Changes in law and policy in BC workplacesMental Stress:

Presentation to Capilano University Faculty Association

• Workplace stress emerging as critical issue.

• Research shows it has serious consequences for workers and workplaces.

• Law, policy and regulatory reforms are playing catch-up.

• Recent court decisions and legislative changes highlight the pressure to close the gap.

Overview

• Surveys show workplace stress more than “incidental”

• NIOSH report showed:

– 40% of workers reported their job was stressful or very stressful

– 25% view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives

Overview: Research

– 75% of employees believe that workers have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago

– 26% of respondents said they often or very often felt burned out by work

– Job stress is more strongly associated with health complaints than financial or family problems

Overview: Research

• Policy debate: crossover from mental stress to mental illness

• Where is the onus on employers to guard against mental stress and its potential for causing greater problems?

– CMHA: 20% of Canadians will experience a mental illness in their lifetime

– Mental illness affects people of all incomes, ages, occupations, cultures

Overview: Part of a Larger Continuum

• Report by the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, “Transforming Mental Health, Mental Illness and Addiction Services in Canada”

– Unreasonable demands on subordinates

– Withholding important information

– Refusing to give reasonable discretion

– Failing to credit or acknowledge contributions and/or achievements

– Creating a treadmill at work — too much to do, all at once, all the time

Overview: Management practices that precipitate or aggravate mental stress

– Creating perpetual doubt — employees never sure what’s happening

– Allowing mistrust to take root

– Tolerating ambiguity and unclear expectations

– Sub-par performance management practices

– Lack of two-way communications

– Management rejecting, out of hand, employee concerns about workload

Overview: Management practices that precipitate or aggravate mental stress

• 2009 BC Court of Appeal said WCB Act Discriminated.

• BC Human Rights Tribunal complaints re: gradual onset stress.

• Legal opinion from AG said law needed to change.

• BC Human Rights Tribunal complaints put on hold.

Law & Policy Change in BC

• Bill 14 introduced, November 2011

• First reading, “mental stress”, “physician”

• Third reading, “mental disorder”, “psychiatrist” “registered psychologist”, “DSM diagnosis”

• Bullying and harassment added

• Excludes claim related to labour relations

Law & Policy Change in BC

Law & Policy Change in BC

• Policy defines conditions for coverage. Early days, evolving

• Criteria include one or more traumatic events.

• Events must be identifiable.

• “predominantly” caused by work-related stressor or cumulative.

Law & Policy Change in BC

Law & Policy Change in BC

• Predominant cause test: significant work-related stressor or cumulative are the primary cause of disorder.

• Causative significance: more than trivial.

• Assess connection between stressors and work.

Law & Policy Change in BC

Law & Policy Change in BC

• Labour relations exclusions include:

• Decision to change work or conditions.

• Discipline

• Termination

Law & Policy Change in BC

Law & Policy Change in BC

• Bullying and harassment cited in the legislation as examples of significant work-related stressors

• Predominant cause test applies.

• Cumulative and traumatic also factor into this.

Law & Policy Change in BC

• Prevention parallels access to coverage

• Workplace health and safety plan

• Strategy to prevent problems

• Role of the Workplace OH&S Committee

• Mandatory training of OH&S Committee

Law & Policy Change: Implications for OH&S