Employers in British Columbia will have to comply with new bullying and harassment policies that come into force on November 1.
The policies define bullying and harassment and explain the duties of employers, workers and supervisors to prevent and address workplace bullying and harassment.
Those duties apply to about 215,000 employers and 2.2 million workers currently served by WorkSafeBC.
While there is no planned enforcement blitz, WorkSafeBC prevention officers will respond to enquiries and concerns about bullying and harassment in the workplace through existing inspection practices.
Last year, amendments to the province’s Workers Compensation Act came into effect that could compensate employees for a significant work-related stressor, including bullying or harassment.
WorkSafeBC has created a bullying and harassment prevention toolkit for employers, which is available on its website.
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