Following changes to provincial legislation, Queen’s has drafted an update to its existing workplace harassment and discrimination policy, which will be open to feedback until August 10 at 4 p.m.
Earlier in 2016, the province made amendments to its Health and Safety Act as part of the passing of Bill 132, the Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act.
In order to comply with the new amendments, all provincial employers must ensure their policies have hard definitions of workplace sexual harassment and clearly state its inclusion among other types of workplace harassment.
Specific guidelines were also implemented for employers when investigating allegations or incidents of workplace harassment. Queen’s policy’s amendments were decided upon in collaboration between HR, Faculty Relations and Environmental Health and Safety.
The provincial amendments take effect in September of this year. As such, Queen’s announced its policy changes on July 27, posting the new document on the University Secretariat website.
The University announced its sexual violence policy in March of this year, with the next phase of consultation set for this September.
According to a July 18 email from Communications Officer Jasmine Toor, the University will be collaborating with “student groups and the campus community to update the sexual violence policy in line with provincial regulations,” which were released in May.
Tags
Administration, Discrimination, harassment, Policy, sexual assault policy
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