April 10th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
During the two day Council meeting Chris Kroes, Manager, Health, Safety & Wellness reported on Employee Health, Safety and Wellness. Not much in the way of good news in the document.
Disturbing was the number of public to staff harassment complaints.
There were 58 such reports in 2023 – that’s more than 1 a week. Of the 58 – 17 required a staff member being away from work. The 17 lost time incidents in 2023; was up from 10 in 2022
The city is a self-insured employer. What this means is the city does not pay insurance premiums but rather pays for all injury and illness costs plus a WSIB administration fee to administer the claims.
Based on some feedback from senior leaders the City introduced a mechanism for senior leaders to be notified if a WSIB incident occurs in their service area. This allows them to be aware of it and to inquire with their groups. We’ve enhanced our corrective action process for better tracking, trending and ultimately to ensure completion of those corrective actions to ensure that we prevent re-occurrence.
Chris Kroes was reporting on the 2023 Human Resources report said:
“It is important for City Council to have an awareness of Employee Health, Safety and Wellness matters.
“In recent years, we’ve been tracking incidents of harassment and violence more closely. We have successfully increased reporting and follow up on these incidents; this supports compliance with the Occupational Safety Act.
“In 2023, there were 58 incidents reported: a note – this is public to staff interactions and does not include staff to staff cases, that’s handled separately and not tracked here.”
City Manager Tim Commisso later added that 17 of the 58 became lost time incidents.
A general review of the data suggests that around 79% are categorized as harassment in nature, and the majority are verbal interactions. 24% of incidents involve some form of violence.
Kroes continues: “The work done by the legal and clerk’s departments on new public conduct policy has also provided for consistency in dealing with misconduct. It should be noted that management of corporate security has been identified as a resource gap city wide and we are looking to make improvements in this area to ensure risks are adequately mitigated to keep staff and the public safe and secure.
Chair Nisan: Thank you, Chris for your diligent work keeping us safe. Mayor Mead Ward has a question.
Mayor Meed Ward: ”I’m very concerned and startled by that number of 58. I want to clarify that number and follow up
Chris: “Yes, these are members of public to the staff. That’s the interaction types. We do have a relatively low threshold of reporting, which is which is by it that’s done intentionally and it’s based on our customer service guidelines. Those incidents are members of the public to city staff and there was 58 of those reported.”
Mayor: Can you give us an indication are these and some with violence, which is really terrifying and my heart goes out to anyone who’s experienced that it’s completely unacceptable. So are some of these online harassment or would all of this be? I mean is some of it email? Is it verbal? Or a mix?
Chris: It includes any type of interaction that sort of falls within the customer service guidelines would generally say level two or level two or level three of the customer service guidelines.
So those interactions could be in person they could be over the phone that could be via email, just incidents that are conduct that’s harassing in nature. And again, it’s a relatively low reporting threshold and not all of them may actually meet that strict definition in the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
But they are reporting and we are ensuring that there’s adequate follow up and that our eyes are on it from health, safety and wellness as well, to make sure those employees are supported through that interaction.
I will point out that we also focus on how the employee feels after that interaction. So it you know, someone may not have intended something but as we know that that’s not always how it’s received by staff. So again, it’s our primary focus is to look at how they’re feeling and ensuring they’re supported after those incidents.
City Manager Tim Commisso: This is the fourth year we’ve reported out on our safety. I’m really trying to come to grips with this. I do want to thank Council though, over the last five years for adding more human resources particularly around safety and wellness.
Relative to the number of interactions we have given the work we do every day this is still relatively low, but we will strive to keep that lower. This year, we didn’t do an update on staff turnover. We still have a relatively low turnover level across the organization. And in our management team, our objective is 5% and I’m just waiting to hear back on those numbers.
Mayor: With respect to our front line staff customer facing who may be facing some of us harassment that showed up on the last slide. Do you think there may be more measures that we could take to mitigate reduce that are there some practical steps that you would be able to look into to bring back to us that we might be able to endorse to ensure that we provide excellent customer service, but that we protect our staff at the same time?
Chris: I think there’s I think it’s a multifaceted approach and it’s based on an assessment of each individual work area, customer facing work area to make sure that they have the training they need in terms of being able to de-escalate and, and sort of, you know, mitigate those interactions from going you know, to a point where it poses a hazard.
Also looking at the customer service counters and making sure that they’re adequately secured and there’s places that people can go to sort of as a as a shelter area so they can get away as needed, obviously there’s emergency protocols like lockdown, hold insecure procedures that we’re looking at improving and enhancing. Ultimately security as a whole and workplace violence risk assessments as a whole.
