Harassment complaint summary from province falls short: lawyer
Alberta's UCP government has released a summary of new rules for political staff, but a lawyer currently taking the premier's office to court says it could create more workplace problems.
A third-party investigation was struck in the wake of former senior legislature staffer Ariella Kimmel filing a lawsuit against the premier's office in October, alleging she was wrongfully fired from her job after speaking up about a toxic workplace environment that included sexual harassment and heavy drinking.
Kimmel's lawyer Kathryn Marshall said in an interview with Postmedia Tuesday the summary report — which outlines how to deal with concerns or complaints about harassment at work — is disappointing.
“It doesn't really contain much that changes what the current policies were, and there's a few areas of the proposed policy that are really concerning,” said Marshall, pointing to one note that with some workplace issues, staff may be moved to a new assignment.
“A complainant should never experience any change in their employment — that's definitely retaliation,” said Marshall.
The premier's office announced in early November that Jamie Pytel, the City of Edmonton's integrity commissioner and co-founder of Kingsgate Legal, had been hired to conduct the independent review of workplace policies.
The summary report, dated May 10 but released Tuesday, notes that any information related to any outstanding litigation is outside its scope.
“The purpose of this report is to share as much information as possible with respect to the (human resources) review while not compromising the confidentiality around the information that was obtained to inform this review,” it reads.
Marshall said it still could have summarized the main findings of the Pytel investigation without disclosing names or specifics.
“I think everybody was expecting a very comprehensive report that identified all the issues and a bunch of solutions, and this is not what this report did at all,” said Marshall.
She added an emphasis on the informal resolution process could mean that staff are encouraged not to go to human resources first but rather to their supervisor, leading to fewer formal complaints and less action to correct bad behaviour.
“The problem is a lot of chiefs of staff are going to be politically motivated to sweep things under the rug,” said Marshall.
The premier's office confirmed the new and updated policy guidelines for political staff are set to take effect immediately.
At an unrelated announcement earlier Tuesday, Kenney said the new rules can help the government provide clarity.
“I think it will be helpful in clarifying how best to handle complaints, but (also) workplace culture, workplace respect,” he said, noting all public servants, political staff and elected officials have already received mandatory workplace respect training.
The premier is not named in the Kimmel suit and none of the allegations has been proven in court.
Kenney's office has denied the allegations in a statement of defence filed in late November, accusing Kimmel of unprofessional workplace behaviour.
Marshall said she still plans to file motions to compel Kenney to testify in the case, and for the government to share the results of the Pytel investigation.