Canadian Safety Reporter

6 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2015 CSR | May 2015 | News Recommendations include spot audit reviews employee or a well-connected senior executive. There's a lot of different environments in which this kind of turning a blind eye could be tempting when you're dealing with your own version of the star," said Erin Kuzz, a founding member of Sherrard Kuzz in Toronto. "Hopefully this will be a wake- up call to some organizations out there that there's a big down- side to doing that." This situation is by no means unique, said Andres Barker, a lawyer at Kent Employment Law in Vancouver. "Any employer is susceptible to the creation of a toxic work- place by personalities who are not dealt with adequately by management, either through ne- glect or through turning a blind eye." Detailed investigation The report, prepared by lawyers Janice Rubin and Parisa Nikfar- jam of Rubin Thomlinson in To- ronto, details their investigation into allegations of inappropriate workplace behaviour on the part of the former CBC personality. The law firm conducted inter- views with 99 people or witness- es, though Ghomeshi himself did not participate. Its release followed an an- nouncement by CBC it had "sev- ered ties" with two executives, including Todd Spencer, head of HR and industrial relations for English services. The report found elements of the star's behaviour consistently breached the "behavioural stan- dard" at the CBC and were deep- ly disrespectful. For example, the host: was persistently late and consistently disrespectful of colleagues' time; was schem- ing, dismissive, moody, diffi- cult, emotionally unpredictable and harshly critical; and played pranks and cruel jokes. Ghomeshi also gave col- leagues back and shoulder mas- sages. Less prevalent but still present was sexual harassment by Ghomeshi, including flirta- tion and sharing details about his sex life. However, the law firm found no evidence of a formal com- plaint made against Ghomeshi. As to why, many employees spoke of a lack of trust and confi- dence in the complaint process, a sense the workplace was "a sealed unit" and because it was expected they would deal with their concerns internally. "There was also a pronounced power and status differential be- tween Mr. Ghomeshi and those who worked to support him," said the report. Lack of leadership On the leadership side, those who directly managed Ghome- shi were aware of aspects of his problematic behaviour, found the report. And there were three separate but missed opportuni- ties to fully investigate: a 2012 "Red Sky Document" prepared by members of the Q staff that outlined their concerns; an email from an inquiring journalist re- garding inappropriate behaviour in 2014; and an email from a con- cerned employee. Yet information tended to be- come diluted as it moved up the lines of power. In some cases, managers failed to inquire any further or take adequate steps to stop the behaviour. "In other cases, despite ac- tual knowledge of concerns ex- pressed by employees, Mr. Gho- meshi's behaviour was often left unexamined, characterized as 'difficult' or was accepted as the norm of how hosts were expect- ed to behave," said the report. The report discussed the mentality of a "host culture," where people have big egos, big personalities and big demands, and the behaviour is generally tolerated out of fear. "If you've got your best seller or your CEO or the fellow that earns the highest commission because he or she is charming or whatever it is, it becomes harder to touch — but all the more im- portant that action is taken so that, all the way down the line, the message comes across that this will not be tolerated," said Ritu Mahil, a lawyer at Lawson Lundell in Vancouver. Complaint process The CBC also suffered from narrow employee survey infor- mation, no adequate system to measure workplace behaviour, generic training, an over-reli- ance on formal complaints and a lack of comprehensive data to track complaints, said Rubin Thomlinson. Complaints don't have to be formal to be considered com- plaints, said Mahil. "The employer has a positive obligation to maintain that ha- rassment-free environment so if there's any one out there and it makes its way to the employer's ear — the employer, the man- ager, whoever it is, the supervi- sor, the foreman in the mill — they've got to deal with it." Being willfully blind is not a good strategy, said Kuzz. "You can't hide behind 'Well, I didn't know he was doing this, this and this, I only knew about this,' when the 'this' you knew about ought to have blown your hair back and caused you to do something else to look into it." 9 recommendations The report made nine recom- mendations that include con- ducting spot audit reviews to see if there's behaviour and conduct that's contrary to the behav- ioural standard. "That's a really great place for most organizations to start if they think that there's any sense that they have a problem, they want to figure out how to tackle it. You need to figure out a way to get genuine and candid feedback from your folks," said Kuzz. The report also recommend- ed refreshing workplace inves- tigation competencies and data keeping. "Some managers may be tempted to avoid conflict and treat situations as 'one-offs.' However, doing so allows sys- temic problems to bloom and provides no checks and balanc- es," said Barker. "Employers should properly document complaints, follow up on them and ensure that the par- ties understand when a decisive outcome has been reached. This allows for expectations around behaviour to be known and for patterns to be easily identifiable." A confidential workplace ho- tline should also be established for complaints, recommended the report. But these will only be effective if the tipper pro- vides specific information, said Barker. "Otherwise, the employer is left with no specific allegations to act on or bring to the attention of the accused. In some cases, such tip lines can also be abused, leaving an innocent party feeling unfairly accused of wrongdoing by management. Generally, such lines will be most useful when reporting on specific acts of mis- conduct that management can realistically investigate." The report also recommend- ed CBC establish a respect at work and human rights ombud- sperson. It's a good idea for large workplaces, said Mahil. "Creating the position in and of itself doesn't do anything — it is creating it, advertising it, making people know about it, and telling the employees what rights they have in the work- place and what the policies are and what person is tasked to do, that's the key." Former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi leaves court after getting bail on multiple counts of sexual assault in Toronto in November 2014. The broadcaster has since released a report detailing how the scandal was handled — and "severed ties" with its head of HR. Credit: Reuters Ghomeshi < pg. 1

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