The law, E.I.,Unions, W.C.B. and more
We are not lawyers. We have to ensure this page has the most up to date and accurate information. If something is missing here, please let us know.
New - Lawyer in Toronto area - recommended by a member
A fabulous lawyer is Rob Waddell. Phone 416-368-9550 (Toronto, Ontario) and email is rhw@waddellpc.com. Highly ethical man who will tell you directly what your chances are and strategies to take. He's also really aware of the collusion between employers and unions. I highly recommend him. So much so that my husband, who is union representative, suggests people call Rob Waddell before they report incidents to the union.
Direct Links within this page. Link to the sub-sections on this page here:
Unions and Collective Agreements
How to find legal help and legal information
Though some of this information is specific to BC most areas have their own Pro Bono group or an equivalent. We believe the Lawyer Referral Service (number 3 below) is available across most of the country.
Here are ways you can look for a lawyer and get legal information.
1. Find out if you can get legal aid:
This site will tell you where the legal aid offices are located and give you information about who is eligible and what matters legal aid covers.
You can also get information at the Legal Services Society Call Centre 1-866-577-2525. If you do not get the answers you need in the recorded messages, stay on the line, and someone will help you.
2. Look for a free legal clinic or program
Go to the Directory. It has a listing of pro bono programs. Pro bono programs have lawyers who provide legal advice for free. Check to see if there is a pro bono program in your area, and follow the links. There will be an income test to use the clinic's services.
3. Use Lawyer Referral
The Lawyer Referral Service is a program that lets you meet with a lawyer to discuss your legal problem. The cost is $25 for the first half-hour.
Lower Mainland: (604) 687-3221; Outside the Lower Mainland: 1-800-663-1919 (toll free)
This service is available in many BC communities. When you phone, give a brief description of your legal question, and get the name of a lawyer and phone number to call for an appointment.
The lawyer will give you one interview of up to 30 minutes for $10. You can use this time to explain your situation. The lawyer will tell you what your choices are, what is involved, and how much he or she would charge to help you with the case.
4. Phone the Law Line
The Law Line is a telephone service that provides legal information. Staff on the Law Line can answer your legal questions and direct you to other information or services that can help you solve your legal problems. They do not give legal advice.
The toll free number is: 1-866-577-2525.
From the Vancouver area, call 604 408-2172.
5. Phone a community advocate
Community advocates can help people on low incomes deal with legal problems. Community advocates are not lawyers but are familiar with laws and legal procedures.
and click on 'Find an Advocate'. The map for 'Find an Advocate' is current, and includes links to government agents and Legal Services Society local agents and regional offices.
6. Get information from BC Dial-A-Law
BC Dial-A-Law is a series of taped recordings about legal information topics, including how to get a lawyer when you can't afford to pay for one. The tapes are prepared by the Canadian Bar Association (BC Branch).
To contact Dial-A-Law, phone: 604 687-4680, toll-free: 1-800-565-5297.
You can also read transcripts of tapes on the website.
Go to Transcipts of Legal Informational tapes
7. Find information on the Internet. Here are some sites to go to:
- You and Your Lawyer has information about lawyers and the services they provide.
Go to You and Your Lawyer and click on You and Your Lawyer
- The Electronic Law Library (ELL), provides easy access to legal information.
Go to Electronic Law Library.
The Legal Services Society website has information about the law.
Go to Legal Services Society
- The Family Law website has information about family law problems. We have included this, as some cases of inter-family workplace bulying have been reported.
- PovNet has information about poverty law problems (welfare, housing, etc).
- The Law Centre, Victoria. This website has information, self-help forms, factsheets and booklets dealing with legal aid, traffic tickets, small claims and family court.
- UBC Law Students' Legal Advice Program (LSLAP). This website takes you to the complete text of the LSLAP Manual, which provides a wide range of legal information.
- CanLII. Website of the Canadian Legal Information Institute, which links you to statutes and regulations throughout Canada.
Go to Canada Wide Legal Information
8. Get written information. Ask the nearest Legal Aid office for booklets or brochures about your legal problem. Also ask at ask your nearest public library.
Employment Insurance, 'EI'
The following section is specific to Canada. Some sections will also vary by Province and also the application of relevant rules and regulations will depend on the individual case manager or other agency.
For many people who have experienced bullying at work, at some point they are likely to leave their bullying workplace and need assistance while recovering and beginning to look for a new job. This is most likely to be in the form of Employment Insurance.
Links to some pages on EI rules and regulations:
There are many other links to specific question and answer pages from this site.
