NC-281 - Harassment

The Appellant filed a harassment complaint (Complaint) against his unit commander (Alleged Harasser). The Complaint pertained to the manner in which the Alleged Harasser exercised his managerial duties in relation to the Appellant.

Following an investigation, the Respondent issued a Decision, finding that the Complaint was not established. The Appellant appealed the Decision based on the Respondent’s omission to consider arguments raised in the Appellant’s rebuttal to the Preliminary Investigation Report (PIR). 

The ERC found that the Respondent did not provide the Appellant with a part of the Alleged Harasser’s statement as part of the PIR. This omission denied the Appellant the opportunity to fully respond to the PIR and set out his case completely, resulting in a breach of procedural fairness.

The ERC further found that that the Decision was clearly unreasonable. The Respondent did not provide reasons in response to a central concern raised by the Appellant in his PIR rebuttal. More specifically, the Respondent did not address the Appellant’s argument regarding the alleged bias of one of the investigators. 

The ERC recommends that the appeal be allowed.

The ERC recommends that the matter be remitted to another decision-maker to render a new decision, with the following directions to: (i) provide the Appellant with a complete version of the PIR, which includes all of the Alleged Harasser’s full statements; and (ii) provide the Appellant with an opportunity to submit a supplemental rebuttal to the complete PIR.

The ERC further recommends that the new decision-maker review the Appellant’s supplemental PIR rebuttal, and pursue any further investigation required; and the new decision-maker render a new decision based on the entirety of the new record, including any concerns raised by the Appellant with respect to investigator objectivity.