On September 1, 2025, changes to Nova Scotia’s Occupational Health and Safety Act came into force. The amended Workplace Health and Safety Regulations require every provincially-regulated employer in Nova Scotia to implement a written Workplace Harassment Prevention Policy, provide every employee with training on the Policy and review and update the Policy as necessary every three years.
The Workplace Health and Safety Regulations has defined “workplace harassment”, as follows:
…a single significant occurrence or a course of repeated occurrences of objectionable or unwelcome conduct, comment or action in the workplace, including bullying, that, whether intended or not, degrades, intimidates or threatens, and includes all of the following, but does not include any action taken by an employer or supervisor relating to the management and direction of an employee or the workplace:
- workplace harassment or bullying that is based on any personal characteristic, including, but not limited to a characteristic referred to in clauses 5(1)(h) to (v) of the Human Rights Act,
- inappropriate sexual conduct, including, but not limited to, sexual solicitation or advances, sexually suggestive remarks or gestures, circulating or sharing inappropriate images or unwanted physical contact.
Contents required in the Workplace Harassment Prevention Policy
To be compliant with the Workplace Health and Safety Regulations, the Workplace Harassment Prevention Policy will need to include: (i) a definition of “workplace harassment” that is consistent with the definition under the Workplace Health and Safety Regulations; and (ii) statements, commitments, and information that satisfies all of the following requirements:
The Workplace Harassment Prevention Policy is required to include the following statements by the employer:
- every employee is entitled to a workplace free of harassment;
- all employees have an obligation not to engage in harassment;
- employees are encouraged to report incidents of harassment;
- the employer will not disclose any information obtained in relation to a complaint of harassment, unless the disclosure is:
- required by law,
- necessary for the purposes of investigating the complaint, or
- necessary for the purposes of taking corrective action with respect to the complaint.
- the employer will not reprimand or seek reprisal against an employee who has made a harassment complaint in good faith; and
- the policy is not intended to discourage, prevent or preclude a complainant from exercising other legal rights under any other law.
The Workplace Harassment Prevention Policy is required to include the following commitments by the employer:
- to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that no employee will be subjected to harassment;
- to investigate all complaints of harassment; and
- to take appropriate corrective action towards anyone under the employer’s direction who subjects an employee to harassment.
Additionally, the Workplace Harassment Prevention Policy is required to include information about:
- how to recognize, prevent and respond to harassment;
- the procedure for reporting incidents of harassment;
- the procedure for making a harassment complaint to a person other than the employer or supervisor, if the employer or supervisor is a subject of the complaint;
- the procedure for investigating a complaint of harassment; and
- the procedure for informing the complainant and the subject of the complaint of the result of the investigation.
If you need any assistance with compliance or developing your Workplace Harassment Prevention Policy, please contact DLA Piper (Canada) LLP’s Labour and Employment Group.