Audit-specific—Standing Committee on Public Accounts: Office of the Auditor General Audit on Respect in the Workplace (January 28, 2021)

CBSA response to the Office of the Auditor General Audit Recommendations

Recommendation 1 (Comprehensive strategy)

The Canada Border Services Agency and the Correctional Services of Canada should develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to address harassment, discrimination and workplace violence. Each strategy should be based on risk and supported by action plans with clear accountabilities and performance monitoring for continual improvement.

Response

The CBSA agreed with the Auditor General's recommendation and developed a comprehensive framework to tackle harassment, discrimination and violence in the workplace head on.

The Respectful Workplace Framework knits together prevention, timely response and restoration efforts to address harassment, discrimination and workplace violence.

This framework will build upon actions already taken such as reinforcing a zero tolerance policy on harassment and discrimination, and the creation of a National Integrity Centre of Expertise (NICE) in April 2019.

The Framework is focused on the three pillars:

• Prevention: proactive action to prevent unacceptable behaviours from occurring in the first place (in other words, training, regular assessment of workplace health, reinforcement of expected behaviours in performance discussions, etc.)
• Response: responsive action that is more timely and effective when incidents occur (in other words, equipping employees and managers with tools to address situations, updating processes to be more streamlined and consistent, etc.)
• Restoration: restorative action to help managers and employees move forward following the resolution of incidents (in other words, equipping managers with knowledge and resources, establishing expectations that workplace restoration must occur, etc.)

Recommendation 2 (Informal processes)

The Canada Border Services Agency and the Correctional Services of Canada should consistently inform employees of informal processes available for resolving harassment and workplace violence.

Response

I agree that we need to be more consistent in how we inform our employees about ways to resolve harassment and workplace violence in an informal way.

We took measures to build a more robust community of human resource and labour relations experts across the country. We also established the National Integrity Centre of Expertise (NICE) in April 2019 to standardize our processes for all CBSA employees. NICE provides a one-stop centre for information, support and guidance.

The NICE offers a safe place for all employees, regardless of group and level, to discuss disrespectful behaviours, where both the employees and managers can go for information about the management, resolution and reporting of harassment.

When incidents do happen, the Centre will improve the CBSA's response and workplace restoration measures.

All employees making harassment complaints are informed in a systematic way, through written correspondence as well as through a verbal discussion with an advisor about the option of pursuing resolution through the Informal Conflict Management System (ICMS), if appropriate in the circumstances of the case.

While the CBSA encourages the use of informal conflict resolution to resolve complaints, the choice is ultimately up to each employee. They will be supported in whatever decision they make.

We are seeing positive change in our Public Service Employee Survey results from 2019 and we are inching in the right direction. We expect to see this trend continue to move in the right direction and will continue analyzing the data we have to ensure the Agency is putting the support and resources where they will do the most good.

Recommendation 3 (Better documentation)

The Canada Border Services Agency and the Correctional Services of Canada should complete and document their assessment to support decisions when handling harassment, discrimination and workplace violence complaints.

Response

While the report found that the majority of cases examined were documented, I agree that the Agency needs to better document how we assess decisions involving harassment, discrimination and workplace violence.

As of spring 2019, all harassment complaints are handled by the National Integrity Centre of Expertise (NICE) which means that they are processed in a consistent manner.

This includes ensuring that all assessments and decisions concerning harassment, discrimination and workplace violence are properly documented moving forward.

Following the launch of NICE, we expect to see an increase in the number of complaints, which will be an early indicator that employees feel safe to bring issues forward and feel that issues will be addressed.