Workplace Harassment Damages - The TTC Decision

Tim Gleason and Lindsay Lawrence

Paper prepared for the Law Society of Upper Canada's Six Minute Labour Lawyer, held on June 2, 2005.

Arbitrator Shime's decision to award a grievor $25,000 in general damages for having suffered harassment at the hands of his supervisor provides the starting point for this examination of the issue of damages for workplace harassment in the labour arbitration context. Possible explanations for the apparent difficulties arbitrators have in deciding the quantum of such damages are also considered.