What to Do If Your Employer Ignores Your Workplace Harassment Complaint
Ontario employers have specific duties when workplace harassment is reported. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), an employer must maintain a workplace-harassment program and ensure that an investigation appropriate in the circumstances is conducted into incidents and complaints of workplace harassment.
An employer does not satisfy that obligation by simply receiving a complaint and leaving it unanswered. The appropriate response depends on the allegations, the evidence available, the people involved and the risks within the workplace.
What Is Your Employer Required to Do in Ontario?
Ontario’s OHSA requires employers to maintain a workplace-harassment policy and a program that addresses how complaints will be made and investigated. When an incident or complaint arises, the employer must ensure that an investigation appropriate in the circumstances is conducted.
After the investigation, the worker who alleged harassment and the alleged harasser, if that person is also a worker of the employer, must be informed in writing of the results and of any corrective action that has been or will be taken.
The employer’s program must also address confidentiality. Information about an incident or complaint should not be disclosed except where disclosure is necessary to investigate, take corrective action or is otherwise required by law.
Depending on the circumstances, temporary workplace measures may also be appropriate while an investigation is underway. The appropriate measures will depend on the seriousness of the allegations and the workplace risks.
Signs Your Harassment Complaint May Not Be Handled Properly in Ontario .
Potential warning signs include:
- the complaint is dismissed without any meaningful assessment or investigation;
- the employer provides no response and takes no apparent investigative steps;
- obviously relevant witnesses or records are not considered;
- the investigator has a conflict that calls independence or impartiality into question;
- confidential information is circulated beyond what the investigation or corrective process requires;
- the alleged conduct continues without the employer assessing whether interim measures are needed; or
- the employee is disciplined, excluded or otherwise disadvantaged after asserting statutory rights.
A disagreement with the investigation’s outcome does not, by itself, establish that the employer breached the OHSA. The issue is whether the employer met its statutory obligations and whether other legal rights are engaged.
Keep a Clear Record in Ontario
Keep a contemporaneous record of the alleged incidents, including dates, locations, participants and witnesses. Preserve emails, text messages, screenshots, meeting notes and other communications related to the complaint.
Also keep the original complaint, acknowledgements from the employer, investigation updates and the written outcome. If your treatment at work changes after the complaint, document those changes and any explanation given for them.
What If the Harassment Is Discriminatory?
Workplace harassment may also engage Ontario’s Human Rights Code when the conduct is connected to a protected ground. Those grounds include race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status and disability. Protection against discrimination because of sex includes pregnancy-related discrimination.
Where harassment is connected to a protected ground, an employee may have recourse through the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. The employer’s response to a human-rights complaint can also become relevant to liability and remedy.
What If You Are Punished for Complaining in Ontario?
The OHSA prohibits specified reprisals against workers for exercising rights or seeking enforcement under the Act. The Human Rights Code separately protects people from reprisal for claiming or enforcing Code rights.
A negative performance review, discipline or termination after a complaint is not automatically unlawful. Timing, the employer’s stated reasons, the employee’s prior record and the surrounding evidence all matter. Where adverse treatment follows closely after a protected complaint, the circumstances should be reviewed promptly.
Should You Quit Because of Workplace Harassment in Ontario?
Resigning can materially affect the legal analysis. Serious harassment, or an employer’s failure to respond appropriately to serious workplace conduct, may in some circumstances support a constructive-dismissal claim. That conclusion is fact-specific and should not be assumed from the existence of a complaint alone.
Before resigning, obtain advice about the strength of the allegations, the employer’s response, available internal or statutory remedies and the consequences of ending the employment relationship yourself.
Lecker & Associates advises employees across Ontario on workplace harassment complaints, employer investigations, human-rights issues, reprisals and constructive dismissal. If your employer has ignored a harassment complaint, failed to conduct an investigation appropriate in the circumstances or treated you adversely after you raised workplace concerns, early legal review can help identify the applicable statutory and employment-law remedies before you resign or sign any documents. Our team of Toronto employment lawyers can be reached at 416-223-5391 or intake@leckerslaw.com for a confidential consultation.
How Lecker & Associates Can Help
Lecker & Associates advises employees across Ontario on termination packages, wrongful dismissal claims, fixed-term contract disputes, and severance negotiations. If your fixed-term contract ended before the agreed end date, early legal review can help determine whether the employer had the right to end the contract, whether the termination clause is enforceable, and whether the offer reflects the full value of the remaining term. Our team of Toronto employment lawyers can be reached at 416-223-5391 or intake@leckerslaw.com for a confidential consultation.
FAQs: What to Do If Your Employer Ignores Your Workplace Harassment Complaint
Follow up in writing, preserve the complaint and related evidence and ask what investigative steps are being taken. If the employer remains unresponsive or the conduct continues, obtain legal advice about the OHSA, human-rights and employment-law options that may apply.
Yes. The OHSA requires an employer to ensure that an investigation appropriate in the circumstances is conducted into incidents and complaints of workplace harassment.
An employer cannot lawfully reprise against a worker for exercising protected rights under the OHSA, and separate Human Rights Code reprisal protections may apply. However, a complaint does not prevent an employer from taking action for a genuinely unrelated lawful reason.
Potential remedies depend on the legal basis of the complaint. Depending on the facts, options may involve an OHSA reprisal proceeding, a Human Rights Tribunal application, contractual remedies or a constructive-dismissal claim. Not every harassment complaint creates the same cause of action or remedy.
Serious or persistent harassment and an employer’s response may be relevant to constructive dismissal, but resignation carries legal consequences. Obtain advice before resigning so the employment relationship and available remedies can be assessed.
Testimonials from Employees Like You
Breathe Easy, We’ve Got This
Book a confidential interview with our trained intake staff. If you have an urgent matter, please call our Ontario employment law firm at 416-223-5391 or message us via the chat button (bottom right), and our team will contact you as soon as possible.
Book a Consultation
We’ll Contact You to Confirm
Reputation Matters
Top-Rated
Toronto Employment Lawyers
Our cases and commentary feature prominently in national media, promoting workplace fairness
