Allegations of a manager swinging an axe while saying, “I am a crazy Indian,” of threatening to write up an employee for smiling, and for telling staff they could all be replaced and “it will be worse than residential school,” are but a few of the accusations of workplace bullying that have recently come across the desk of Jason Rochon.
Other allegations include a young Inuk woman being told to repeat, “I’m just a janitor” to her manager and then being told to go clean the manager’s car, and threats to an employee from a manager that if they do not do as instructed, the manager will call the RCMP on them.
Rochon, the president of the Nunavut Employees Union, said bullying and intimidation in Nunavut workplaces continues to thrive because those who could help resolve and prevent such issues are “passing the buck” and failing to act on such incidents.
“You know, we can easily work together to stop this kind of behaviour, and we have to. We owe it to people. Everyone deserves safe workplaces in Nunavut. Nobody should be bullied,” Rochon said.
“No workers should be at the point where it's so toxic they do self-harm. They [the GN] talk about retention and recruitment, and then they act like that. That shows me they don't really truly care about retention and recruitment,” he said.
The most recent accusations of a toxic workplace stemmed from a Facebook post, since deleted, made by an employee of the Pangnirtung Housing Association, who, out of apparent exasperation or desperation to be heard, wrote of the alleged toxic workplace and the intimidation he said he experienced under a manager.
“I brought this up and how he is culturally insensitive to everyone here in Pang during a video conference with four people from NHC (Nunavut Housing Corporation). The fact that he has denied saying all these things is why I am posting here now. NHC believes him. They say I am a liar,” David Kilabuk wrote in his lengthy, detailed message.
In a tremendous show of support for Kilabuk, replies from friends and family were posted and acknowledging the problem of bullying in the workplace and the need for change.
Ongoing human resources matter
In a subsequent joint statement, the Nunavut Housing Corporation (NHC) and the Pangnirtung Housing Association (PHA), indicated that their respective boards of directors are “working together to achieve the timely and appropriate resolution of this matter.”
The NHC offered no further comment.
Rochon said such a statement is “brushing off” the matter as being an “HR issue.”
“Systemic racism is not an HR issue. Systemic racism is something that they have the power and ability to make change and lift workers up, treat workers in the in the workplaces with respect," he said. “Inuit are tired of being bullied and harassed."
“We can't have managers in our territory saying things like, ‘If you think reconciliation was bad, wait till I'm done with you,’ to a group of Inuit. We can't have that.
“And we're hearing things at the (bargaining) table like, ‘Let's not discuss wage increases because Inuit don't know how to save money anyways.’
“So then when I hear that, and of course I say something, and I address that toxic behaviour right away, I make sure that NHC is aware of it. And what do they do? They bring in that same person and put them in a different community,” Rochon said.
“It needs to stop. We need to help people. There should be nothing wrong, and employers should not be afraid to have a happy workplace, a safe workplace and a healthy workplace," he added. "There's a lot of people that need to answer for the conduct that's going on right now, and so I did have a couple of high-level meetings just very recently, and there's going to be some follow up meetings on Friday (Feb. 7), and we're going to be getting some results, and we're going to be getting some feedback on how those meetings went.
“But I hope that I'm not going to be hearing excuses for racism. I hope I'm not going to be hearing excuses for jokes about residential school. I hope I'm not going to be hearing excuses about a manager having an axe in the workplace,” Rochon said.
“Their hiring policy, clearly, is failing the retention and recruitment that they're continuing to struggle with.
“If people are going to be bullied and harassed and picked on every time they walk into work, and then when they use their voice, they're going to be called liars, they're going to have a retention or recruitment problem.”
