Public sector to begin anti-harassment training
One month left before new policy and procedures offered
It has been referenced more than once in the last week at the House of Assembly, but Newfoundland and Labrador’s public sector will have a new anti-harassment policy in effect June 1.
Mandatory training for employees will start next week.
The government’s harassment-free workplace policy was announced in February. Since then, the related training programs were put together, Finance Minister Tom Osborne says.
“The training modules have been developed. Both … online training, and in-person training,” he said, speaking as minister responsible for the Human Resources Secretariat.
The Telegram was provided a general schedule for the rollout of training.
May 8 will mark the launch of the online training module, to be offered through an existing platform for training for the public service, PS Access.
Additional in-person and live online sessions will be offered. They will begin with management and executive-level staff.
There will be sessions in late May tailored for the designated complaint investigators under the policy, including sessions May 28 to May 30 for new investigators in all departments.
Osborne said newly appointed investigators won’t be left on their own to handle things as the switch is flipped and the policy kicks in next month.
“There are people currently within (the Human Resources Secretariat) who have done training and they are currently investigators,” he said, adding these workers will still be there and available, doubling as a resource for new investigators.
“We’re not going to throw somebody cold into an investigation,” he said.
The anti-harassment policy for the rank and file was brought in by the Liberal government following a review by Rubin Thomlinson LLP, with a final report dated Nov. 4, 2015.
The firm’s work was requested by the then-progressive
Conservative government.
It followed a four-part series by The Telegram in 2015 recounting the story of Valerie Penton, who started working with the provincial government in 2010, but walked away from her job because she felt unsafe going to work every day at the Confederation Building, as a result of harassment.
The new anti-harassment policy sets a 90-day timeline for complaint investigations and otherwise guides the process whereby government employees can come forward with problems and expect them to be resolved.
Anti-harassment training is already being offered to MHAS, with the premier and members of the Liberal caucus taking in sessions earlier this week, but that move was a direct followthrough on a commitment made by the premier to go through the training first.
Making it mandatory for MHAS is a question of jurisdiction. The premier and Osborne are not able to make the new public service training mandatory. However, training can be made mandatory by the allparty House Management Commission.
Osborne said there was mandatory, albeit different, sensitivity and anti-bullying training in place during the time he was Speaker, from 2015 to August 2017.
Osborne said he will see further training opportunities provided for MHAS if the House Management Commission demands more training be offered specifically for members.