By Louise Trotter, CRSP and Carla Hurley, CPHR
When Nova Scotia’s harassment legislation took effect on Sept. 1, many Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committees (JOHSCs) naturally asked: “What role do we play in harassment investigations?” Both employees and employers may also wonder with some trepidation: “What information gets shared with JOHSCs about harassment incidents?”
These questions are understandable, and it’s natural for them to cause some concern.
The questions reflect a focus on individual incidents and reactive responses, looking at problems after they occur. The legislation, however, presents an opportunity to align with the original intention of the JOHSC: to proactively focus on hazard prevention. With harassment now recognized as a workplace hazard under OHS legislation—like chemical exposure or falls—committees can reinforce their role in prevention, promoting both physically and psychologically safe workplaces.
Addressing the investigation question
The regulations indicate that JOHSC members “may be selected to participate in harassment investigations” with “careful consideration to ensure fairness and confidentiality.” While well-intentioned, this guidance can create uncertainty.
Harassment investigations are complex. They involve alleged incidents, highly confidential information, specialized skills in interviewing, and may result in employee-specific corrective actions. Most committees are trained in hazard inspections, not interpersonal investigations or labour relations.
Many committees are still strengthening their core inspection protocols for physical hazards, so expecting them to take on complex interpersonal investigations creates unrealistic expectations.
Our recommendation is clear: unless harassment issues are systemic and require organizational oversight, JOHSC member participation in individual investigations should be the exception, not the rule. The primary focus of the committee should remain on systemic prevention, not case-level adjudication.
Improving committee effectiveness
Instead of focusing on procedural questions about investigations, effective committees should ask:
- How do we track harassment incident trends, like slips, falls, or burns?
- What systems can prevent these hazards?
- How do we audit our psychosocial safety systems?
- What patterns in data indicate deeper organizational concerns?
These questions align with the original vision of the JOHSC, established after the Ham Commission Report in 1974, emphasizing proactive safety improvements rather than compliance checklists.
Data that helps prevention
The committee should receive harassment incident data in the same way it receives workplace injury data—without individual identities. This includes:
- Total number of allegations and confirmed incidents
- Dates and locations of events
- Contributing factors (e.g., bullying, inappropriate sexual conduct)
- Control measures or actions taken
- Trending information
This isn’t about reviewing individual cases—it’s about recognizing patterns. Aggregated, anonymized data on allegations can highlight early risk signals, while confirmed incidents show whether existing controls are adequate. Both are essential for prevention.
If harassment incidents keep occurring in the same department, that’s when committees should be asking strategic questions: What happened after the investigation? What are the root causes? Are there supervisory issues, workload problems, or organizational factors creating conditions where harassment flourishes?
Just like committees wouldn’t ignore recurring MSI injuries in one work area, they shouldn’t overlook harassment patterns. The difference is that harassment incidents are alleged until investigated, so the focus should be on trends in both allegations and confirmed incidents.
Understanding psychosocial hazards
Psychosocial hazards include poor work design, management practices, workplace interactions, and environmental factors that can cause psychological harm. Workplace harassment falls squarely into this category. These aren’t abstract or ‘soft’ issues—they are legitimate hazards that can result in real injury and ill health, just like physical, chemical, or biological risks.
Just as committees wouldn’t wait for someone to get chemical burns before addressing improper storage of corrosive materials, they shouldn’t wait for harassment complaints before addressing the workplace conditions that enable harassment to flourish.
Practical steps for JOHSC effectiveness related to harassment
Here’s how committees can apply their existing expertise to this new hazard category:
- Get Educated: Provide JOHSC members with the legislation and guidance documents. Understanding your new responsibilities is foundational.
- Audit Existing Policies: If a harassment policy or respectful workplace policy already exists, review it against the new OHS requirements. Expand your policy from cultural expectations to compliance-focused requirements addressing hazard prevention.
- Establish a Policy Review Process: Make harassment and psychosocial hazard policies/procedures a standing agenda item, with ongoing oversight rather than a once-a-year checklist.
- Evolve Inspection Approach: Committees already know how to spot physical hazards, but effective harassment prevention requires evolving inspection protocols to include psychosocial observations. Consider:
- Interaction patterns and employee dynamics
- Behaviours that are encouraged or ignored
- Workload pressures, skipped breaks, or chronic urgency
- Leadership style, communication approach, and change management
- Whether dissenting voices are welcomed and employees feel safe raising concerns
- Are reporting mechanisms easily accessible and well understood?
- Focus on Systems, Not Individuals: Committees should ensure robust systems exist to identify, assess, and control harassment risks, rather than investigate individual complaints. Prevention is the priority.
Broader psychosocial hazard management
The legislation provides an entry point to address broader psychosocial hazards. Once effective systems for harassment prevention are in place, the same framework can manage:
- Excessive workload
- Poor work-life balance
- Organizational change management
- Conflicts arising from unclear roles or responsibilities
This represents an opportunity for committees to demonstrate their strategic value. Rather than just reviewing incident reports after the fact, their work systematically prevents incidents from occurring.
From compliant to impactful
If JOHSC meetings feel routine, if members come unprepared, or if committees are going through compliance motions, the harassment legislation allows you to reset this dynamic. Effective committees address hazards, implement controls, and drive measurable safety improvements. For harassment prevention, this means moving beyond individual complaint response to hazard management. It means understanding that workplace harassment is often a symptom of broader organizational issues such as inadequate supervision, unclear expectations, poor communication systems, and insufficient accountability mechanisms.
The path forward
Committees should shift attention to prevention by asking:
- How can workplace conditions be structured to reduce harassment risk?
- What early warning systems can we implement?
- How do we measure the effectiveness of prevention efforts?
- What organizational changes address root causes?
By focusing on prevention, JOHSCs can evolve from a compliance requirement into a strategic safety asset, while also addressing the broader spectrum of psychosocial hazards that affect employee well-being.
Nova Scotia may be the last province to enact harassment legislation under health and safety regulations, but this provides a unique advantage: the ability to learn from other jurisdictions and build prevention-focused systems from the start.
The legislation is more than a compliance requirement; it’s an opportunity to enhance committee effectiveness, create healthier workplaces, and embed psychosocial hazard management into daily operations. The question for JOHSCs isn’t ‘Now what?’ but rather, ‘How do we make prevention work better than anyone expected?’
Understanding these new responsibilities is critical. Our Fall Training Series will provide the practical tools and frameworks your committee needs to handle the realities you’ll be facing in those first crucial weeks. Get on the early notification list and download ’15 Questions Every NS Employer is Asking’—because these questions are coming whether you’re ready or not.
Louise Trotter is the founder and executive consultant at Sprout Safety, providing OHS consulting with expertise in the healthcare and education sectors. Carla Hurley is the founder of HURLEY HR, specializing in strategic human resources solutions. Together, they’re combining OHS systematic approaches with HR expertise to help organizations navigate the new harassment prevention landscape.
