Effective September 1, 2025, all provincially regulated employers in Nova Scotia are required to establish and implement a written workplace harassment prevention policy and ensure that all employees are trained on the new policy. The requirements are included in Part 27: Harassment in the Workplace, in the Workplace Health and Safety Regulations under Nova Scotia’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Quick Hits
- New rules in Nova Scotia applicable to all provincially regulated workplaces define “workplace harassment” to include bullying, intimidation, threats, and unwanted sexual conduct.
- The rules require employers to establish and implement a written workplace harassment prevention policy.
- Employers are also required to train all employees on the workplace harassment prevention policy.
- The rules took effect September 1, 2025.
‘Workplace Harassment’ Defined
The regulations now define “workplace harassment” as:
a single significant occurrence or a course of repeated occurrences of objectionable or unwelcome conduct, comment or action in the workplace, including bullying, that, whether intended or not, degrades, intimidates or threatens, and includes all of the following, but does not include any action taken by an employer or supervisor relating to the management and direction of an employee or the workplace:
(i) workplace harassment or bullying that is based on any personal characteristic, including, but not limited to a characteristic referred to in clauses 5(1)(h) to (v) of the Human Rights Act,
(ii) inappropriate sexual conduct, including, but not limited to, sexual solicitation or advances, sexually suggestive remarks or gestures, circulating or sharing inappropriate images or unwanted physical contact.
Written Workplace Harassment Prevention Policy
Employers must establish and implement a written workplace harassment prevention policy beginning on September 1, 2025. Employers must include in the policy procedures for:
- making a workplace harassment complaint;
- investigating a complaint of workplace harassment; and
- informing the complainant and the subject of the complaint of the result of the investigation or any corrective action that has been or will be taken as a result of the investigation
Employers must also include the following statements in the policy:
- Employees are “entitled to employment free of workplace harassment,” “have an obligation not to engage in workplace harassment,” and “are encouraged to report incidents of workplace harassment.”
- “[T]he employer will not disclose any information obtained in relation to a complaint … unless the disclosure is required by law, necessary for the purposes of investigating the complaint, or necessary for the purposes of taking corrective action with respect to the complaint.”
- “[T]he employer will not reprimand or seek reprisal against an employee who has made a workplace harassment complaint in good faith.”
- The employer commits to investigating and taking appropriate corrective action in response to all complaints of workplace harassment.
- The policy “is not intended to discourage, prevent or preclude a complainant from exercising other legal rights under any other law.”
Employers must ensure that all employees are trained in the workplace harassment prevention policy, review it at least once every three years, and update it if necessary.
Key Takeaways
Employers may want to review their current harassment prevention policies, especially because the Nova Scotian government is taking significant steps to create safer, healthier, and more respectful workplaces for everyone.
Employers may also want to review their current investigation processes to ensure the processes comply with Nova Scotia’s requirements for effectively handling harassment complaints.
