New legislation to protect workers comes into effect today

New legislation to protect workers from violence and harassment in the workplace comes into effect Monday.

All workplaces with 20 or more employees are now required to have a code of practice for violence and harassment.

"It will make employers think about the risks that their employees face," said Laragh Dooley, acting communications director at WorkSafeNB.

Dooley said the new regulations are just a start to making sure workers are protected.

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"I believe that … talking about it and thinking about it, putting the tools in place ahead of time, should help prevent some of those incidents from occurring," she said.

Code already in place

Dooley said many employers in the province would already have some kind of code in place but these regulations standardize that practice.

"The regulation does have a definition of workplace violence and workplace harassment and certainly WorkSafeNB has developed a guide to help employers comply with the legislation, and in that we give examples of what would not be considered harassment," she said.

Businesses in industries such as health-care, pharmacy, delivery services and others must develop a code of practice on workplace violence, regardless of the number of employees.