SANDRA M STANWAY
Brooks Bulletin
Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) has accepted the city’s updated violence, harassment, abuse, sexual abuse and bullying policy as they had directed last month.
The city filed the policy immediately following Monday’s council meeting despite a concern by councillor Ray Juska who questioned the reference to the Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act.
He said he doesn’t know what it is although the reference to the Act looks like a fairly important one.
“If this is an issue or concern we can always bring it up in the next change but at this particular point we have to have a policy approved today and literally within a short period of time. We’ll be looking at some other things so if this is a concern we can look at this,” said CAO Chris Parker.
The changes that were made were fairly minor including removing some of the specific OHS sections that are referenced because of the constant update of the OHS Act itself.
The city’s policy states that they will investigate an incident, prepare a report and keep it on file for two years from the day of the incident so it’s available for inspection by an OHS officer.
The city had been directed to review the 2021 policy as a result of complaints that had been made February. The policy also has to be reviewed every three years and when a complaint is filed.