Main Employment Insurance page
If you leave work through 'stress' or are laid off, you can be eligible for EI, if your claim is accompanied by medical proof that 'your job made you sick '.
Services obtainable through your case manager while on, or having been on, EI
It was ALL new to us so sorry if any of this is too obvious.....
It is recommended that you see a case manager at your local employment centre soon after leaving work. Case managers can have a reputation for being heartless government agents only driven by getting you back to work, any work.If you read on below you will see that our experience with EI, case managers and HRSDC (through whom funding for retraining can be possible) has been very positive.
Yes there are hoops to jump through, but as many of our members have said, the hoops are well selected, have a legitimate, caring purpose and certainly in the case of training money via EI reachback, are essential in refining the type of training from which you will benefit most.
These services are available to you if you are on EI, have been on EI in the the last three years, or if you have been on maternity EI in the last five years.
We will post further details later, but for now here is the complete list of HRDC services available if you are on EI.
Also in terms of EI rules you may be aware that to get funding for retraining you have to prove a link between past jobs and your new direction.
Our source, a very experienced case manager, was very clear that if you left your previous job through stress, depression, bullying, and had medical confirmation of this, for your re-training, there absolutely must NOT be a link; the job made you sick - you need a different one.
Revolutionary and exciting information - why aren't we all told this?
List of service types that case managers could refer you to:
Job Search Groups
- regular
- 40+
- ESL
- professional
- professional immigrants
- youth
- women
- disabilities
- drug and alcohol
- mental health
- trades
- multi-barried
- aboriginal
Career Planning programs
-regular
-youth
Self-employment programs
-regular
-youth
-professional
Vocational Diagnostics
Targeted Wage Subsidy
Job Creation Partnerships
S.B.E.B. - Skills Development Employment Benefits
Academic Upgrading
English Language Classes
Services for People with Disabilities
Advocacy Groups
Personal Counselling
Other Agencies - The Red Book
'Vocational Diagnostics' mentioned above involves referring you to a psychologist for a report which takes two days and will highlight any reasons which may explain your current inability to find new work, despite a good work history - both Karen and Stephen would have loved one of those a year ago; any takers?
Funding for training while on, or having been on, EI.
Funding for retraining is now called SDEB - Skills Development Employment Benefit.
You are eligible if you are currently on EI, or have been on EI in the previous three years (called reachback), or on maternity EI in the previous five years.
Some case managers will want you to go on a career exploration or career decision making program first, before you put together a training plan.
(This is a good thing - the one Stephen of No Bully For Me went on was a wonderfully therapeutic three weeks, and though not designed for dealing with the effects of bullying certainly hit many of the right restorative spots.)
Then if your case manager agrees with your approach to retraining he/she will give you a form from HRDC / SDEB
It's a bit of a monstrous package, but as you start completing it, it slowly seems less intimidating.
It actually forces you to do the right research before a major change of direction.
Sections include:
A review of schools or colleges for your retraining - you can chose one, but have to research at least three.
At least three informational interviews with employers or those employed in your prospective new field.
Some sort of labour market information, showing a demand in the field you are moving into.
A record of jobs you have applied for.
A budget, including course fees, books, and general support while doing the training.
A brief letter explaining the who, what, how, where and when of your plan.
The case manager will also put in a supporting letter.
The only major criteria are:
The course must be full time.
You have to demonstrate a link with your previous fields. (Easy if you have an imagination and an imaginative case manager.)
BUT if you left your previous job through stress/ depression, with a doctor's note then there must NOT be a link. The job made you sick you need a new job in a new field.
HRDC, or rather it is now HRSD, seem genuinely supportive - they have been known to add a couple of hundred dollars to applications when they thought an applicant hadn't anticipated some expenditure for example; if they are going to fund you they want you to succeed.
Though they say allow a couple of months to hear whether you have been accepted, most decisions seem to be passed on in three or four weeks.
Finally, this process has to be based around a good relationship with a good, positive and likeable case manager. If you don't like yours you have the right to change to another one.
Workers Compensation Board
The WCB as it known has had an uneven history of dealing with workers injured by workplace bullying.
As of early 2004 however several regional branches have looked at introducing new clauses specifically to include the word bullying in their occupational Health and Safety provisions. This was prompted by the investigation into a recent workplace shooting, which showed that years of bullying had driven the individual to resort to violence.
So although the spur to this initiative was simply that bullying might be a precurser to violence, the provisions, if implemented, will have a far wider impact.
Our advice would be, for now at least, to investigate your local WCB provisions, make at least a first online, mail, phone or in person contact but don't devote too much energy to this possible avenue of help, or invest too much hope in speedy and supportive success.
