OTTAWA — Ottawa restaurants, women’s advocates and unions are cooking up an end to sexual intimidation, harassment and assault in the industry, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
The campaign, dubbed “Order’s Up,” launched last week with public-service announcements, an online platform for food-and-beverage workers to file complaints and seminars on sexual-harassment training.
Organizations including Unifor, the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women and the Sexual Assault Network are working together on the project, which is funded through a Status of Women Canada grant.
“By giving the tools to these workers for them to deal with situations of harassment, we are going to change the workplace culture for the service industry in Ottawa,” says Véronique Prévost, vice-president of Unifor Local 6004. “But in order for this to work, we also need owners and managers to step up and do what’s right.”
The latest seminar, Harassment in the Hospitality Industry: Employee Rights and Effective Employer Risk Management was held in Vancouver.
The goal of the campaign is to equip operators and workers with knowledge of best practices, along with an understanding of their legal rights and responsibilities when they are put in precarious situations.
