Policy - Workplace Violence and Harassment

Format. Adopt as a policy approved by the fire chief (or council where the municipality’s rules require), or as a directive under the municipality’s corporate respectful workplace policy with this text as the fire service’s operational supplement. Keep the clause numbering; the program, the procedure and the audit checklist refer to it.

Drafting conventions. Shall is mandatory. Should is expected unless a documented reason exists. May is permitted. Placeholders in double curly braces, such as {{Department}}, are completed by the department. Drafting notes appear in callouts and are removed before adoption.

Keep intact: the violence architecture in clauses 5.1 to 5.6 (assessment, plan, statement, information, reporting, debrief); the ten harassment elements in clause 5.7; the reporting route outside the chain of command (5.7.5); the no-reprisal clause (5.7.9); the separation of conduct investigation from learning (5.8). Adapt: reporting channels, the police and dispatch arrangements, the training providers, the review intervals where the law of your province or territory sets different ones (J26 Workplace Violence; J27 Workplace Harassment), and the roles.

1.1 This policy states {{Department}}’s commitment to protect every member from violence at calls, in stations and in vehicles, and from harassment and bullying inside the department, and names who is accountable for that protection.

1.2 It adopts the full architecture of a workplace violence regulation as department policy, whether or not the applicable regulation applies to fire services (J26 Workplace Violence), because the employer’s general duty to take every reasonable precaution covers violence in any case (J02 Duties of Employers, Supervisors, Workers and Contractors), and it adopts the elements a workplace harassment policy must contain wherever the law prescribes them (J27 Workplace Harassment).

2.1 This policy applies to every member, career, volunteer and paid-on-call, every civilian employee, every student and every contractor while in a department workplace, and to every officer as a supervisor.

2.2 A workplace includes every station, office, training ground, shop and vehicle, every emergency scene, every private home or public place a member enters on duty, and any place where a member is because of their work, including online spaces used for department business.

2.3 Violence and harassment by members of the public, by patients, by other agencies’ personnel and by members of this department are all within scope.

2.4 Nothing in this policy limits a member’s right to refuse unsafe work (Policy - Right to Refuse and Work Stoppage), to grieve, to make a human rights complaint, or to report an offence to police.

Debrief: a short structured conversation led by the officer with the crew after an incident of violence, held to check on people and capture what happened; not a clinical intervention and not psychological debriefing.

Harassment: objectionable or offensive conduct, comment or display, in person or online, that the person knows or ought to know is unwelcome, including bullying, hazing and sexual harassment; a single significant incident can be harassment; where the applicable law defines harassment more widely, its definition governs (J27 Workplace Harassment). Reasonable supervision, assignment and performance management, carried out respectfully, is not harassment.

Learning information: anything said or written in a learning team, an after-action review, a debrief or a near-miss report under Incident Investigation and Learning Program.

Reprisal: any adverse action, threat or exclusion directed at a member because they reported, witnessed, supported or took part in a process under this policy.

Worker and member: every person who performs work for the department, paid or unpaid, including volunteers and students.

Workplace: as described in clause 2.2.

Workplace violence: the threatened, attempted or actual use of physical force by any person against a member that causes or could cause injury, including a threat, statement or behaviour that gives a member reasonable cause to believe they are at risk; where the applicable law defines workplace violence more widely, its definition governs (J26 Workplace Violence).

1. People are the solution we build around, not the problem to fix. Members read rooms, calm people and protect each other every day; the department’s job is to give them information, time, a way out and backing.

2. Procedures describe work as done, written with the people who do it. The staging, approach and reporting procedures are written with crews who have been in the room (Hollnagel, 2014).

3. Learning comes before blame, and learning information is never used for discipline. A crew that entered before police arrived is asked what made sense, and the conditions are fixed (Dekker, 2016).

4. Psychological safety is a condition of safety, so speaking up is expected and protected. A member who says “stage”, “exit word” or “this is harassment” is thanked, not questioned (Edmondson, 1999)DOI.

5. Violence against a member is never part of the job. A threat is reported as seriously as an assault, because it is the information the next crew needs.

6. Harassment is a safety hazard, not a personnel matter alone. It causes psychological injury and it drives good people out; the department measures it and acts on it as it does any other hazard (CSA Z1003-13).

7. Conduct and learning are handled by different people in different processes, and neither replaces the other.

5.1.1 The department shall complete a written assessment of the risk of violence to members that considers past incidents at this department and at similar workplaces, the circumstances and interactions of the work, and the layout and security of each workplace, together with anything more the applicable regulation requires (J26 Workplace Violence).

5.1.2 The {{JOHSC}} shall be consulted during the assessment and shall receive a copy.

5.1.3 The assessment shall be reviewed when violence of a new kind occurs at this or a similar workplace, when the work or a workplace changes significantly, on a regulator’s order (J01 OHS Legislation, Regulator and Enforcement), and at least every five years, or more often where the applicable regulation requires (J26 Workplace Violence).

5.1.4 Temporary workplaces of the same kind, such as private homes on medical calls, may be assessed collectively where the applicable regulation allows it (J26 Workplace Violence).

