Item - 2015.EX7.11

The Executive Committee recommends that:

1.  City Council adopt the amended Hate Activity Policy in Appendix 6 to the report (June 11, 2015) from the Acting City Manager.

This report reviews harassment and discrimination enquiries and complaints raised by City of Toronto employees and service recipients to the following complaint avenues: 1) the City's Human Rights Office (HRO); 2) the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO); and 3) through the City's grievance/arbitration process (Table 1).  The report discusses complaint trends, 2014 accomplishments and 2015 key objectives to advance equity and minimize legislative breaches, penalties and risks to the City.

Table 1 – Harassment/Discrimination Consultations/Complaints/Grievances in 2012 - 2014

Once again, the City incurred no penalties in 2014 from authorities charged with hearing harassment and discrimination complaints, i.e., the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, Grievance Arbitration, the Ministry of Labour or the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

Regarding complaint trends (based on the prohibited grounds most often cited to the complaint avenues noted above), the Human Rights Office successfully addressed 1017 harassment/discrimination enquiries/complaints in 2014 and, similar to previous years, Workplace Harassment, Disability, Race and Sex were the grounds of complaint most often cited (Table 3, appendix 1). City employees filed 74 harassment/discrimination grievances in 2014, a 25 percent decrease from the 101 grievances filed in 2013.  The most often cited grounds grieved, were Workplace Harassment and Disability (Table 5, appendix 3). Complaint trends in the 34 applications filed by service recipients and employees to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario were also similar to previous years: Disability, Race and Sex related grounds were cited most often (Table 7, appendix #4). 

The City's Hate Activity Policy was amended to reflect legislated changes in the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) that took full effect in the summer of 2014, see page 7 for details and appendix 6 for the revised Hate Activity Policy.

Key 2014 activities to advance equity included implementing a robust, new Accommodation approach, disseminating information to support respectful workplace conduct and creating a resource to raise awareness about workplace sexual harassment. In addition to complaints management, in 2015 the Human Rights Office will focus on preparing the Toronto Public Service for the proposed amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, announced by the provincial government in March 2015, related to workplace and sexual harassment. The second major initiative that the Human Rights Office will undertake in 2015 is to implement a poster campaign on workplace sexual harassment complimenting the resource noted above.

The Human Rights Office's neutral, alternative dispute resolution approach has proven to be both a viable alternative to more adversarial formal complaint avenues (i.e. grievance arbitration and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario) and an effective mechanism to advance equity.  The Human Rights Office will continue to monitor complaint trends and promote dispute resolution services to all employees and service recipients building upon the City's excellent human rights track record.