#ARMeToo Continues
Photo by Yan Krukov from Pexels
The prevalence of workplace sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other forms of harassment and discrimination continue unabated. #ARMeToo, while starting out as a hashtag in connection with the conduct of certain male leaders in the Animal Advocacy Movement, continues.
As the conduct continues, employers who truly care about their employees must be doing everything in their power to ensure that it doesn’t happen, and if it does, to ensure that how an allegation is treated within the workplace does not create even more harm.
In this blog, I’m going to share two recent and critical legislative changes in connection with harassment and discrimination, one in the United States and one in Canada, and then I’m going to provide several actionable tips that all employers in our Movement who are truly committed to providing healthy and safe workplaces must undertake.
California – USA
On October 7, 2021, the State of California enacted (effective January 1, 2022) a ground-breaking law to ban nondisclosure agreements in situations involving sexual harassment and discrimination.
Democratic State Senator, California, Connie Leyva
State Senator Connie Leyva, a Democrat from Chino who authored the law, dubbed it the “Silenced No More Act.”
“California workers should absolutely be able to speak out — if they so wish — when they are a victim of any type of harassment or discrimination in the workplace,” Leyva said in a statement.
She went on to say that “It is unconscionable that an employer would ever want or seek to silence the voices of survivors that have been subjected to racist, sexist, homophobic, or other attacks at work."
Victims must not be silenced. Ever. In our Movement we talk about ensuring that the voices of animal victims are not silenced, and we must be consistent in our protection of the voices of victims of harassment and discrimination.
While we may not be able to change the nondisclosure laws across Canada and the United States – each and every organization in our Movement can choose to adopt a written policy where they ban nondisclosure agreements in situations involving sexual harassment and discrimination, thereby committing to never silencing victims, even when a severance agreement is offered.
This can be done by adding statements to existing anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies, and also ensuring that existing templates that are used for employment contracts are also amended.
London, Ontario – Canada
Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
The city of London, Ontario is home to one of the more prestigious universities in the country, Western University (“Western”), which also happens to be my alma mater.
While Western has long been known as a party school, shockingly, a 2018 survey of students at Western found that 71.6% of students had experienced sexual assault - the highest rate in the country. Despite these findings, nothing was done.
Fast forward to September 2021, and during frosh week, several sexual assault allegations surfaced via social media.
The police in London reached out to students and conducted an investigation.
Of particular note is that no formal complaints were made when the investigation began. The investigation was undertaken as a response to social media postings. An additional important note is that the police took into consideration the fact that Western did have a particular reputation which was permissive of certain forms of inappropriate conduct.
Student protest, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nicole Osborne
Students staged walk-outs to protest the sexual assault on their campus, prompting not only the university to finally respond, but it also lead to an amendment of the Colleges and Universities Act which will come into force on March 1, 2022.
The amendment includes two major changes. The first provides that any student coming forth in good faith reporting an incident of sexual violence will not be subject to discipline or sanctions for violations of the college’s or university’s policies related to drug or alcohol use at the time the alleged sexual violence occurred. The second provides that during an investigation of alleged sexual violence, the victim will not be asked irrelevant questions relating to the victim’s sexual expression or past sexual history.
Western also, of their own choice, implemented a multi-faceted proactive program to promote safety and well-being at their campus which includes in-person training for 5,300 students living on campus, hiring of up to 100 students as safety ambassadors, and hiring 4 special constables to be on campus patrolling until 3:00 am each day.
As I noted above in the California matter, while we may not be able to change the laws across Canada and the United States, each and every organization in our Movement can voluntarily choose to adopt a written policy where they do not discipline or sanction employees who come forward in good faith for possible violations of company policies. Organizations can also ensure that any investigations that are carried out are done by genuinely competent investigators who are neutral, fair, objective, experienced, and who are capable of conducting trauma-informed investigations. Investigations into workplace harassment and discrimination allegations have the potential to re-traumatize victims. Poorly done investigations can also cause significant additional harm to the health and well-being of the organization’s culture, but, when investigations are done well, they also have the potential of building organizational trust and demonstrating care for employees.
Actionable Tips for Employers
If you don’t already have a written Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment policy and program – implement one ASAP, and if you do a policy – update it to reflect the changes noted above.
In particular:
Conduct a culture of self-assessment. What kind of workplace do you have, and does the culture need to be changed in any way?
Ask what proactive steps are you taking to promote a healthy and safe workplace. If there are no proactive measures in place, seek to implement some.
Ensure that your policy commits to investigating potential inappropriate workplace conduct even in the absence of a formal complaint.
Ensure that your policy and practice forbids asking victims about their sexual expression or their past sexual history.
Ensure that your policy does not penalize victims for other possible workplace policy infractions when coming forth with a good faith allegation.
Ensure that employees who are victims of harassment or discrimination are not required to sign nondisclosure agreements, nor are silenced in any other way.
Ensure that your organization proactively provides information about local resources and support services regarding sexual violence and other forms of violence.
This blog is provided for general information purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal advice or opinions of any kind. No one should act, or refrain from acting, based solely upon the materials provided on this website, any hypertext links or other general information without first seeking appropriate legal or other professional advice.
The intention of this blog is to promote the longevity and engagement level of the activist community within the Animal Advocacy Movement (AAM). The majority of the advice will be geared towards employees within the AAM in Canada and the United States, but may be applicable to other countries.
Krista is the Executive Director of For The Greater Good where she consults with animal protection organizations across North America on matters of organizational development and governance. In addition to holding five degrees and designations in human resources, including a master’s degree in organizational development and leadership, she is pursuing her doctorate focused on the employment experiences of animal rights activists in Canada and the United States. Krista first joined the Animal Advocacy Movement as the VP of Mercy For Animals in Canada where she led twelve undercover investigations into factory farms and slaughterhouses. Krista also served as the President of the Board for Happily Ever Esther Farm Sanctuary for over five years, also now serves on several other Boards including One Protest, The Rancher Advocacy Program, Egg-Truth, and Dairy-Truth. Krista is also a member of Womxn Funders in Animal Rights. Krista is a peer reviewer for the Journal of Critical Animal Studies. Prior to joining the Movement, Krista founded a boutique employment and labour law firm in Toronto where she consulted to employers across Canada and the U.S. for a decade, and before that she spent fifteen years in human resources including as the Vice President of HR for one of the largest software companies in the world.