Speaking up about sexual harassment takes courage.

Victims are left with no recourse and re-victimized when management fails to address sexual harassment  complaints and immediately investigate. What happens? Victims are traumatized,  their families suffer, staff often quit, financial impact on business,  workplace accidents and potential lawsuits. Ignoring  complaints of sexual harassment creates an unhealthy workplace and eventually a toxic environment. No one wins.   Why would you, as a business owner, not be interested in what is happening at your Cafe, and  at least speak to the victims?  By doing nothing you embolden the perpetrators.

It only takes one person to ruin a workplace when management fails to take the complaint of sexual harassment seriously. As a victim of sexual harassment, it is devastating, traumatic and with constant feelings of being unsafe at work makes life horrible. You never get a day off, the fear is always on your mind of what is going to happen on the next work day.

“Two executives from Stella’s Cafe are on an indefinite leave of absence from a Winnipeg restaurant chain dogged by allegations of workplace harassment.

Grant Anderson, vice-president of operations, and Brad Burrows, regional manager, have been removed from their positions, effective immediately, to ensure the integrity of the independent investigation, said a statement released by the company’s owners Monday afternoon.”

“‘Really toxic’: Abuse allegations continue to dog Winnipeg restaurant chain Stella’s Cafe”.

“Another of the creators, former Stella’s manager Sara Barsky, said on Monday that a leave of absence is not good enough

“We are excited to see a few tangible steps when it comes to our demands, but we definitely are still calling for all our demands to be met,” Barksy said.

“We don’t believe a leave of absence is enough. We want final dismissals from the company.”

“The group has also called for a public apology, said Stella’s should pay for mental health services for those affected and the creation of a human resources department within the company.”

“We want the ownership of Stella’s to publicly acknowledge the harm they’ve done, and be transparent and accountable when it comes to that. So far, with all the statements they’ve put out, they have not owned any of the behaviour,” Barsky said.

“They have not taken responsibility for any of their actions. That is so important in the healing process for us and our community.”

Stella’s Cafe is not an isolated case of women suffering from repeated sexual harassment.  IF no one does anything then the violence continues and escalates. The company and their   management  teams are responsible for keeping their employees safe, maintaining a respectful workplace and investigating sexual harassment complaints in a timely fashion. Again it makes good business sense.

“In the End we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silent of our friends.” Martin Luther King Jr.

I  would hope  that the company makes the choice to start an  in-depth investigation of the sexual harassment complaints, remove those responsible, make sure victims are supported with counseling/professional services, bystander training, create policies and procedures to address  respectful/harassment free workplace, implementation of these policies  and provide  an apology. An acknowledgement can the beginning of the healing process. Allowing victims of sexual harassment and bystanders to share their experiences can be empowering. Having policies in place to ensure everyone knows what to do, how to file a complaint and the chain of command if nothing is done.  Speaking up about sexual harassment helps all employees.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/stellas-executive-indefinite-leave-allegations-1.4902331