Workplace Bullying and the Law
Quebec Legislation Against Psychological Harassment
OnJune 1, 2004,Quebecbecame the first North American jurisdiction to include protection against psychological harassment of employees in its Act respecting Labour Standards
Workplace Bullying and the Law
Quebec Legislation Against Psychological Harassment
OnJune 1, 2004,Quebecbecame the first North American jurisdiction to include protection against psychological harassment of employees in its Act respecting Labour Standards. Psychological harassment is defined as:
“Any vexatious behaviour in the form of repeated and hostile or unwanted conduct, verbal comments, actions or gestures, that affect an employee’s dignity or psychological integrity and that results in a harmful work environment for the employee. A single serious incidence of such behaviour that has a lasting harmful effect on an employee may also constitute psychological harassment.”
The Quebec Labour Standards Branch (Commission des normes du travail) has published a bulletin on psychological harassment at work. It lists a broad range of activities that could constitute a breach ofQuebec’s labour legislation, including:
Making rude, degrading or offensive remarks.
Making gestures that seek to intimidate, engaging in reprisals.
Discrediting the person: spreading rumours, ridicule, calling into question aspects of the person’s private life, shouting abuse or sexual harassment.
Belittling the person: forcing them to perform tasks that are below their station or professional skills.
Preventing the person from expressing his or her thoughts, e.g. yelling, threatening, constant interruption, and prohibiting the person from speaking to others.
Isolating or shunning the person by not talking to them, ignoring their presence, or isolating them from others.
Destabilizing the person by making fun of their beliefs, convictions, tastes or political choices.
As can be seen from the above list, theQuebeclegislation goes far beyond traditional legislative efforts to combat the problem of workplace harassment. Other jurisdictions have sought to respond to workplace harassment only where the harassment is based on certain specific grounds, such as race, sex, family status, marital status, religion, etc.
In Quebec Psychological Harassment
Section 81.18 of the Act defines psychological harassment as:
a vexatious conduct that manifests itself in forms such as hostile or unwanted behaviours, words, recurring actions that affect the employee’s dignity or their psychological or physical integrity, making the work place adverse to them.
Only one problematical conduct can also be considered psychological harassment if it affects the employee to that point and has a continuous adverse effect on them.
For a psychological harassment situation to be acknowledged, the 4 elements of the definition must be present. The vexatious conduct must:
- be repetitive or problematical
- be hostile or unwanted
- affect the person’s dignity or their psychological or physical integrity
- make the workplace adverse.
Quebec a province of Canada Legislation 