Three women who were victims of sexual harassment at the landfill had more than 70 complaints, but they largely went ignored by the union and the city.
“This is a sad case,” Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board vice chairman Graeme Mitchell wrote in his decision. “To say that CUPE Local 21 failed to support the applicants at a time when they were extremely vulnerable is an understatement.”
The women’s complaints ranged from gender-based discrimination to environmental whistleblowing and unsafe working conditions.
“The final incident was they came to work one day, and their lab where they worked, their doors were kicked in. And there were some men outside there making fun of that,” Larry Kowalchuk, the women’s lawyer, said. “So that scared them a lot.”
Kowalchuk said the union and the city did nothing to properly address their concerns.
“From my point of view the city handled it in an unacceptable way. Completely,” he said. “They have a policy, they hired an independent investigator, but up until the investigator’s report and even afterwards, they did nothing.”
The woman turned to Kowalchuk for help when their union representative wouldn’t file their grievances, he said.
“It got to the point where all three of them were unable to medically work. It became too dangerous for them,” he said.
It was emotionally difficult for the women to tell their story during the hearing, something they shouldn’t have had to do if the union had filed their grievances, he added.
University of Regina business associate professor Shelagh Campbell said the women likely wouldn’t have suffered as much if the union had supported them.
“If the union had stepped up to those obligations, those workers wouldn’t have had to resort to the labour board,” she said. “And so they would have been spared the preparation for that, and the mental anguish associated with those kinds of hearings.”
Kowalchuk said he wants employers to shift their mentality when it comes to harassment reports.
“We’ve tried to suggest that when you get a report, the first thing you do, is to believe that person, and then make sure they’re safe, make sure they’re on income,” Kowalchuk said. “If you can assure safety then fine, and if you can’t, then until you can, they receive full income and benefits because that’s a workplace danger.”
“We don’t have a problems when it’s chemicals, but when it’s sexual violence, somehow it’s treated as less important? That’s unacceptable,” he said.
The City of Regina won’t comment on personnel matters, but said in a statement that it has learned from this situation.
“We have strengthened our harassment policy, added a mandatory respectful workplace training program for all employees and introduced a program for supervisors and managers focused on building a respectful and inclusive workplace,” J.P. Cullen, executive director organization and people, said.
“We have also recently introduced a corporate mental health strategy as we strive towards our goal of a psychologically safe workspace for all our people.”
The three women are expecting to find out if they’re awarded damages next month in a hearing. They’re no longer employed by the city.