Court Faults Employer for Not Investigating Worker’s “Mobbing” Complaint

A front desk clerk warned for engaging in workplace harassment claimed the allegations were false and that she was the victim of “mobbing,” that is, coordinated attacks by her co-workers. The company kept the warnings in place and pooh-poohed the mobbing charges without doing an investigation. WorkSafeBC did much the same, noting that the company had an effective respectful workplace policy. But the court disagreed and ordered WorkSafeBC to reconsider the case. Sure, the company had a nice policy, but it didn’t follow its provisions requiring investigation of harassment complaints [Pereira v British Columbia (Workers’ Compensation Board), 2022 BCSC 1654 (CanLII), September 22, 2022].

Action Point: Use the resources on the Harassment Compliance Centre to prevent harassment and bullying at your workplace