A safe and harassment-free environment supports mental and physical well-being, reduces stress, and helps people do their best work. Everyone in Nova Scotia deserves a workplace where they feel seen and heard. Workplace harassment means a single significant occurrence or repeated offensive or unwelcome behaviour, comments or actions in the workplace. These actions include bullying, whether intended or not, degrading remarks, intimidation, threatening behaviour or actions. [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 27.1] Harassment and bullying include actions based on a person:

• Age
• Race
• Colour
• Religion
• Creed
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
• Gender identity or expression
• Physical or mental disability
• An irrational fear of contracting an illness or disease
• Ethnic, national, or Aboriginal origin
• Family status
• Marital status
• Sources of income
• Political belief, affiliation or activity
• The individual's association with another individual or class of individuals having these characteristics

Harassment does not include actions taken by your employer relating to managing or directing employees. [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 27.1]

Workplace harassment also includes inappropriate sexual conduct, sexual solicitation or advances, sexually suggestive remarks or gestures, circulating or sharing inappropriate images or unwanted physical contact. [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 27.1] Nova Scotia’s occupational health and safety regulations also cover violence in the workplace.

Examples of workplace harassment are listed below. This type of harassment can occur between co-workers, between an employee and their supervisor, and when working with members of the public, and includes:

• unwelcome conduct, comments, gestures, or contact which causes offence or humiliation;
• misusing or abusing power or authority by publicly ridiculing or interfering with a subordinate’s performance or job (for example, blocking applications for leave, training, or promotion in an arbitrary manner);
• physical or psychological bullying which creates fear or mistrust, or which ridicules or devalues the individual;
• cyber bullying such as posting offensive or intimidating messages through social media or e-mail and using the Internet to harass, sexually or physically threaten, or maliciously embarrass or exploit someone, or sending inappropriate electronic communications (for example, sexually explicit emails);
• spreading malicious rumours or gossip about an individual or a group;
• damaging, hiding, or stealing someone’s personal belongings or work equipment;
• swearing at someone or using inappropriate language toward them;
• making unwanted sexual advances or remarks such as abusive or derogatory remarks or jokes about someone’s gender, gender identity, gender expression, sex or sexual orientation, sexual touching, sexual invitations, or requests in return for a promise of a reward (such as a promotion), or displaying offensive posters, cartoons, or images based on characteristics listed above, including of a sexual nature; or
• domestic violence (also called intimate partner violence, domestic abuse, or relationship abuse) is a workplace hazard when it occurs in the workplace (it puts the targeted worker at risk and may pose a threat to coworkers).

Workplace harassment prevention policy

The employer must establish and implement a workplace harassment prevention policy that includes: [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 27.2(1)]

• a commitment from the employer to ensure that no employee will be subjected to workplace harassment
• statements advising every employee is entitled to employment free of workplace harassment, that employees are obligated not to engage in workplace harassment and that employees are to report incidents of workplace harassment.
• a statement that the employer will not disclose any information received because of the investigation or any personal information, unless the information is required by law, is necessary to investigate the complaint, or is necessary to make corrective actions.
• a statement that the employer will not reprimand or seek reprisal against the employee who made a workplace harassment complaint in good faith.
• a commitment by the employer to investigate all workplace harassment and to take appropriate corrective actions, including when any person under the employer’s direction subjects an employee to workplace harassment.
• a statement that the employer’s workplace prevention policy is not intended to discourage or prevent exercising legal rights under any other law.

The policy must include: [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 27.2(1)(e)]

• how to recognize, prevent and respond to workplace harassment;
• procedure for reporting workplace harassment incidents to the employer or supervisor;
• procedure for reporting workplace harassment to a party that is not the employer or supervisor in the event they are the subject of the complaint;
• procedure for investigating a complaint of workplace harassment; and
• procedure about how the result of the investigation and any corrective actions will be shared with the complainant and the subject of the complaint.

The employer must train employees on the workplace harassment and prevention policy. [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 27.2(2)]

The employer must review the workplace harassment prevention policy at least once every 3 years and update it, if necessary. [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 27.2(3)]

Employee Responsibilities

An employee must:

• Report harassment incidents to their employer as soon as possible.
• Follow the workplace harassment prevention policy.

If you have been sexually assaulted while at work, the Nova Scotia Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration, Occupational Health and Safety Branch recommends that you call the police directly.