Office Bullying and Harassment Policy Volume Nov 2013 | Page 60

(g) annually reviewing (a), (b), (c), and (d);
(h) not engaging in bullying and harassment of workers and supervisors; and
(i)

applying and complying with the employer’s policies and procedures on bullying and harassment.

Worker Duties — D3-116-1
A worker’s obligation to take reasonable care to protect the health and safety of themselves or others includes:
(a) not engaging in bullying and harassment of other workers, supervisors, the employer or persons acting on
behalf of the employer;
(b) reporting if bullying and harassment is observed or experienced in the workplace; and
(c) applying and complying with the employer’s policies and procedures on bullying and harassment.

Supervisor Duties — D3-117-2
A supervisor’s obligation to ensure health and safety of workers includes:
(a) not engaging in bullying and harassment of workers, other supervisors, the employer or persons acting on
behalf of the employer; and
(b) applying and complying with the employer’s policies and procedures on bullying and harassment.

Practice
The definition of bullying and harassment includes any inappropriate conduct or comment by a ‘person’ towards a
worker that the ‘person’ knew or reasonably ought to have known would cause that worker to be humiliated or
intimidated.
A ‘person’ includes any individual, whether or not they are a workplace party. This means that a ‘person’ could be a
workplace party such as an employer, supervisor, or co-worker, or a non workplace party such as a member of the
public, a client, or anyone a worker comes into contact with at the workplace.
In order to determine what is reasonable in the policy, a definition below is included for a ‘reasonable
person’.
Black’s Law Dictionary, Ninth Edition defines a reasonable person as follows:
“…a person who exercises the degree of attention, knowledge, intelligence, and judgment that society requires of its
members for the protection of their own and of others’ interests. The reasonable person acts sensibly, does things
without serious delay, and takes proper but not excessive precautions…”

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Toward a respectful workplace