Workplace Harassment in Alberta: Your Rights and Your Options

Workplace harassment in Alberta is one of the most common issues employees bring to employment lawyers.

Whether it is a supervisor making inappropriate comments, a coworker creating a hostile atmosphere, or a manager retaliating after a complaint, harassment at work is not something you should have to accept or endure in silence.

This article explains what workplace harassment actually means under the law, what protections exist for Alberta employees, and what you should do if you believe you are experiencing it. If you’ve been subjected to workplace harassment, contact our Calgary employment lawyers and book a consultation today.

What Is Workplace Harassment?

Many employees use the word “harassment” to describe any unfair or unpleasant treatment at work. Under the law, however, harassment has a specific meaning.

Under Alberta’s Occupation Health and Safety Act, workplace harassment is defined as any single incident or repeated behaviour that is objectionable or unwelcome, and that the person responsible knows, or reasonably ought to know, will cause offence, humiliation, or harm to a worker’s health and safety. This includes conduct tied to protected characteristics such as race, religion, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, and several others, as well as sexual solicitations or advances.

Importantly, the definition draws a clear line: reasonable management conduct does not constitute harassment. An employer or supervisor who gives critical feedback, assigns difficult work, or enforces performance standards is not harassing an employee, even if the employee finds it unpleasant. The law is concerned with conduct that demeans or harms, not conduct that simply feels unwelcome.

Your Employer Has a Duty to Protect You

An employer cannot look the other way when workplace harassment comes to its attention. Once the employer is aware of harassment, or reasonably ought to be aware of it, it has a duty to investigate and take meaningful steps to stop it.

There are three sources of this duty:

1. Occupational Health and Safety legislation. Under Alberta’s OHS Act, employers must ensure workers are not subjected to harassment and must have a written harassment investigation and prevention plan in place.
2. Human rights legislation. The Alberta Human Rights Act prohibits harassment based on protected grounds and holds employers responsible not only for their own conduct but also for harassment by supervisors, coworkers, and in many cases, third parties such as clients or customers.
3. The common law duty of civility, decency, and respect. Beyond statute, employers have an implied legal duty to treat employees with fairness and dignity. This extends to a broader responsibility to ensure to that the work environment does not become so hostile that it renders competent performance of your role impossible and make continued employment intolerable.

Taken together, these overlapping obligations mean that an employer cannot look the other way when harassment comes to its attention. Once the employer is aware of harassment, or reasonably ought to be aware of it, it has a duty to investigate promptly and take meaningful steps to stop it. An employer that fails to act, or that allows a poisoned work environment to persist, can be held liable across multiple legal frameworks, even if it was not directly responsible for the original conduct.

This also means that if you have reported workplace harassment to your employer and nothing was done, your employer may share in the legal responsibility for what happened. The source of your employer’s failure to act will shape which legal avenue is most appropriate for your situation, which is one of the reasons getting early legal advice matters.

Workplace Harassment Protections Under the Alberta Human Rights Act

The analysis of harassment changes in the human rights context. In Alberta, the Alberta Human Rights Act protects employees from harassment based on characteristics such as race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religious beliefs, gender, gender identity, gender expression, physical disability, mental disability, age, marital status, family status, and sexual orientation, among others.

That connection matters. In order for workplace harassment to constitute workplace discrimination, it is not enough to say that you were treated poorly and that you belong to a protected group. There must be a link between the two. For example, if a supervisor repeatedly makes degrading comments about an employee’s religion, disability, or gender, that can constitute harassment under human rights law. If a supervisor is simply rude or unreasonable across the board, that may not qualify, even if the affected employee belongs to a protected group.

Workplace Harassment Protections Under the Common Law

Under the common law, every employer has an implied duty to treat its employees with civility, decency, respect, and dignity. This duty exists independently of human rights legislation and occupational health and safety law, meaning it applies even where the harassment has no connection to a protected ground.

Where an employer, or a supervisor acting within the scope of their role, subjects an employee to repeated verbal abuse, demeaning insults, or conduct that makes the workplace psychologically intolerable, the employer may be found to have fundamentally breached the employment contract. This can also occur if a co-worker engages in this type of conduct, and the employment does not take sufficient steps to address this conduct. In these circumstances, the employee may be entitled to resign and bring a constructive dismissal claim, seeking damages equivalent to what they would have received had they been formally terminated.

If you are in a situation where harassment is making your job intolerable and your employer is not acting, speaking with an employment lawyer sooner rather than later gives you the best chance of understanding your options before the situation worsens.

Workplace Harassment Protections Under Alberta’s OHS Legislation

Under the OHS Act, employers have a legal obligation to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, that workers are not subjected to harassment in the workplace. This includes developing a workplace harassment investigation and prevention plan, which must set out how harassment complaints will be reported, investigated, and resolved. Employers are required to involve workers in developing that plan and to review it regularly.

When an employer learns of a workplace harassment complaint, it has a duty to investigate. That duty exists regardless of whether the affected employee is eager to move forward with a formal complaint. The employer cannot use a worker’s reluctance to report or escalate as a reason to do nothing.

Violations of the OHS Act can be pursued through the occupational health and safety regime’s reprisal provisions, and in serious cases, the employer or the individual responsible may face prosecution by the Crown. Occupational health and safety enforcement can be initiated by government inspectors and does not depend on the employee filing a formal claim.

For Alberta employees, this matters in a practical sense. If your employer has done nothing after learning of your workplace harassment complaint, it may be in breach of its obligations under occupational health and safety legislation.

