Ensuring employees feel safe reporting inappropriate behaviour in the workplace
Whistleblowers certainly get the short end of the stick when it comes to workplace protection. Edward Snowden is a sparkling example of that — the ex-National Security Agency contractor has been exiled from his home for a number of years for leaking documents about top secret mass surveillance programs, despite offering "many times" to go to prison in the United States, according to a BBC interview.
While Snowden’s tale is ever evolving with the final verdict yet to come, a little closer to home here in Canada, cases of whistleblowers being unfairly punished by employers or co-workers continue to pepper national and local news outlets.
The government of Prince Edward Island has recently released a new whistleblower policy that promises to strengthen the province’s public service.
In-depth look
In Ontario, the provincial police has announced it will undertake "significant reform" to the organization following a close look at the workplace behaviour of former president Jim Christie, former CAO Karl Walsh, former vice-president Martin Bain, and the effects it has had on the work environment as a whole. The Ontario Provincial Police Association (OPPA) — currently comprised of almost 10,000 police officers and civilians — commissioned an independent investigation from law firm Stikeman Elliott LLP amidst an ongoing investigation by the RCMP against the former leaders, whose bad behaviour was condoned and permitted for far too long.
The report alleges the work environment at the OPPA was repeatedly described as ‘toxic,’ ‘fear-based,’ and marked by ‘intimidation’ and ‘bullying.'
It seems the former officials weren’t shy about making recurring charges for gas, clothing, dry-cleaning, car maintenance, alcohol, restaurant charges (over $1,000), cash advances, hotel bills, trips — to Las Vegas, U.S., Naussau, Bahamas, and Montreal, with travel costs for spouses — among other goodies put on company credit cards, according to Stikeman’s report.
According to another report commissioned by the OPPA from law firm Hansell LLP, First Response Travel Group and PIN Consulting Group Inc. were introduced to the OPPA by former officials who had an undisclosed interest in the organizations with offshore investments alleged to have been initiated by some or all of the individuals in question.
The services also include, but are not limited to, travel and investment needs of the OPPA as a whole and some services were being promoted to OPP members throughout the province, the report said.
In one instance cited in Stikeman’s report, executive officer Marty McNamara even raised questions as to why the OPPA would be making offshore investments that appear to be "money-laundering" during an AGM last year.
In such a volatile work environment, whistleblowers were few and far between. It is no wonder the staff did not feel comfortable reporting concerns — despite blatant abuse of position and power — to any of the directors, the Audit Committee or the Legal Officers, according the Hansell report.
Key takeaways
"Whistleblower policy is only as good as how anonymous it actually is," said employment and labour lawyer Sundeep Gokhale of Sherrard Kuzz LLP in Toronto.
In his experience, a lot of employers use a variety of tools to ensure anonymity, such as a voicemail system, a 1-8-8 number or an email system where an individual may send an email without revealing a name, location or an IP address, "the whole goal is that there is no tracing back to that individual who is ultimately bringing forward the concern."
He explained that, as long as the employee knows and understands that his job is actually going to be protected and he is not going to receive any retaliation as a result, the policy will be effective. However it may take some time — following the implementation of the policy — to ensure this, warned Gokhale.
In terms of current protections in place available to employees, it depends on what the infraction is, but there are a few pieces of legislation that can be called on as a safety measure, said Gokhale.
"If you’re reporting something that could be in relation to an unsafe workplace or an unsafe practice, there is legislation (such as) the Occupational Health and Safety Act, Human Rights Code,(and) Employment Standards Act that talks about retaliation and how it is offside to retaliate against anyone as a result of them bringing forward a complaint."
Ultimately in Canada, employers are creating their own organization-specific policies to ensure there is no retribution against whistleblowers, which is not necessarily a bad thing explained Gokhale.
"It’s a huge growth area and I think employers are starting to realize that in terms of fostering or creating a culture in the workplace, there has to be a system in place," said Gokhale; such as in the case of the OPPA, "fraudulent activity, overuse of credit cards, spending accounts, that sort of thing — that those issues are raised earlier and more frequently so that an investigation can be launched."
An investigation into the dealings of the former officials was launched and Hansell’s 39-page report suggests that the OPPA’s governance practices should be revised to allow information about actions that may not be in the best interests of the OPPA to be escalated to a level in the organization where they can be addressed.
A major issue found in the structure of the organization was the fact that most of its members are police officers. To exemplify the intrinsic problem, the report recounts the perspective of one former Audit Committee member as follows: "…being a paramilitary organization, he felt that he could not question authority unless the reason for doing so was blatantly clear. If the explanation provided was not entirely unreasonable, he did not question it further."
Hence the report recommends that a structural change be enforced within the organization so that accountability is not left with the acting CAO of the OPPA.
Like the police association, various organizations are presented with their own unique set of problems in creating whistleblower policies, which in turn calls for organization-specific policies.
Growing trend
It appears employees would sooner work alone than in a hostile work environment, according to a joint U.S.-Canada study supported by the Faas Foundation.
"As someone who was retaliated against after blowing the whistle on a corrupt executive, I have firsthand knowledge of the devastating effects of an unhealthy workplace," said founder Andrew Faas.
In his TEDx speech made in August, Faas described the hardship he had to go through following the incident. "For over a year I was subjected to vicious attempts to discredit me. My emails and phones were hacked; a private investigator was hired to find dirt on me… I was blacklisted, associates shunned me for fear of being retaliated against and I even received an anonymous death threat." Faas was laid up with a serious case of shingles, symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, and lost 30 pounds in the process.
"In most cases whistleblowers are viewed as traitors and subjected to bullying as punishment for treason," he said.
Change is afoot
In his speech, the Canadian whistleblower also cited the now infamous Jian Ghomeshi case — among other cases — underlining the growing issue of Canadian employees forced to endure a toxic work culture due to a lack of policies around protection for whistleblowers. Incidentally, due to the blowback of that scandal widely reported in the media, CBC has introduced a bullying helpline for its staff to make anonymous complaints of inappropriate behaviour in the workplace.
