Nearly 97,000 Quebec workers are victims of workplace harassment each year, according to estimates released Thursday by the Order of Certified Human Resources Advisors.
About 484,000 workers in Quebec report experiencing workplace harassment in the past year, out of nearly 4.4 million workers in the province, according to the regulation.
According to a survey conducted January 11-23 of more than 600 licensed human resources consultants, 63% of them had at least one report or complaint of harassment (substantiated or unfounded) within their organization.
About 20% of workplace harassment complaints are legally based, it said.
- Listen to the interview with Cindy Viau, Director General of the Quebec Provincial Assistance and Information Group on Workplace Harassment QUB :
Nearly 11% of Quebec workers also said they may have been the victim of workplace harassment in the past 12 months. This was the result of another survey of 1,000 employees from December 20th to 24th.
“It is no longer possible to bury your head in the sand. The data shows that, despite the prevention carried out in organizations, bullying is on such a scale that we must actually speak of a public health problem,” emphasized Manon Poirier, Director General of the Order of the CRHA.
“As a society, we must take note of this and give ourselves the tools to act more forcefully,” she added.