Health & Safety

Racial Discrimination and Harassment

Every employee has the right to work in an environment that is free from harassment and discrimination. That includes racial discrimination and harassment.

Toxic Work Environment

Racism is rooted deeply in systems of power and privilege. Racism might take the form of slurs, jokes, denied promotions, less desirable job duties, physical violence, and more.

When racial discrimination and harassment are allowed to persist, it is no longer a safe space for workers who are Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous, and other workers who experience discrimination and harassment based on the colour of their skin and other intersecting identities. This can lead to further discriminatory practices, increased stress and anxiety for those workers, and even physical harm in some cases.

Definitions 2

Racial Discrimination is the illegal expression of racism. It includes any action, intentional or not, that has the effect of singling out persons based on their race, and imposing burdens on them and not on others, or withholding or limiting access to benefits available to other members of society, in areas covered by the Ontario Human Rights Code. Race only needs to be one factor in a situation for racial discrimination to have occurred.

Racial Harassment is a form of discrimination. It includes comments, jokes, name-calling, display of pictures or behaviour that insults you, offends you or puts you down because of your race and other related grounds.

Reporting

Reporting incidents of discrimination and harassment can be difficult but it’s important to speak up. If you experience or witness something, please report it and lean on a trusted co-worker, Steward, or Union Rep through the process.

Employers must prepare and review a policy on workplace harassment at least annually. (Occupational Health & Safety Act (OHSA) [section 32.0.1 (b) and (c)])

Workplace Harassment Policies

Regardless of the size of the workplace or the number of workers, the policy should:

• Show an employer’s commitment to addressing workplace harassment;

• Consider workplace harassment from all sources such as customers, clients, employers, supervisors, workers, strangers and intimate partners;

• Outline the roles and responsibilities of the workplace parties in supporting the policy and program; and

• Be dated and signed by the highest level of management of the employer or at the workplace as appropriate.

The policy should encourage workers to bring forward workplace harassment concerns, whether their own or information about harassment that they have witnessed. 1

The program must include information about who workplace harassment reports should be made to if the employer or supervisor is the alleged harasser. The individual could be someone external to the organization.

Workers should be able to report harassment to a person who will treat the information as confidentially as possible, and follow up in a timely manner.

In a unionized workplace, the collective agreement may also address what information the union is entitled to obtain from the employer and the role of union representatives during an investigation.

1 Government of Ontario: Understand the law on workplace violence and harassment. Accessed on March 1, 2022. https:// www.ontario.ca/page/understand-law-workplace-violence-and-harassment#section-5

2 Ontario Human Rights Commission: Racial Discrimination Brochure. Accessed on March 1, 2022 https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/racial-discrimination-brochure