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Employer Liability for Employee Conduct
Faculty of LawEmployment Law
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A formal demand letter arrived at the head office of a building maintenance and janitorial services company operating across several municipalities in southwestern Ontario. The letter, sent by counsel for a commercial property management firm, alleged that an employee of the maintenance company had engaged in threatening and aggressive conduct toward a tenant during an after-hours service call at a retail plaza, and that the incident had caused the tenant significant emotional distress requiring medical attention. The demand sought substantial damages from the maintenance company on the basis that it bore responsibility for its employee's actions.

The maintenance company had operated for 11 years, growing from a sole proprietorship into an incorporated business employing approximately 45 full-time and part-time workers who provided cleaning, light repair, and general maintenance services to commercial and residential clients under contracts of varying duration. The employee in question had been hired 8 months earlier to perform evening and overnight cleaning shifts at client locations. At the time of hiring, the company had conducted a brief interview and checked 2 professional references provided by the applicant, both of which were favourable. No criminal record check had been performed, and the company had no written policy requiring such checks for any category of employee.

The incident at the retail plaza occurred during a routine service call when the employee, working alone, encountered a tenant who had returned to her business after closing hours. According to the tenant's account, the employee became verbally aggressive when she questioned his presence in the hallway, blocked her path, and made statements she interpreted as threats before eventually allowing her to leave. The employee later disputed this characterization, stating that a misunderstanding had escalated and that he had merely been explaining his work duties.

The maintenance company had a general employee handbook that included a brief section on professional conduct, but it had no specific policies addressing client-facing interactions, no formal complaint mechanism for clients to report employee behaviour, and no documented training program on workplace conduct expectations. Supervision of employees working at client sites was minimal, consisting primarily of periodic quality inspections of completed work. The company carried commercial general liability insurance and had never previously faced a claim arising from employee conduct. Following the demand letter, the company's principals sought to understand what legal obligations they may have breached, whether they could be held responsible for the employee's conduct, and what steps they should now consider to address both the immediate claim and their ongoing operational exposure.

Employer Liability for Workplace Harassment and Violence

Canadian employers face significant legal exposure when harassment or violence occurs in their workplaces, and this exposure extends far beyond the direct actions of the employer themselves. The legal framework governing workplace harassment and violence in Canada creates a complex web of obligations that, when breached, can result in substantial liability for employers regardless of whether they personally participated in or even knew about the harmful conduct. Understanding this liability framework is essential for any business owner, operator, or organizational leader because the consequences of failing to prevent, address, or properly respond to workplace harassment and violence can include regulatory penalties, civil damages, increased insurance premiums, reputational harm, and in some circumstances, personal liability for directors and officers.

The foundation of employer liability for workplace harassment and violence rests on both statutory obligations and common law principles that have developed over many decades. Every Canadian jurisdiction has enacted occupational health and safety legislation that explicitly requires employers to maintain workplaces free from harassment and violence. These statutory regimes treat psychological safety with the same seriousness as physical safety, recognizing that harassment and workplace violence cause genuine harm to workers that employers have a duty to prevent. In Ontario, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, as of the date of authorship, defines workplace harassment as engaging in a course of vexatious comment or conduct against a worker that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome, and it requires employers to develop and maintain policies and programs addressing both harassment and violence. British Columbia's Workers Compensation Act and associated regulations impose similar obligations through WorkSafeBC, requiring employers to take reasonable steps to prevent workplace bullying and harassment. Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety Act, as of the date of authorship, mandates that employers ensure the health and safety of workers, which the courts and regulators have interpreted to include psychological health. Saskatchewan's Saskatchewan Employment Act creates parallel duties, while Quebec approaches these matters through both the Act respecting occupational health and safety and the Civil Code of Quebec, which establishes a distinct framework rooted in civil law principles that impose a general duty on employers to protect the dignity and psychological integrity of workers. The federal Canada Labour Code applies to federally regulated workplaces such as banks, telecommunications companies, interprovincial transportation, and federal Crown corporations, and it contains comprehensive provisions addressing workplace harassment and violence that came into significant effect following amendments in January 2021.

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