Psychological Harassment And Managerial Rights

On June 1, 2004, the Québec legislature amended the Act respecting labour standards to prohibit psychological harassment. Since then, company managers have been wary of exercising their managerial rights, for fear of being accused of psychological harassment. Much of this wariness stems from a lack of clear guidance as to what exactly constitutes psychological harassment. Because of the delays inherent in the judicial process, only a few decisions on psychological harassment were rendered before 2007. However, now that three years have elapsed since the legislation was amended, we can identify certain elements that can be used to distinguish psychological harassment from an employer’s managerial rights.