1. Company Commitment

ABC Company management is fully committed to making sure that all employees are able to work in a work environment where all individuals are treated with professionalism, respect and dignity. Accordingly, ABC Company will not tolerate harassment of any form directed against any employee in the workplace.

1. Definition

For purposes of this Policy:

“Workplace harassment” means engaging in a course of vexatious and unwelcome conduct by one employee against a co-worker, subordinate, or other employee in the workplace that the employee engaging in the conduct knows or should recognize as being unwelcome, including, but not limited to:

• Harsh and excessive criticism of a personal and non-constructive nature;
• Spreading rumours designed to harm a person’s reputation or put the person in a negative light;
• Spying or stalking;
• Ridiculing a subordinate, co-worker or other employee on the basis of physical appearance, beliefs or personal characteristics;
• Name calling and teasing;
• Pushing, shoving, elbowing, jostling and other acts of physical intimidation;
• Unwelcome practical jokes; and
• Slurs, offensive remarks or other ill treatment that would constitute discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender, family status, disability, sexual orientation, political belief, criminal record or other grounds protected by the [province name] human rights laws.

Harassment also includes such forms of conduct that occur online, in emails and on social media websites and other digital platforms and media. Common examples of online harassment include, without limitation:

• Hate speech, or communication that attacks, discriminates or uses pejorative language to induce hatred, contempt or violence against a person or group on the basis of their race, colour, descent, sex, religion, ethnicity, etc.;
• Cyberbullying, or willful and repeated harm inflicted via computers, cell phones and other electronic devices;
• Impersonation, or posting harassing comments, photos or other materials in somebody else’s name, typically in an attempt to get that person into trouble;
• Swatting, a dangerous form of impersonation involving online threats designed to get a SWAT team to bust down the impersonated individual’s door;
• Hacking, whether it’s done to steal personal information, sabotage an IT network or simply harass somebody;
• Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, i.e., flooding a host or network until it crashes in a malicious attempt to prevent employees, customers and other legitimate users from accessing an organization’s website;
• Doxxing, or collecting documents (docs) containing an individual’s private information and posting them online for all the world to see and use;
• Trolling, or posting nasty and provocative things online in an attempt to upset, instigate and stir up trouble;
• Dogpiling, a form of trolling typically carried out by hundreds and even thousands of people seeking to overwhelm a website or social media page by posting negative comments on it at the same time; and
• Message bombing, which is similar to dogpiling that targets inboxes to make it impossible to respond to legitimate messages.

Harassment does not include criticism, negative remarks or other legitimate exercises of management authority.

“Workplace” where harassment may occur includes not just ABC Company’s physical premises but to any location where employees perform their job duties, including home or remote offices, Company vehicles and off-site locations, including venues of off-site meetings or conferences, client locations, social situations related to work or employees’ homes if there are real or implied consequences related to the workplace and in the course of business travel.

1. Sources of Workplace Harassment

Harassment in the workplace is unacceptable from anyone. That includes those who work for ABC Company such as employees, supervisors and members of management, as well as outsiders like customers, clients, visitors and strangers. Everyone at ABC Company is expected to work together to prevent workplace harassment.

1. What Does NOT Constitute Harassment

Harassment may be committed by managers or individuals in authority against a subordinate. However, for conduct to be harassment, to constitute harassment, the conduct must be not only harsh and unwelcome but inappropriate. Professional criticism and other actions by a superior that hurt a subordinate’s feelings are not harassment when they represent a legitimate exercise of management authority.

1. Duties & Responsibilities

• Duty of Supervisors

Supervisors will adhere to this Policy and are responsible for ensuring that measures and procedures are followed by employees and that employees have the information they need to protect themselves.

• Duty of Employees

Every employee must perform his/her job functions in compliance with this Policy. All employees are encouraged to raise any concerns about workplace harassment and to report any incidents to their supervisors or another ABC Company official. Be assured that you will not be subject to any reprisals for reporting incidents of harassment.

• Duty of Management

Management pledges to investigate and deal with all incidents and complaints of workplace harassment in a fair and timely manner, respecting the privacy of all concerned as much as possible.

1. Notification of Incidents

Employees who notify management of acts or other incidents of harassment who wish to remain anonymous may do so and ABC Company will not reveal their identities except to the extent necessary to investigate the complaint or correct the problem or as required by law. To repeat, no employee shall be subject to reprisals of any kind for reporting incidents of harassment.

1. Employee’s Right to Report Discrimination

Nothing in this Policy is designed to discourage employees who feel that they have been the victim of discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender, family status, disability, sexual orientation, political belief, criminal record or other grounds protected by the [province name] human rights laws from filing a discrimination complaint with the [province name] human rights tribunal.

1. Discipline

Acts of harassment will not be tolerated and will be responded to with appropriate disciplinary action, up to and including termination, based on a thorough investigation of the incident and the surrounding circumstances. Such disciplinary action may include immediate termination, even if the person committing the act has committed no prior offences or engaged in previous acts of harassment.

1. Prime Contractors, Contractors and Subcontractors

To protect employees from risks of workplace harassment or misconduct by third parties they contact at work, ABC Company will ensure that any prime contractors, contractors, and subcontractors hired to perform work at its work sites are notified of and required to ensure their workers comply with the terms of this Policy and are held accountable for any violations they commit.

1. Scope

This Policy is supplemented by other applicable ABC Company policies designed to prevent harassment, including but not limited to policies covering sexual harassment, discrimination, workplace violence, cyberbullying and virtual meetings code of conduct.

Signed: ________________________ President/CEO Date: ________________

The ABC Company Workplace Harassment Policy should be consulted whenever there are concerns about harassment in the workplace. agreements.