Employment & Labour Law Alert - Answering Common Questions About the Upcoming Changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act (Ontario) Respecting Workplace Violence and Harassment

As highlighted in our August 2009 Alert and our 2009 Year in Review, the upcoming changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act (Ontario) respecting workplace violence and workplace harassment will create new requirements for provincially regulated employers in Ontario. These new requirements will be effective June 15, 2010. In order to help prepare your organization for these changes, below we have answered some of the common questions that are raised by the new requirements.

1. What is Workplace Violence and Workplace Harassment? As of June 15, 2010, the Occupational Health and Safety Act (Ontario) (the "Act") will define workplace harassment as "engaging in a course of vexatious comment or conduct against a worker in a workplace that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome." According to the Ministry of Labour, in order to meet the definition, the comments or conduct would typically happen more than once and could occur over a relatively short period of time (for example, during the course of one day) or over a longer period of time (weeks, months or years).

The Act will also define workplace violence as "the exercise of physical force by a person against a worker, in a workplace, that causes or could cause physical injury to the worker." Workplace violence will also include "an attempt to exercise physical force against a worker in a workplace, that could cause physical injury to the worker; and a statement or behaviour that a worker could reasonably interpret as a threat to exercise physical force against the worker, in a workplace, that could cause physical injury to the worker."

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