Sexual Harassment Training Requirements in Canada
State Requirements Legend: Both National & Provincial| National | Provincial
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How Do We Know What Our Obligations are Related to Training at Our Company?
A mistake we often see employers commit is making decisions exclusively to meet a specific compliance obligation. For example, the Province or Territory where I have employees says we have to provide training around the topics of sexual harassment and discrimination is the singular driving decision on whether to provide this type of training.
Compliance is important and should be a minimum threshold for training employees, not the determining factor for whether to provide training in the first place. There is a difference between specific Province/Territory mandates and legal liability on employers when it comes to sexual harassment and discrimination.
At the National level, the Canadian Human Rights Act, and many subsequent laws, make it very clear that it is illegal to sexually harass and or discriminate against co-workers (and job candidates) based on a series of protected classifications such as gender, ethnicity, age, etc. Nationally, it is required for employers to provide training and most Provinces further mandate it based on their local regulations.
The general idea behind these laws is to communicate to employers the need to take reasonable steps to both prevent and remediate any potential sexual harassment or discrimination occurring in the workplace. If employers take these steps proactively, it is possible to reduce and perhaps entirely avoid liability if harassment or discrimination occurs.
If an employer does NOT provide training on sexual harassment and discrimination to their employees, the employer will NOT have this as part of their defense if and when being sued by a claimant, creating further exposure to liability.
For that reason (among many others), we recommend all employers in the Canada provide training for all new hires and all employees on an annual basis. We strongly recommend you consult your attorney to be sure you are doing what you need to in this regard.
EEO Training maintains a guideline to help you easily see specific requirements in Provinces and Territories that are of interest to you. The list below provides basic legislative requirements imposed on a Province and Territory basis.
These requirements should be viewed as a minimum threshold, not necessarily the determining factor. Simply because some Provinces or Territories do not have training mandates by traditional written law (e.g., legislation is passed and signed into law), those jurisdictions may have court cases suggesting employers should provide this training.
The future is impossible to predict. However, the trend is continuing to bring forward more stories of sexual harassment and discrimination, more proposed legislation, and more court cases reinforcing the importance of training.
It is our recommendation that ALL employers should provide sexual harassment and discrimination training to their employees (including to their independent contractors).
Learn more about EEO Training’s online sexual harassment training.