The Government of the Canadian Province of Manitoba says a workplace investigation of 20 allegations of sexual harassment made by Public Servants found them to be substantiated.
The report, covering last year and part of this, says 10 of the cases resulted in disciplinary action, mediation was required twice, and the others ended with education or training.
Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, Cathy Cox (pictured) said she hoped the slight increase, up from 19 the year before, showed that employees could feel safe in coming forward with concerns.
The report says the Province received a total of 417 allegations that included harassment, bullying, sexual harassment or other forms of misconduct.
Of these, 288 were substantiated.
The Government committed to the annual reports on respectful workplace statistics in 2018 after female staff came forward with allegations that a former Minister had tickled and groped them.
The women alleged that their complaints about Stan Struthers, who left politics in 2016, were never addressed.
At that time the Government commissioned a report that found hundreds of Public Servants had experienced sexual harassment while working but most did not report it.
The most common complaint was leering or invading space, but others said they’d also experienced inappropriate physical contact.
The Government also updated its Respectful Workplace Policy to provide clearer ways to report and address harassment concerns, and implemented a ‘no wrong door’ approach that required managers to forward any complaint to the Province’s Civil Service Commission.
Winnipeg, 27 September 2020
