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On Feb. 8, 2010, an Australian café, its owner, its manager, a waiter and a chef were convicted under Victoria’s Occupational Health and Safety Act for viciously bullying a 19-year-old worker both physically and emotionally to the point where she jumped off a building to her death.
Unfortunately, jail sentences weren’t an option under the law. So the magistrate fined the manager, waiter and chef a total of $85,000 for failing to take reasonable care for the worker’s health and safety. He fined the owner and café $250,000 for failing to provide and maintain a safe working environment.
Pattern of “Persistent and Vicious Behaviour”
The prosecution’s case included a litany of outrageous acts perpetrated on the young worker mainly by the manager and waiter and to a lesser extent by the chef. The young worker was insulted and ridiculed, teased about her looks, held while fish sauce was poured over her, teased about a failed suicide attempt, had poison put in her bag and was taunted about being unable to kill herself.
The café owner knew what was going on and did nothing about it. In fact, the café didn’t have any policies in place to address workplace bullying and behaviour in general. (Click here for more details on this tragedy.)
In this case, the bullying led to suicide but it just as easily could have ended up with even more victims. In 1999, an Ottawa transit worker fatally shot four co-workers before turning the gun on himself. Why? He’d been bullied and teased by his co-workers because he had a speech impediment and a facial tick. These cases are sad examples of what can happen when someone is bullied or harassed until they can’t take it anymore.
Workplace Bullying Is Everyone’s Problem
You may not think that an incident like this one could happen in your workplace—but it could. And in Canada, jail is an option under OHS laws. Click here for information on employers’ duty to address workplace bullying.
from Safety Compliance Insider - Wednesday, February 10, 2010
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The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE