It was far from a stellar review of the municipality’s workplace.
Evangeline Colman-Sadd, auditor general of Halifax Regional Municipality, released her report on Management of Respectful Workplaces at the audit and finance committee Wednesday.
She said there’s a lack of senior oversight to make improvements for the municipal workforce, and identified a number of gaps in policies, training, anonymous complaints and timelines.
“The harassment prevention policy and the workplace violence procedure both need to be updated,” she said. “As well we know that HRM does not have a whistleblower policy.”
Several recommendations from consultants’ reports dating back to 2016 and 2019 have not yet been completed.
There is a draft of a harassment prevention policy, which was a recommendation from a report in 2016, but there is no timeline for its completion, she said. Even the draft has gaps including how to handle complaints from senior business unit management and establishing timelines for the complaint process, she said.
The workplace violence prevention procedure hasn’t been updated since 2014, she said, and it doesn’t clearly outline when corporate safety should be involved or include monitoring.
Unlike many other cities, HRM doesn’t have a specific whistleblower policy. The code of conduct states whistleblowers will be protected, but it doesn’t provide specifics, Colman-Sadd explained.
“It is important to state exactly how whistleblowers will be protected,” she said.
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