Federal Employers – Are Your Workplace Harassment & Violence Policies and Training Programs Ready for January 1, 2022?

The Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations, SOR/2020-130 (the "Regulations") came into force on January 1, 2021. The Regulations introduced significant changes to how federally regulated organizations are required to prevent and address workplace harassment and violence. Specifically, federal employers must:

• conduct workplace assessments;
• develop and implement a workplace harassment and violence prevention policy; and
• train employees on their policy and on workplace harassment and violence.

Initial training must be completed by January 1, 2022.

There are detailed requirements for how workplace assessments are to be conducted, what must be included in policies, and the content of training programs. Please see our November 2020 blog post for a summary of the new requirements in the Regulations.

The changes are considerable. We encourage federal employers, who have not already done so, to start the process of developing and implementing their workplace harassment and violence policies and training programs as soon as possible to ensure compliance by January 1, 2022.

Our team has expertise in developing workplace violence and harassment policies and training programs that are tailored to the unique circumstances of each organizations workplace. Please contact a member of our Labour, Employment & Human Rights Group with any questions you may have on these Regulations.