Ontario bill aims to protect health workers who report workplace violence

Two Sudbury area MPPs have stepped up the effort to stop workplace violence toward health care workers.

NDP Health Critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) and Labour Critic Jamie West (Sudbury) have reintroduced a private members bill that would protect health care workers who speak out about violence in their workplace.

The bill – called Bill-77 The Speaking Out About Workplace Violence and Workplace Harassment Act – was introduced in the Ontario Legislature last week and has passed first reading.

The purpose of the act would protect nurses, health care workers and other workers from employer reprisals when they speak out about violence or harassment in their workplace and require hospitals and long-term care homes to publicly report on workplace violence and harassment, said a news release from the Ontario New Democrats.

“Our bill will protect workers from reprisal for speaking out against violence or harassment,” said Gélinas.

“No one should head to work worried about being assaulted. Even more so, no one’s career should be negatively affected for raising concerns about their personal safety or dignity. This is especially true in health care, where workers are being forced to experience the brunt of public frustration caused by an overburdened and understaffed health care system. This is wrong, it’s hurting our health care workers, and it must change.”

Bill 77 would amend the Occupational Health and Safety Act to prevent any penalty of any kind from being used against an employee for speaking out about violence or harassment.

Gélinas said that would encourage workers to speak out when violence and harassment happens, instead of staying silent.

“Unfortunately, in many Ontario hospitals and other health care settings, workplace violence is too often swept under the rug,” she said. “Nurses and other health care workers are left to feel like physical and verbal harassment is just part of the job. Violence should never be part of the job.”

West, who co-sponsored the bill, agreed and said there are valid reasons workers need protections.

“Too many people have forgotten that the reason the Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act now requires employers to take reasonable precautions to protect workers from workplace violence and harassment was because of the tragic death of a nurse named Daphne Wright,” he said. “Daphne was murdered in 2001. Unfortunately, decades later, workplace harassment and violence towards health-care workers continues to climb.

“Protecting workers from employer reprisals when they speak out about violence or harassment in their workplace, and requiring hospitals and long-term care homes to publicly report on workplace violence and harassment will go a long way to protecting Ontario’s health-care workers and letting them know that violence and harassment are never part of anyone’s job.”

The bill has also been endorsed by labour leaders.

“Every day, hundreds of hospital nurses, PSWs, cleaners, clerical, paramedical and other staff are hit, sexually assaulted, physically attacked, and verbally harassed in Ontario,” said Sharon Richer, secretary treasurer of OCHU-CUPE.

“Racialized and female staff are targeted based on their appearance and gender. And yet, health care workers speaking up about violence have been threatened and fired.”

She said the bill is long overdue and hopes to see it pass into law soon.

“Front-line nurses and health-care professionals are often reluctant to report workplace violence, due to a workplace culture in which they are made to feel at fault for being attacked,” said Erin Ariss, RN and provincial president of the Ontario Nurses’ Association.

“This draft bill is an excellent step towards meaningful change that is so desperately needed in our health-care system to keep staff safe. The Ontario Nurses’ Association wholeheartedly supports it.”