There’s a lot of work we still need to do and ultimately, there may be some things that we need down the road that we identify and those assessments. I don’t want to I don’t want to list those out now before we before we get to doing a comprehensive assessment but definitely need to take a closer look and making sure that we’re assessing and controlling these workplace violence risks.
Mayor: Do you have any, do you have an idea how often a like a front line staff would be getting on the on the receipt of bad language for example, or you know, excessive negativity? Do you ever do a line on that? Because of these are not all not all those will be reported obviously.
Chris: This is why we we’ve introduced a very low threshold for reporting. So when interactions are happening that are inappropriate and aggressive and you know, swearing and yelling and that sort of thing.
Chris: We’re definitely encouraging those to be reported and it’s very clear that those need to be reported in our policies and procedures. I would say that, that the lion’s share or the or the majority of the 58, there would be those types of interactions. That would be the majority of it. So it’s verbal interactions that are yelling, swearing, unfortunately, sometimes somewhat threatening. That’s, I would say the majority of the 58 would be would be the yelling and the swearing and that sort of thing.
Mayor: I’m curious around what are processes for reporting. So what you know, somebody feels they’ve been harassed in any way. Whether it meets the OSA definition or not, is there a portal do they come talk to you do they talk to their supervisor what’s what do we tell folks to do or invite them to do if they experience this?
Chris: There is a reporting protocol. It’s handled the same way as any workplace incident, whether it’s a hazard or an injury, incident with injury; our direction has been to report it the same way
It goes to the supervisor first. Again, the supervisor looks at the customer service guidelines and sees you know if the interaction is within those different categories, and then ultimately, there’s an online portal that we have for all incident reports and that the supervisor will log into that portal. They will submit information and particulars about the incident they’ll do a preliminary investigation so that they can report it. That report once they hit submit the entire health safety and wellness team is alerted that something has occurred. And then we have safety advisors that will follow up with the supervisor and dig into it more. Depending on the severity and ensuring controls are placed in place to prevent it. If it if it does, if the activity or the conduct does potentially fall into misconduct as defined under the Public conduct policy, then it’s up to the supervisor and again they consult with us as well to refer for review under the misconduct as misconduct under the Public conduct policy. So that’s sort of the after the initial reporting is done and review is done.
Then there’s a there’s a decision on whether it needs to be reviewed as misconduct under the Public conduct policy and that’s a separate process, as you know, where that gets reviewed by either a director or a committee depending on the department and then steps are taken as a result of that review if needed.
Mayor: Okay, so I’m just thinking about how we because you talked about under reporting, and that notwithstanding some of these might not reach the threshold of what the statute says is harassment.
Nevertheless, they create a very toxic, fearful, degraded environment for people to work in.
You’re asking people to report right so how do we encourage people if you know they’ve got something that is just making them feel threatened, making them feel degraded as an individual? You know, we’ve all seen the we’ve all gotten emails like that personally, our staff certainly have – they take it on the chin more than anyone in terms of very derogatory personal comments, etc. and so forth. So maybe not an WSIB payable offence, but certainly not a nice way to start your day. So how can we support people to still come forward with those things?
Chris: That’s why we’ve ensured that it’s a low threshold – so essentially, you know, if you feel uncomfortable if someone was aggressive if someone was yelling someone who was swearing let your supervisor know that’s the first step.
That would would trigger the next steps. We regularly talk about this in safety talks. To say okay, here’s our respect in the workplace policy. Here’s our customer service guidelines. Here’s our incident reporting guidelines. We and supervisors are essentially reminding staff fairly regularly, you know, that if these interactions happen, you need to let me know as a supervisor, and then so I can make sure that’s looked after
So, Mayor, in terms of seeing the numbers increase over the years. I do you believe we’re being effective in encouraging that that reporting and ensuring psychological safety on the part of the staff member to feel comfortable escalating that to a supervisor. I think I think we’re definitely making some progress there. And I’m optimistic that we’re definitely heading in the right direction there.
Chair Nisan: Mayor, would you like to move the report? Do you have any comments?
Mayor: I do. Thank you, Chris for all of your work on this. It ultimately does land on our table as the council as the directors of the corporation. That’s a very significant duty and responsibility on our shoulders to ensure a respectful safe harassment free workplace wherever that harassment is coming from.