5.2.1 Where the assessment finds a significant risk, the department shall maintain a written prevention plan containing a prevention statement, the control measures and code of practice, and the procedures for training, reporting and responding to incidents, consulted on with the {{JOHSC}} (J05 Joint Committee and Health and Safety Representative) and reviewed at least every five years, or more often where the applicable regulation requires (J26 Workplace Violence). The plan is Workplace Violence and Harassment Program.

5.2.2 The prevention statement shall be signed by the Fire Chief and posted in every station and workplace.

5.3.1 Members shall be given the information the department holds about the risk of violence at a call before they arrive, including the history of violent individuals and addresses where the law permits (J26 Workplace Violence; J10 Privacy and Health Information), through a written caution flag arrangement with the dispatch provider, {{Police Service}} and {{EHS Provider}}.

5.3.2 Crews shall stage out of sight of any call flagged for violence, weapons, assault, domestic dispute, psychiatric crisis with a threat, or overdose with agitation, and shall not approach until police declare the scene safe or the officer records a specific reason to proceed (SWP - Violent Scene Staging).

5.3.3 A member’s or officer’s decision to stage, retreat or decline to enter an unsafe scene shall be supported without question and shall never be the subject of reprisal.

5.3.4 Every member shall carry a radio with a duress function where the fleet permits, shall know the exit word, and shall leave on it without discussion.

5.3.5 The department’s role in an active threat or hostile event shall be decided in writing with {{Police Service}} and {{EHS Provider}}; absent that decision and the controls the program requires, the role is cold zone only (NFPA 3000, 2024).

5.4.1 Every station shall control public access to living and sleeping areas, maintain exterior lighting, and provide a means to summon help from the public counter.

5.4.2 Members working alone shall follow a lone-worker check-in procedure. Volunteers arriving alone at a flagged call shall stage until the apparatus arrives.

5.5.1 Every member shall report every incident of violence, including verbal, written and online threats, before the end of the shift or within 24 hours, on Form - Violence Incident Report.

5.5.2 The department shall document every report, investigate it promptly, and give the reporting member written notice of the preventive action taken, meeting any further reporting and investigation duty the applicable regulation sets (J26 Workplace Violence).

5.5.3 Assaults shall be reported to {{Police Service}}. Injuries shall be reported to the workers’ compensation board within the statutory time (J08 Incident Reporting and Investigation), and the department shall assist with every claim, including a claim under any presumptive provision for post-traumatic stress disorder (J32 Workers' Compensation and Firefighter Presumptions).

5.6.1 After any incident of violence, the officer shall hold a debrief with the crew within the shift, shall advise the affected member to consult a health professional, and shall offer peer support and the employee and family assistance program.

5.6.2 Modified duties shall be available for physical and psychological injury alike (J33 Return to Work, Accommodation and Hours of Work).

5.7.1 Every member has the right to a workplace free of harassment, including bullying and hazing, and a single significant incident can be harassment.

5.7.2 The department commits to preventing harassment and to responding to every report.

5.7.3 Every member shall refrain from harassment and shall support a respectful workplace; every officer shall intervene early when behaviour crosses the line.

5.7.4 Members are encouraged to report harassment, and the department shall treat a report as information to act on, never as a problem the reporter has caused.

5.7.5 A member may report to their officer, to {{Division Chief, Safety}}, to {{Human Resources}}, to the {{JOHSC}}, to {{Union}} or {{Volunteer Association}}, or to {{External reporting channel}}; where the officer or the employer is the subject of the complaint, the member shall use a channel outside the chain of command.

5.7.6 Every complaint shall be acknowledged within five working days, assessed for interim measures within the same period, and investigated by a trained person with no stake in the outcome, with a written outcome to the parties within a target of 60 days.

5.7.7 The parties shall be informed of the outcome and of any corrective action that affects them.

5.7.8 Information shall be kept confidential except where disclosure is necessary to investigate, to take corrective action, or to comply with the law.

5.7.9 No member shall be subject to reprisal for reporting, witnessing or taking part in a process under this policy. Reprisal is itself a breach of this policy.

5.7.10 Corrective action shall follow a substantiated complaint, addressing both the individual conduct and the conditions that allowed it.

5.7.11 Nothing in this policy removes any other right, including a human rights complaint, a grievance, a report to police or a civil action.

5.7.12 Every member shall be trained on this policy at hire and on each change, and the policy shall be reviewed at least every three years and after any serious case, or more often where the applicable law requires (J27 Workplace Harassment).

5.8.1 Conduct investigations under 5.7 shall be run by {{Human Resources}} or an external investigator. Learning reviews of the conditions surrounding an incident shall be run under Incident Investigation and Learning Program. The two processes shall not share interviewers, notes or files, and learning information shall never be used in a conduct process.

5.9.1 The department shall not deploy body-worn cameras without a privacy impact assessment (J10 Privacy and Health Information), a written retention and access policy, consultation with the {{JOHSC}} and the bargaining agents, and a recorded decision; cameras shall not be counted as a violence prevention control without evidence.

