A civilian employee of a Police Service was working as an Administrative Assistant in the Financial Crimes Unit. Day after day, for a period spanning 18 months, she was verbally abused by irate citizens who had been victims of fraud. One day, it became too much, and she was no longer able to work. Diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and PTSD, the evidence showed without a doubt that her experience at work was the sole cause of her mental stress injury.
Despite this, the WSIB denied her claim. The WSIB Appeals Resolution Officer concluded that the work-related stressors arose from interpersonal conflicts with customers that are considered a typical feature of her normal employment. The irony of the WSIB’s position is that the Board publicly states that the type of behaviour the worker reported experiencing is considered abusive. The Code of Behaviour published on WSIB’s site can be found here.
The WSIB’s Chronic Mental Stress Policy states that interpersonal conflicts are not generally considered to be a substantial work-related stressor, unless the conflict amounts to workplace harassment, or results in conduct that a reasonable person would perceive and egregious or above.
Just over 4 years after she filed her claim, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT) allowed her appeal. The Panel concluded that the worker’s experience in her role involved exposure to conduct that “a reasonable person would perceive as egregious or abusive”. They disagreed with the ARO’s assessment of the facts. They wrote, “In any event we find that the demeaning expletives directed at the worker from some callers go beyond mere unfortunate and unpleasant aspects of the job that is to be expected in an environment where there may be occasional interpersonal conflict with members of the public”.
Abuse is not acceptable on any level, and should not be tolerated in the workplace. Just because one may work in a customer or client-facing role, does not mean that we must accept that this type of behaviour is just “part of the job”.
You can read her story here.