Karen and Stephen
Workers Compensation Boards Across Canada:
WCB Head Offices
Here is the link to the list of head offices across Canada:
Here is the link to the BC WCB:
British Columbia Worker's Compensation Board
and this is the page of information for those making a new claim :
If you are in a Union WCB will expect you to go through the Union to make your claim.
If you are not in a Union there are 'Worker's Advisors' who are there to help you through the process. They are independant from WCB. We have had very mixed reports on the effectiveness of these advisors; certainly they are short staffed and over worked.
WCB Lobby Organizations and Worker support groups.
Canadian Injured Workers Alliance (in French too)
This, as the name suggests is an umbrella site for the whole of Canada. The site is available in both English and French.
They are physically based in Thunder Bay, Ontario. They have a page called People and Organizations
here (scroll down a few clicks!) with details of local groups across Canada.
Here is the list of those agencies in BC (live links within this group coming soon); for other provinces follow your province or territory at the link above.
British Columbia / Columbie Britannique Regional Injured Workers Groups/Groupes regional de victimes de travail
R.O.R.Y. Injured Workers Support Group
Spokesperson: Karie Hay 458 Wallace Rd Kelowna, BC V1X7M6 E-Mail:
Injured Workers Human Rights Group of B.C.
Birgit Lund - President P.O. Box 468, 6962 Deisler Place Lantzville, BC V0R 2H0 E-Mail:
Vernon Injured Workers Support Group
Linda Guerrero 1204-38th Ave. Vernon, BC V1T 2Y7 Ph: (h) (250) 542-3257 E-Mail:
Northern Vancouver Island Brain Trauma Society
R. Daniel Buss #406-11671 Fraser St Maple Ridge, BC V2X 6C4 (604)466-0938
United Association of Injured and Disabled Workers
Ralph Dotzler 6784-176th St. Surrey, BC V3S 4G7 E-Mail:
S. Association of Injured and Disabled Workers
George F. Allen - President P.O. Box 232, 165-10th Ave. Montrose, BC Ph: (w) (250) 367-7201 Fx: (w) (250) 367-7201 E-Mail:
BC Injured Workers and Survivors Education Association
Patti Macahonic 6483 Dover St Chilliwack, BC V2R 1W9
BC Injured Workers and Survivors
Phone : (604) 858-1733
More coming soon
Unions, Collective Agreements and Bullying in the Workplace
Trade unions have accomplished wonderful progress in worker's rights across the world.
In the area of workplace bullying, however, they are in many cases failing to take the dynamic and forthright stance they should.
Even the wonderful Tim Field of Bully On Line has felt their wrath; the NUT (National Union of Teachers) in the UK took out a libel case against him for simply saying that the union could have done more to protect their members against workplace bullying.
As in many cases it is down to the individual local, the individual shop steward, or the personality of those involved, as to whether your union will support your stand against being bullied. In the case where the bully and the bullied are in the same union, the union's representatives are in an almost impossible position.
Furthermore the whole grievance set up, where harassment of any type is acted upon by a grievance against the employer for failing to provide a safe and congenial workplace, and the effectiveness of unions in standing up for the bullied worker begins to be severely comprimised.
The Collective Agreement: Health and Safety and WCB provisions
All agreements will vary though many will share some provisions.
One of the most useful provisions we have discovered is the right not to return to an unhealthy workplace. This is found in the section dealing with Health and Safety at work. Its origins are clearly in different settings. If a chemical spill drives workers from their factory the workers have a right not to return to an unhealthy workplace if they believe the chemical has not been properly cleaned up, and can refuse to work without penalty.
In at least one case we know of a bullied worker used this clause to refuse to return to work. He had been sent to a psychologist, the psychologist said he had been clearly injured by his workplace, diagnosed him as suffering from PTSD and backed his claim not to return. It at least bought some time while the employer worked out the legality of this stance.
WCB clauses in the collective agreement will often include a section which allows the worker with an active, initial, WCB claim, to remain away from the workplace while the case is assessed. This can give some respite at a particularly difficult time and thus can be used to advantage.
The Collective Agreement: Harassment
Very disappointing. All harrassment sections of collective agreements we have seen are based on the Charter rights which as we discuss elsewhere offer nothing for the bullied worker. Unless you can prove that your bullying was because of your membership of one of the protected groups, this is a useless route. And if you can prove that it was your membership of that group which caused the behaviour against you then you are probably being plain old harrassed and not bullied as such. Bullies maybe evil but are seldom stupid.