Only the differences from 01 Roles and Responsibilities are listed.

6.1 Fire Chief: signs the prevention statement; owns the harassment policy; decides the active threat role and the body-worn camera question; receives the quarterly aggregate report.

6.2 Deputy Chief, Operations: accountable for the risk assessment, the dispatch flag arrangement and scene safety through the Medical First Response program manager.

6.3 {{Division Chief, Safety}}: accountable for station security, lone-worker rules, the violence report register and the reply to every reporter.

6.4 {{Human Resources}}: receives harassment complaints, runs or commissions investigations, applies the clocks in 5.7.6, keeps confidential files outside the operational records system.

6.5 Company officers: make the staging decision; call the exit word; hold the debrief; complete the supervisor section; intervene early in station behaviour; receive a complaint without defensiveness and pass it to the right channel.

6.6 Members: stage, report every incident including threats, use the duress function, leave on the exit word, treat each other with respect.

6.7 {{JOHSC}}: consulted on the assessment and the plan; holds a copy; reviews anonymized data quarterly; a member of the committee may be a reporting channel.

6.8 Dispatch provider: maintains and reads caution flags; uses the staging phrases.

• Workplace Violence and Harassment Program
• SWP - Violent Scene Staging
• Form - Violence Incident Report
• Checklist - Workplace Violence and Harassment
• Policy - Psychological Health and Safety and Psychological Health and Safety and Peer Support Program (support, psychosocial hazard assessment)
• Policy - Incident, Injury, Exposure and Near-Miss Reporting and Investigation and Incident Investigation and Learning Program (learning tiers)

8.1 The department keeps the risk assessment, prevention plan and statement, training records, violence incident reports and the register, the dispatch flag register, debrief and referral records in aggregate, and the {{JOHSC}} consultation record, in {{Records system}}.

8.2 Harassment complaint files are held by {{Human Resources}} outside the operational records system and outside personnel files unless a corrective action is imposed.

8.3 Every record is written expecting disclosure under access-to-information law (J10 Privacy and Health Information); people are identified by role, not name, wherever the record allows. Patient information follows Policy - Records, Privacy and Health Information.

8.4 Peer support and clinical records are never held by the department.

9.1 To the Fire Chief: every assault with injury within 24 hours; a quarterly aggregate of violence reports by type and of harassment complaints by status; the annual program appraisal.

9.2 To the {{JOHSC}}: anonymized violence and harassment data quarterly; every risk assessment and plan revision; the Corrective Action Register items for this program monthly.

9.3 To council or the board: the annual health and safety report includes violence and harassment counts, trends and actions.

The applicable occupational health and safety statute and regulations, which differ by province and territory: the employer’s general duty (J02 Duties of Employers, Supervisors, Workers and Contractors); the workplace violence regulation, whether it applies to fire services and what it requires, adopted as policy in any case (J26 Workplace Violence); the harassment policy requirements (J27 Workplace Harassment); any statutory provision on psychological health (J28 Psychological Health and Safety); the committee’s consultation role (J05 Joint Committee and Health and Safety Representative); and the regulator’s orders (J01 OHS Legislation, Regulator and Enforcement). Workers’ compensation, human rights and privacy law also apply: injury reporting and any post-traumatic stress disorder presumption (J08 Incident Reporting and Investigation; J32 Workers' Compensation and Firefighter Presumptions); human rights protection and the duty to accommodate (J33 Return to Work, Accommodation and Hours of Work); and municipal privacy and health information law (J10 Privacy and Health Information). The Jurisdiction requirements table at the end of this policy lists what to confirm for your province or territory. Standards and federal law: the national psychological health and safety standard (CSA Z1003-13); the responder health and safety standard’s risk management and behavioural health provisions (NFPA 1550, 2024); the active shooter and hostile event standard where that role is adopted (NFPA 3000, 2024); the Criminal Code for assault (Criminal Code [CA], 1985, ss. 265 to 270), and any amendment on assaults against first responders, such as Bill C-321. For an accredited department, this policy answers the self-assessment criteria on hazard reporting policies, documented risk reduction, safety training from hire onward, investigation, risk management during emergency operations and the member assistance program (CPSE, 2019, criteria 11A.2, 11A.3, CC 11A.5, 11A.7, 11A.8, 11B.4).

12.1 Reviewed 12 months after adoption, then at least every three years, which meets a three-year harassment policy review interval wherever the law sets one (J27 Workplace Harassment); the violence risk assessment and prevention plan on their five-year cycle, or sooner where the applicable regulation requires (J26 Workplace Violence).

12.2 Reviewed after any serious event, any legislative change, or on request of the {{JOHSC}}.

Consult early and in writing. What they will ask, and honest answers:

Put the agreement in a letter of understanding. Where you disagree, record it, adopt what you can, and review at 12 months.

Closing disclaimer. This model policy is general information, not legal advice. Adapt it locally, confirm every citation with counsel, and let the statute, the regulation and the collective agreement govern where they differ.

This chapter relies on the following legal requirements, which differ by province and territory. Check your jurisdiction’s section on each topic page before adopting it.