And I you know, wheels are turning in my mind around how I can support my own team, because we get this a lot. I say to folks, we’re public servants. We’re not public Punching. Bags. We’re not here for others sport and amusement. We’re here to do a job and serve and that needs to be done in a respectful environment. We all deserve that. The good news is I read this report and the previous one together. We don’t have any trouble attracting people to come and work for us. So it’s great to see the positions that we funded in the last budget, getting filled and people really wanting to join our team and when they put their trust and faith in us and they come to work for us, and as Tim said, we have a fairly low turnover rate, but we’ll get those numbers. People want to be here and we want to make sure that it’s safe and enjoyable for them to be here and to stay and that they know that we’ve got their back.
Chair Nisan: Thank you, Mayor. I don’t see any other comments I’ll just add my own. I am concerned that it is far more common than the reporting so that the numbers in the report indicating an increase doesn’t necessarily reflect what’s going on on the ground. So maybe you and I can take it offline with the responsible Executive Director as well and talk further about that. I witnessed harassment City Hall, myself late last week.
And it appears to me to be a very common occurrence. So that’s my concern – that there may be an ongoing and an increase in the culture of harassment of a small minority of residents who are not being respectful of people who are here to serve them. I look forward to talking more about the issue and how we can root it out.
With that. I don’t see any other comments. I will call the vote all those in favour. Any opposed?
That item is carried.
There’s no doubt that issues of harassment are significantly increasing. The evolution of social media has created a “Wild, Wild West” where anything goes. Behaviour that once would have been the exception has now become the norm. Ask anyone who works in a hospital or LTC and they’ll tell you about threatening behaviour and defamatory comments.
However, there are two sides to this issue, and as one who has worked in HR and Health and Safety for most of my career, let me elaborate. Certainly, the public needs to be conditioned around proper forms of conduct and etiquette when interacting with public servants. Shouting, abusive language, discriminatory comments, etc., should not be condoned. However, public servants also need to be trained on proper and effective ways of interacting with members of the public.
I am continually amazed at the differences in conduct, responsiveness and professionalism between Region of Halton and City of Burlington staff. The former are knowledgeable, helpful and respond quickly to concerns that are raised. The latter, sadly, are not. Answers to questions are garbled and wrapped in bureaucratic bafflegab. It takes ages to get a response to a simple issue or problem. Often, the messaging is confused and unclear. Proactive behaviour is non-existent.
I attribute the differences to three things: 1) training and support; 2) the workplace corporate culture; and 3) leadership that “walks the talk”, and sets a standard that others exemplify.
Respect cuts two ways. You can’t expect it if you don’t provide it. Given the unrelenting chaos at City Hall, including employee turnover and uncertainty, I’m surprised there are only 17 cases.
How about the lack of customer service at the city? I called to advise the death of a property taxpayer and was totally disrespected, not to mention the fact that the representative was so unhelpful and couldn’t provide the steps required to arrange for payments to keep the account up to date.
Lets also ask staff and crews that work out in the field, on the roads or parks. I’ll bet many of those incidents go un-reported. The public has that “I pay your salary” attitude and feel they can do and say anything they like. Meanwhile staff have to smile and nod.
No one as yet has mentioned that staff have harassed volunteers. This has happened in the past. It was the way the city tried to “keep a volunteer in line” when they dared to question a city policy.
I do not condone any type of harassment, however, I think the City needs to look at their record when dealing with some residents and volunteers.
One current glaring example is how some who delegate at Council are treated, and the banning of some from City Hall
The “pot calling the kettle black” comes to mind.
This is a problem around the globe in all facets. It seems to have really started with Trump and escalated during Covid. Signs about staff not taking abuse are now in stores, doctors’ offices, even at the hospital where I take my dog. It is worth asking why people are so close to going over the edge. What can be done to diffuse peoples’ anger and upset? Many people are breaking down – why and what can we do to help turn that around?
Also, I’d like to see a report on harassment claims by staff or council members filed against other staff or members of council. Oh but, “that’s handled separately and not tracked here.” Well let’s hear about that too. And I’d remind the mayor that her oft-repeated “punching bag” line is getting tiresome – and that respect is a two-way street.
I don’t think any staff should be subject to abuse BUT in several circumstances, criticism of business/government practices is now defined “as abuse”. I’m also not impressed with the willingness to go to ad hominem insults to respond to people who do not hold the same views as others; unfortunately, our Prime Minister is an example of someone who sets the tone by immediately going on the attack when someone (in fact, numerous people) disagree with his views or policies.
Agree Philip.
Unfortunately, it’s a sign of the anger and rudeness we are heaping on each other. Sometimes, it takes very little to push one over the edge. Sometimes, a luttle understanding and empathy by the clerk helps. That does not condone bad behavior, but it may help to remember there are often extenuating circumstances.