It's Your Business - A Domestic/Intimate Partner Violence Workplace Toolkit - Fall 2020

Insight Magazine Article

It’s Your Business – A Domestic/Intimate Partner Violence Workplace Toolkit 

  

When domestic or intimate partner violence (DIPV) enters the workplace, everyone feels the negative consequences. By taking action through policies, practices, public education and good corporate citizenship, your workplace will be modeling values that show concern and respect for the individual. By supporting employees dealing with the impacts of DIPV in the workplace, you will be creating a safe, respectful and healthy environment. Healthy workplaces are known to foster high employee morale and contribute to staff efficiency and productivity. 

  

In 2018, new legislation came into effect under New Brunswick’s Employment Standards Act requiring that employers provide certain leaves for their employees who have been impacted by domestic, intimate partner or sexual violence. In April 2019, the New Brunswick Occupational Health and Safety regulation pertaining to workplace violence and harassment came into effect, which requires that employers in the province of New Brunswick: 

 

  • Continue to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and regulations, including the new sections on domestic/intimate partner violence (DIPV); 

  • Take every reasonable precaution to provide a healthy and safe work environment that is free of violence; 

  • Violence includes the actual or attempted use of physical force or any statement or behaviour that gives an employee reasonable cause to believe that physical force will be used against them. Violence also includes sexual violence, intimate partner violence and domestic violence; 

  • Be aware of the warning signs that an employee is experiencing DIPV; 

  • Provide employees with training on the risks of DIPV in the workplace; 

  • Complete a risk assessment to identify areas of risk in the workplace; 

  • Respond to violent incidents in the workplace; 

  • Document and report incidents of violence as well as any injuries; 

  • Provide employees with procedures for emergencies that could arise from the extension of DIPV into the workplace. 

  

It’s Your Business – A DIPV Workplace Toolkit is intended to provide employers, unions and employees with information and resources to recognize and respond to situations in which DIPV enters the workplace. It is applicable to unionized and non-unionized workplaces, business owners, management, and employees. It can be used in large and small businesses, in rural and urban workplaces, across all sectors of industry. 

  

You can use the toolkit in various ways by incorporating appropriate elements into your own business or work environment as required. The toolkit was created as an interdependent package, with each fact sheet complementing the others. If you choose to view or download individual fact sheets, please keep in mind that the information may be .  No matter how you use this toolkit, we hope that it will contribute to a healthier, safer and more productive workplace. 

  

It’s Your Business will: 

  

  • educate and raise awareness of the need for early intervention in situations where domestic or intimate partner violence (DIPV) may have an impact on the workplace; 

  • develop practical, flexible training tools that will help employers deal with the impact of DIPV on the workplace; 

  • strengthen the relationship between business and community; 

  • promote practices, policies, and procedures that support victims of DIPV in the workplace; 

  • help create safer and healthier work environments; and 

  • support businesses, large and small, in meeting their social responsibility to prevent DIPV from spilling over into the workplace. 

  

For more information or to inquire about training for your workplace, visit http://www.toolkitnb.ca/contact-us/.  

It's Your Business - A Domestic/Intimate Partner Violence Workplace Toolkit - Fall 2020