Sexual harassment in the workplace can have a devastating impact on an organization’s brand and corporate reputation — as is apparent from the lawsuits, scandals and #MeToo revelations that have cast a negative shadow on a number of industries, says Toronto human rights and employment lawyer Bay Ryley.
Lawmakers across North America are making workplace training mandatory in a growing number of jurisdictions, including Ontario, New York, Maine and California, says Ryley, founder and president of Ryley Learning.
“This type of training has always been a best practice for eliminating corporate liability and making sexual harassment less likely to occur, but Ontario is the first province in Canada to make it mandatory,” Ryley tells AdvocateDaily.com.
The new law spurred the launch of Ryley Learning, an online training tool that offers digital workplace education solutions to employers, including an animated video series on the issue of sexual harassment.
The launch coincided with the passage of Bill 132, which amended Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act to mandate that employers have a workplace sexual harassment policy and training for all workers, Ryley says.
As originally published on Advocate PR Ltd.
