Labour Arbitration of Co‐Worker Sexual Harassment Cases in Canada

Abstract

Women have the right to a workplace free from sexual harassment under Canadian provincial and federal human rights legislation. Canadian labour laws incorporate the right to a grievance procedure including binding arbitration where arbitrators must interpret and apply human rights legislation. This paper analyzes co‐worker sexual harassment cases in order to assess how well arbitrations protect the right of unionized women to a harassment free workplace. Results indicate that women complainants were often subjected to aggressive gendered cross‐examinations and the application of gendered jurisprudence that largely ignored the impact of gendered power relations in the workplace. The conclusion is that women's experiences in arbitrations are likely a deterrent to filing formal complaints, effectively undermining rather than protecting their rights. Copyright © 2012 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Diversity and inclusion for LGBT workers: Current issues and new horizons for research

“…While the Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences has published on LGBT issues such as in the arena of gay and lesbian sports (Washington & McKay, 2011), the journal has yet to publish research that explores LGBT issues in different avenues of everyday life including the workplace. As is typical of the organization scholarly literature more broadly, gender has received greater attention in the journal, evidenced in vibrant and important scholarly research on organization masculinity (Mills & Mills, 2006), gender and diversity management (Kirton & Greene, 2010;Loukil & Yousif, 2016), and sexual harassment (Hart, 2012). From a wider perspective, feminist organization studies literature indicates that gender, in comparison to sexuality, has typically attracted more scholarly interest.…”

The effects of the socio‐demographic factors on judgement building in arbitration

“…Relatedly, Hart (2012) demonstrates that arbitrators of coworker sexual harassment arbitration cases in Canada do not solely or entirely rely on labour laws and regulations. As he explains, the reasoning and discourse of an argument play an important role in these cases.…”

Ethical Dilemmas for Human Resource Professionals in Handling Sexual Harassment at Workplaces: Cases from Sri Lanka

“…Research has also extensively explored the low formal reporting of sexual harassment incidents and the related reasons (Fitzgerald, Swan, & Fischer, 1995;Mani, 2004). There are also instances where research has explored how victims' rights are protected or how due process is followed in sexual harassment cases (Hart, 2012).…”