Types of Harassment

Workplace harassment takes many different forms, and here are just some examples:

1. Sexual harassment: Unwanted sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that creates a hostile or offensive work environment.
2. Personal harassment: Repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed at an individual that demeans, humiliates, or intimidates them, without necessarily being tied to a protected characteristic.
3. Psychological harassment: A pattern of conduct that undermines an employee’s dignity or psychological integrity, often including belittling comments, public humiliation, or deliberate exclusion.
4. Physical harassment: Unwanted physical contact, threatening gestures, or any conduct involving a person’s body that creates fear or discomfort in the workplace.
5. Cyber harassment: The use of digital communication tools such as email, messaging platforms, or social media to harass, threaten, or demean a colleague.
6. Racial harassment: Conduct based on a person’s race or ethnicity that creates a hostile work environment, including racial slurs, stereotyping, or racially offensive jokes.
7. Retaliatory harassment: Adverse or hostile treatment directed at an employee because they reported a concern, filed a complaint, or participated in an investigation.
8. Power-based harassment: The abuse of a position of authority to control, intimidate, or manipulate a subordinate employee, often through threats related to job security or advancement.
9. Disability-related harassment: Unwanted conduct connected to a person’s physical or mental disability, including mocking, excluding, or refusing reasonable accommodations in bad faith.

What Remedies Are Available for Workplace Harassment?

Employees who experience workplace harassment have several options in Alberta.

Human Rights Remedies

A complaint can be filed with the Alberta Human Rights Commission, which can result in remedies including compensation for lost wages, damages for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect, and orders requiring the employer to take corrective action such as implementing new policies or providing harassment training.

Constructive Dismissal Remedy

If workplace harassment makes your job intolerable and your employer fails to address it, you may have grounds for a constructive dismissal claim. Constructive dismissal occurs when an employer’s conduct fundamentally breaches the employment contract, forcing a reasonable employee to resign. If successful, you may be entitled to the same severance as if you had been terminated without cause. Getting legal advice early is critical, as resignation timing and documentation can significantly affect your claim.

This court decision features a real example of how this works. In that case, a sales assistant employed for less than a year alleged that her supervisor subjected her to a pattern of psychological harassment and bullying throughout her employment. On her last day of work, the employee left after an incident and did not return. She brought a constructive dismissal claim. The court found that the harassment was established on the evidence. It noted the following behavior by the supervisor in support of the employee’s claim:

• Outbursts of anger, even when directed at suppliers or clients rather than the employee directly;
• Calling the employee an idiot and pathetic;
• Handing the employee an IQ test and telling her she wouldn’t get past the second question; and
• Complaints by the employee to her physician.

The court concluded that no employee should have to tolerate that kind of conduct. The employee was awarded wrongful dismissal damages, unpaid bonus, benefits compensation, and aggravated damages for the mental distress that went beyond ordinary hurt feelings upon dismissal.

You can learn more about constructive dismissal here.

OHS Remedies

Under Alberta’s OHS Act, the following remedies and enforcement mechanisms are available for workplace harassment:

• Employers must have a harassment and violence prevention plan in place, and must investigate complaints. An OHS officer can order either if the employer fails to comply.
• Officers can issue an improvement order requiring corrective steps, or a stop work order in more serious situations. They can also conduct inspections, interview workers, and review records.
• Workers have the right to refuse dangerous work, which can include psychologically unsafe conditions. Workers are also protected from reprisal for raising OHS concerns.

OHS legislation in Alberta is focused on prevention and correction rather than compensation. It does not award damages, lost wages, or other financial remedies to the affected worker.

What Happens to the Harasser?

When an employer investigates a harassment complaint and finds that harassment occurred, it is not enough to simply acknowledge the problem and move on. The employer is expected to take meaningful corrective action against the person responsible, and the appropriate response will depend on the severity and frequency of the conduct:

• At the lower end, the employer may issue a formal written warning, require the harasser to complete harassment awareness training, or implement closer supervision.
• Where the conduct is more serious or part of a repeated pattern, the employer may impose a suspension without pay, reassign the harasser to a different role or location to separate them from the victim, or impose a demotion.
• In the most serious cases, particularly where the harassment involved physical contact, threats, or conduct that fundamentally undermined the employment relationship, termination for cause may be warranted.

An employer that fails to impose any meaningful discipline after a finding of harassment risks more than just a recurring problem in the workplace. It signals to employees that complaints will not be taken seriously, exposes the organization to greater liability if the harassment continues, and may itself constitute a failure to maintain a harassment-free workplace under both human rights law and Alberta’s occupational health and safety legislation.

What You Should Do

If you are experiencing workplace harassment, there are several practical steps to take:

• Keep a record. Document incidents as they happen, including dates, times, locations, what was said or done, and who was present. This documentation can be critical if you later decide to file a complaint or pursue a claim.
• Report it internally. If your employer has a harassment policy, follow the process. This creates a record that your employer was made aware of the situation and can be important if the employer fails to respond appropriately. However, we acknowledge that in some circumstances this might not be a safe option, in which case you should seek legal advice as soon as possible.
• Understand the timelines. Human rights complaints in Alberta must be filed within one year of the last incident of discrimination or harassment. Missing this deadline can prevent you from pursuing a claim, so it is important not to wait too long before seeking advice.

Most importantly, you can get legal advice. An employment lawyer can help you assess whether what you are experiencing meets the legal definition of harassment, evaluate your options, and determine the best course of action for your situation.

How We Can Help You

No one should have to choose between their job and their dignity. If you are facing harassment at work, you have rights, and those rights are enforceable.

At Cashion Legal, we work with employees across Alberta who are dealing with exactly these situations. If you have questions about a harassment complaint, a constructive dismissal, or any other employment issue, book a consultation today. We are here to help.