Thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee.
I'm here with my colleague, Kathleen Clarkin. We're here to speak about the role of the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, the OCHRO, with respect to the current policy framework on harassment and violence in the core public administration.
For context, based on the result of the 2017 public service employee annual survey, nearly one-quarter, or 22%, of employees indicated they were victims of harassment on the job in the past two years, up from 19% in the 2014 survey. The main source of harassment was individuals with authority.
With regard to the current framework in the public service, currently organizations in the core public administration are subject to the Treasury Board policy on harassment prevention and resolution and the directive on the harassment complaint process. These instruments are aimed at preventing and resolving all forms of harassment, including personal harassment and sexual harassment, as well as abuse of authority.
Under the directive on the harassment complaint process, once a complaint is made or a manager is aware of an allegation, options for resolution include self-resolution between the affected parties, manager intervention—usually the initial discussion with employees—and informal conflict management systems. If the complaint remains unsolved, then an impartial investigator will review the allegations and determine if the complaint was founded. Where warranted, corrective or disciplinary measures may be imposed and methods of intervention to restore the well-being of the workplace can occur. If still unsatisfied with the outcome, the parties can grieve the results or apply for judicial review.
The focus of the harassment investigation is on remedies for individuals at the individual level. With respect to roles and responsibilities in relation to violence, currently central policy guidance is provided on harassment prevention and resolution. However, deputy heads are responsible to develop their own departmental policy on violence prevention.
An important note is that Bill C-65 will have significant impact on ministers' offices. The code's entire health and safety regime will apply to ministers' offices, whereas the current policies for ministers' offices does not include a regime to address harassment and violence prevention.
In addition to the provisions under the Canada Labour Code, there is an enforcement mechanism provided in the Canadian Human Rights Act for addressing individual complaints of discrimination based on 13 prohibited grounds. The Canadian Human Rights Commission would normally require that public service employees exhaust the mechanisms internal to their organizations before filing a complaint of discrimination.
In addition, there are several tools currently available to employees, who may present individual grievances to the employer for any matters affecting their terms and conditions of employment and in situations in which a provisional collective agreement has been infringed. Most collective agreements have a section that specifically refers to sexual harassment.
Organizations in the federal public service are required to have an informal conflict management system to resolve workplace disputes, which can be effective in resolving issues with respect to harassment. This has been mandatory since 2005 under the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act.
The values and ethics code for the public service, employee assistance programs, the federal public service workplace mental health strategy, and training offered by the Canada School of Public Service are additional resources available to employees.
As we work toward continued alignment with legislative and regulatory requirements, the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer will work with the Canada labour program in collaboration with bargaining agents in communities of practice such as occupational health and safety committees, harassment advisers, security, and informal conflict management services to develop communication strategies and tools to assist deputies through this process.
When it comes to monitoring, the achievement of expected results by deputy heads is assessed through the management accountability framework, which is an annual assessment of management practices and performance in departments and agencies, as well as the public service employee annual survey, which aims to gain insight into employee perceptions of their workforce and workplace conditions, including their experience with harassment.
As the employer, we are taking harassment issues seriously across the public service. Senior-level governance committees are being formed across the public service and in departments to ensure we understand the issue, assess the gaps, manage the issues and have an ongoing engagement strategy to support the necessary culture change to foster a supportive and respectful workforce.
We hope this has been helpful. We thank you for the opportunity to present before you. We would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.