more grounds of discrimination in HV occurrences compared to small and medium businesses. This is likely due to large organisations reporting more HV occurrences compared to smaller businesses. Of the top 4 grounds of discrimination reported in 2023, race had the largest share for small and medium employers, while sex had the largest share for large employers. Another observation is that although small businesses reported the smallest share of discrimination based on national or ethnic origin (roughly 5%) out of the 3 business sizes, they reported the largest share of discrimination based on race (31%).