Harvey Weinstein’s case was such a big thing in 2018 and the rising #MeToo movement caught many people’s attention to violence and sexual harassment at work. In the previous twelve months, 4% of women in Canada have reported that they had experienced sexual harassment in their workplace; however, most of their complaints didn’t receive any attention near the cases in which famous people are involved, or those that are newsworthy. The article argues that #MeToo movement had done well rising the awareness and had proved that sexual harassment is not happening anyhow as isolated issues. Nevertheless, according to Tanya van Biesen, “We don’t have empirical evidence to say there has been substantial behavioral change”, the executive director for Catalyst, which is a non-profit organization that works to make workplaces better for women, and for everyone. Harassment can be verbal, physical or visual. It could also happen anywhere off-site, and outside of normal working hours.

It is acknowledged that more and actual changes are waiting to be seen and this doesn’t happen over just one night. Many companies have worked on updating their policies and the reporting, investigation processes when it comes to sexual harassment issues in the workplace. However, the actual implementation and support mechanisms are disappointing, and it requires more than just the companies to deal with these issues. In the case of Sarah, after she had reported her encounter of sexual harassment at work, not only that her complaints were disregarded over two years but also, she was forced to work with the guy who sexually harassed her within several hours after her complaints. She had asked help from the union, however, the union refused to intervene because the perpetrator was also a union member. Now the dilemma she’s facing comes both from the companies and the union. If she’s in Ontario, what she can do is to report complaints to the Ontario Labour Relations Board against the union’s duty of fair representation. However, this could be rather difficult and union members rarely win at the Labour Board.

One of many progresses is that the legislation starts to deal with sexual harassment at work and Bill C-65 spells out new responsibilities for all federal public service employers, as well as other federally regulated private industries to prevent workplace violence and harassment. It requires employers to 1) work to prevent incidents of harassment and violence; 2) respond effectively to incidents when they do occur, and 3) support affected employees. Along with these actions, employers should review and update their policies and clarify what’s definitely not tolerated and they should take all complaints seriously to assess and investigate. Moreover, there should be appointed members of HR or legal counsel to be ready to deal with such complaints, so that employees are, and feel safe from any threat of harassment. On the other hand, unions should update their policies and processes to better deal with these conflicts when both the complainant and the alleged perpetrator are union members to better protect both of their rights.

Weikle, Brandie. #MeToo movement has been a ‘net positive’ in Canadian workplaces. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/metoo-weinstein-canadian-workplaces-1.5439147 Retrieved 27 March 2020

Lisi, Lorenzo. Dealing with the issue of harassment isn’t just optics. hrprofessional NOW. http://hrprofessionalnow.ca/legal-words/696-sexual-harassment-in-the-workplace Retrieved 27 March 2020