Bill 68 explained in plain English
Speaking Out About Workplace Violence and Workplace Harassment Act, 2021
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 42nd Parliament, 2nd Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
This Act amends the Occupational Health and Safety Act to protect workers from reprisals when they speak out in good faith about workplace violence and harassment.
The Speaking Out About Workplace Violence and Workplace Harassment Act, 2021, amends the Occupational Health and Safety Act. It expands protections for workers who report or speak out about workplace violence or harassment. The Act specifies that any action taken against a worker that negatively impacts their employment, such as dismissal, demotion, or threats, because they reported workplace issues in good faith, is considered a reprisal and is prohibited.
- Amends the Occupational Health and Safety Act to protect workers.
- Prohibits employers or other persons from taking reprisals against workers.
- Defines a reprisal as any measure that adversely affects a worker's employment.
- Includes examples of reprisals such as ending employment, demoting, disciplining, imposing penalties, or intimidating a worker.
- Specifies that protections apply when a worker acts in good faith to comply with the Act, seeks advice or enforcement of the Act, assists with health and safety committees, refuses to perform an act that violates the Act, provides information about health and safety matters, reports workplace violence or harassment, participates in investigations, or testifies in proceedings related to the Act.
- Makes these protections effective immediately upon Royal Assent.
- Workers in Ontario
- Employers in Ontario
- Supervisors in Ontario
- Joint health and safety committees
- Health and safety representatives
- Trade unions
- Inspectors
- Persons responsible for the administration of the Occupational Health and Safety Act
- Coroners (in relation to inquests)
- Workers have the right to speak out about workplace violence and harassment in good faith without facing reprisals.
- Employers and other persons are obligated not to take reprisals against workers for speaking out about workplace violence and harassment in good faith.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The Act prohibits reprisals, implying that actions taken in reprisal would be subject to the enforcement mechanisms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
- The bill text does not specify the exact penalties for taking reprisals, only that such actions are prohibited.
- The bill text does not explicitly define all possible forms of reprisal beyond the examples provided, stating 'without limiting the generality of the foregoing'.
Amends Section 50 (1) to prohibit reprisals against workers who speak out about workplace violence and harassment in good faith.
Source: Section 1
Introduces a new subsection (1.1) to define reprisal as any measure that adversely affects a worker's employment, including specific examples like dismissal, demotion, or intimidation.
Source: Section 1
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
This bill is still moving through the process. When a recorded division is published, representative positions can be listed here.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced