St. Leonard's Community Services

The Agency acknowledges that every staff has a right to freedom from harassment in the work place by the employer or agent of the employer or by another staff because of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, record of offences, marital status, same-sex partners status, family status or handicap. It is the policy of the Agency that it will not tolerate any such harassment in the work place or at any Agency sponsored function.

The Agency is committed to providing a work environment that is free of harassment of any type, including harassment because of sex.

Harassment generally means engaging in a course of offensive comment or conduct, including transmitting offensive e-mails, that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome and that is based on any of the reasons set out in the first paragraph.

Harassment because of sex is one incident or a series of incidents involving unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favours, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature:

when such conduct might reasonably be expected to cause insecurity, discomfort, offense or humiliation to the recipient or recipients of the conduct,
when submission to such conduct is made implicitly or explicitly a condition for continued employment,
when submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as a basis for any employment decision (including, but not limited to, evaluation, wages, matters of promotion, security and benefits affecting the staff), or
which such conduct has the purpose or the effect of interfering with a person’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.

Types of behaviour that constitute harassment because of sex, include, but are not limited to:

sexist jokes causing embarrassment or offense, told or carried out after the joker has been advised that they are embarrassing or offensive, or that they are by their nature, clearly embarrassing or offensive,
leering,
a display of sexually offensive material,
sexually degrading words used to describe a person,
derogatory or degrading remarks directed towards members of ones sex or ones sexual orientation,
sexually suggestive or obscene comments or gestures,
unwelcome inquiries or comments about a person’s sex life,
unwelcome sexual flirtations, advances or propositions,
persistent, unwanted contact or attention after the end of a consensual relationship,
requests for sexual favours.
unwanted touching,
verbal abuse or threats,
sexual assault.

Harassment because of sex can occur in the form of behaviour by men towards women, between men, between women and by women towards men.

Harassment because of race, ancestry, place of origin, citizenship, creed, age, record of offences, marital status, same sex partner status, family status, or handicap is one incident, or a series of incidents, involving unwelcome verbal or other conduct:

when such conduct might reasonably be expected to cause insecurity, discomfort, offense or humiliation to the recipient or recipients of the conduct;
when submission to such conduct is made implicitly or explicitly a condition for continued employment;
when submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as a basis for any employment decision (including, but not limited to, evaluation, wages, matters of promotion, security and benefits affecting the staff); or
which such conduct has the purpose or the effect of interfering with a person’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.

Types of behaviour that constitute harassment other than because of sex, include, but are not limited to:

jokes causing embarrassment or offense, told or carried out after the joker has been advised that they are embarrassing or offensive or that they are, by their nature, clearly embarrassing or offensive;
a display of offensive material;
degrading words used to describe a person;
derogatory or degrading remarks directed towards members of one’s race, ancestry, place or origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, age, marital status, same sex partner status, family status or handicap;
verbal abuse or threats.

All staff are expected to refrain from participating in, or condoning, any type of harassment.

Any staff who believes that the actions or words of an Agency staff, volunteer, agent, client or visitor constitute harassment, has a responsibility to report the incident as soon as possible, to the appropriate Supervisor or to the Service Director, if the complaint involves the Supervisor. It is understood that some clients of the Agency may frequently use inappropriate language in the presence of staff. This behaviour will be addressed by staff as part of the program activities of the affected department and need not be reported unless the staff deems it necessary.

All complaints of harassment will be investigated promptly and in an impartial and as confidential a manner as possible, by the Supervisor or Service Director. If a staff is not satisfied with the handling of a complaint or the action taken by the Supervisor, then the staff should follow the process set out in Grievance Procedures 6-550 in this policy manual. In all cases, the staff will be advised of the Supervisor’s or Service Director’s findings and conclusions.

Any staff who is found, after appropriate investigation, to have engaged in harassment of another staff, will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, depending on the circumstances, up to and including termination.

6-570 PRODUCTIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT (HARASSMENT) Approved June 2003

6-570 PRODUCTIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT (HARASSMENT)
Approved June 2003