Workplace harassment is unacceptable.
The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Regulations state that employers are responsible to prevent workplace harassment and outlines the requirement for employers to develop, implement, and maintain a Harassment Prevention Plan. The purpose of a Harassment Prevention Plan is to clarify the roles and responsibilities of employers, supervisors, and workers to stop workplace harassment and to immediately report incidents or concerns.
The Harassment Prevention Plan should also outline the processes and procedures employers have in place for investigating harassment complaints.
Click here for more information on an employer’s responsibilities for harassment prevention.
OHS Division and Harassment Prevention
The OHS Division DOES NOT investigate allegations of workplace harassment to determine whether a complaint is founded or unfounded.
Instead, the role of the OHS Division in workplace harassment is to investigate the employer’s handling of harassment complaints. This means that an OHS Officer will determine if the employer has a Harassment Prevention Plan and processes and procedures to investigate allegations of workplace harassment as required by the OHS Regulations.
Report Workplace Harassment
If you encounter harassment in your workplace, you MUST REPORT IT to your supervisor or employer.
Your employer is required to have a Harassment Prevention Plan and processes and procedures in place for investigating harassment complaints. If, after reporting the incident to your supervisor or employer, you feel that your employer has not fulfilled their responsibilities under the Harassment Prevention Plan, you are encouraged to contact the OHS Division using the following Harassment Complaint Form.
Email the completed form to the OHS Division at HarassmentComplaints@gov.nl.ca.
Please note: If opening a form with a browser other than Internet Explorer you may encounter difficulty in completing the forms electronically. This is because some browsers (e.g., Firefox, Google Chrome) override the Adobe Acrobat viewer that is necessary for the forms to properly display. If you are having difficulty filling out a form, please follow the steps below which explain how to save the file to your computer.
- Right click on the link to the form.
- Select “Save target as” or “Save link as”.
- Select a location on your computer to save the file.
- Open the file from the saved location.
- Complete the form.
- Save the form to your computer.
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Out of respect for a person’s privacy, and recognizing that repeating this information may be uncomfortable, upsetting or triggering for the complainant and listener, the OHS Division does not require a detailed description or history pertaining to the allegations.
The Harassment Complaint Form has been developed to provide the OHS Division with only the information needed to investigate the employer’s handling of harassment complaints.
Below are some available resources that may help if someone has experienced workplace harassment. If you are in an emergency situation and need immediate help, please call 911 or contact the Emergency Mental Health Crisis Line at 1-888-737-4668 or dial 811.
Resources