Most Canadian jurisdictions require employers to have policies
that address issues like workplace harassment, discrimination, and
violence. In our investigation practice, we read many of these
"respect at work" policies, and the overwhelming majority
of them are clearly written to specifically comply with legislative
requirements. In other words, if a statute says that the policy
needs to include certain programme elements, then that information
is inserted into the policy verbatim. And we understand, truly. No
one wants to run afoul of the law and the penalties can be quite
serious for employers without policies.1
But why do we have policies? Is it only because the law says so?
Maybe that's true for some organizations, but we find that most
employers genuinely want to create and maintain more respectful
workplaces. Policies have long been recognized as helpful tools to
assist an employee who might be struggling with disrespect in their
workplace. The problem
