workplaces is significantly influenced by
interactional justice assessments, such as
their perceived fairness (versus the legali-ty)
of the treatment they receive from their
employers. In Boucher, it appears that the
plaintiff ’s perception of unfair treatment
perpetrated by her workplace supervisor,
as well as Wal-Mart’s role in that miscon-duct,
caused her to initiate the legal claim
that resulted in her $410,000 award.
HOW THE CSA STANDARD
AND INTERACTIONAL JUSTICE
ARE RELATED, AND WHY THAT
MATTERS
Components of the Standard are fun-damentally
related to the provision of
interactional justice, which in turn influ-ences
employee legal claims decisions. As
a result, employers who implement the
Standard will improve their provision of
interactional justice and, consequently,
should reduce their risk of facing circum-stances
like those that led to a $410,000
award in Boucher v. Wal-Mart. While the
entirety of the Standard promotes em-ployee
welfare, organizational savings and
liability reductions, implementation of
the following six factors would have been
particularly helpful to Wal-Mart in the
Boucher case:
■■ Employers should actively demonstrate
support for employees’ psychological
wellbeing by taking concrete steps,
such as engagement of employees in
conversations about psychological
wellness, in order to earlier identify and
understand employee needs.
■■ Employers should foster a workplace
culture that places a high value on
fairness, caring, honesty and trust.
■■ Employees should be afforded clarity
with respect to their core functions,
their contributions to the organization,
the expectations of them and how their
work will be measured.
■■ Employers should establish strong
requirements of civility and mutual
respect amongst all staff, management
and customers.
■■ Employers should provide employees
with authentic and meaningful
feedback for the purpose of supporting
their personal and professional
legal words
development.
■■ Employers are encouraged to create
workplace environments where
employees feel confident and safe to
ask questions and to report mistakes
without fearing that they will be judged
negatively or will be inviting negative
impacts on their careers.
CONCLUSION
The Boucher v. Wal-Mart decision un-derscores
serious liability risks faced by
Canadian employers. While many em-ployers
will likely do nothing in response
to the potential costs illuminated by the
case, prudent companies and organi-zations
should consider implementing
policies contemplated under the CSA
Standard for Psychological Health and
Safety in the Workplace. The relatively
simple concepts outlined in the Standard
not only foster liability risk reduction but
also healthier workforces and operational
cost savings. ■
Kelly VanBuskirk is a partner at Lawson
Creamer Lawyers in New Brunswick.
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HRPATODAY.CA ❚ NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014 ❚ 15
