Dealing With The Dark Side – Jan 27, 2022

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A very big thank you to our presenter, Labour Lawyer Melanie Vipond with Gall, Legge, Grant and Zwack LLP.  Melanie shared her presentation titled “Dealing with the Dark Side: Employer Liability for Physical/Psychological Harm”.

Melanie shared that in recent years, there has been a huge change on what employers are dealing with. Bullying, harassment and violence are currently focus’ of employers. Employees can claim compensation for bullying, and employers need to comply with preventing bullying in the workplace. Workers are not solely responsible for their own safety, there is a high onus on employers to ensure their safety.

Why should you care? There can be criminal prosecutions for workplace accidents – up to life imprisonment for criminal negligence causing death, or up to ten years imprisonment for criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

There is a real risk of prison time for individuals and almost certainty of fines for companies where negligence causes severe injury or death to an employee. It’s not just physical injury that is of concern. Tribunals are increasingly imposing higher penalties on employers for conduct that causes an injury to dignity.

The courts are highly motivated to impose stiff penalties on employers for severe safety violations given the power imbalance between workers and employers, and the purpose of deterring employers from ever allowing relaxed safety standards.

How can you mitigate issues? Exercise due diligence:

  • Proper training and confidence that a worker can safely function in the workplace is essential
  • Make sure your safety manual is readily available to everyone who is expected to comply with it, and followed
  • Conduct regular safety audits

It’s important to remember that you, as the employer, could be on the hook for a WCB claim for employees injured while working remotely at home. The key is to determine what the worker was doing at the time of injury.  Putting the onus of the employee will help mitigate these risks, addressing that as the employer, you expect that it is a safe working environment. Keep them empowered to address any health and safety issues that arise.