Dignity & Respect

Dignity & Respect

In the Workplace

“Our strength and ability for sustained growth is based on an organization which sees people as our single most important asset. We will seek out the best, and work to create a culture which is high performance, developmental and caring about the aspirations, needs and well being of each one of our employees.”

Our Principle on Dignity and Respect in the Workplace

At Cott, we are committed to ensuring that all of our employees are treated with dignity, courtesy and respect by members of our workforce and by our business associates. We recognized and believe that every employee has the right to work in an environment free of harassment. Harassment upsets our work relationships and interferes with the morale and productivity of both the victims and their colleagues. Workplace harassment will not be tolerated by the Company.

Every manager and supervisor is responsible for ensuring that:

• All employees are free from harassment in our workplace;
  
• All employees are informed of the Company’s position on harassment; and
  
• All complaints are addressed and resolved promptly, confidentially and without bias, in accordance with Company guidelines.
  

Issue 1 – What is Workplace Harassment?

Workplace harassment is any behavior, which creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment

Often there are different opinions on what is considered to be unacceptable behavior. Our point of view is clear. Harassment is any behavior, even if only a single event, which a person knows or ought reasonably to have known to be unwelcome or inappropriate.

Workplace harassment includes:

• Improper conduct, which is racially, ethnically, religiously or sexually motivated, such as derogatory comments or demeaning jokes, that continues after an objection has been made.
  
• Any display of offensive material (pictures, graffiti, notes).
  
• Intimidation, and emotional or physical abuse of any nature.
  
• Unwanted sexual advances (comments, gestures, contact).
  

Examples of a Hostile Work Environment

Hostile environment harassment can be created by anyone in the work environment, whether supervisors, other employees, or even customers or vendors. It consists of verbiage of a sexual nature, unwelcome sexual materials, or even unwelcome physical contact as a regular part of the work environment. Cartoons or posters of a sexual nature, vulgar or lewd comments or jokes, or unwanted touching or fondling all fall into this category.

However, in order for there to be legally actionable hostile environment harassment — absent some it must occur on some sort of regular basis; the employer could defend against it on the basis of a published and followed anti-harassment policy. In such circumstances, one isolated incident of inappropriate conduct is unlikely to be considered hostile environment according to the guidelines set forth by the State of California. However Cott Beverages USA, Inc. has set a stricter standard. That standard is:

Harassment is any behavior, even if only a single event, which a

person knows or ought reasonably to have known to be unwelcome or inappropriate.

Harassment and discrimination in employment is prohibited because of: Any behavior which creates a hostile environment related to the following issues is prohibited and will not be tolerated:

• Race
  
• Ancestry
  
• National Origin
  
• Color
  
• Sex
  
• Sexual Orientation
  
• Religion
  
• Disability (including AIDS and HIV diagnosis)
  
• Marital Status
  
• Age (40 and over)
  
• Medical Condition (rehabilitated cancer and genetic characteristics)
  
• Refusal of Family Care Leave
  
• Refusal of Leave for an Employee’s Serious Health Condition
  
• Denial of Pregnancy Disability Leave
  
• Retaliation for Reporting
  

Discrimination is prohibited in all employment practices including:

• Advertisements
  
• Applications and interviews
  
• Licensing or certification
  
• Referrals by employment agencies
  
• Salary, classification and duties
  
• Hiring, transferring, promoting or leaving a job
  
• Working conditions
  
• Participation in a training or apprenticeship program, employee organization or union
  

California workers are also:

• Guaranteed leaves of absence if disabled because of pregnancy
  
• Guaranteed reasonable accommodation for pregnancy
  
• Guaranteed leaves of absence for the birth or adoption of a child, for an employee’s serious health condition or to care for a parent, spouse or child with a serious health condition
  
• Protected from harassment because of their sex, race or any other category covered under the law
  
• Protected from retaliation for filing a complaint with the Department or for protesting possible violations of the law
  

California workers with disabilities are also entitled to reasonable accommodation when necessary in order to perform the job.

Issue 2 –Sexual Harassment

The Two Types of Sexual Harassment

There are two types of sexual harassment, “quid-pro-quo” and “hostile environment”

Type 1 – Quid-Pro-Quo Sexual Harassment

“Quid-pro-quo” is Latin for “this for that.” It is a trade. When the trade is on the basis of sex, it is illegal.

This is the when the employer makes sex a prerequisite to getting something in the workplace. For example: sleep with me and you’ll get the job.” That’s illegal. This type of sexual harassment is the “casting couch” cliché.

Quid-pro-quo can also include negatives. For example, “sleep with me or you’re fired” is also illegal.

Who can be sued for Unlawful harassment?

Effective January 1, 2001 employees who engage in unlawful harassment are personally liable regardless of whether the company is liable. AB 1856 has added Section 12940 (h)(3) to the Fair Employment and Housing Act.

Obviously, the woman who is fired because she wouldn’t sleep with the boss can sue. But so can a woman who the boss didn’t even want to sleep with.

Take for example a situation where the boss asks one of his assistants to sleep with him in exchange for a promotion. She does it and gets the promotion. Under the law, she has a claim, because her agreeing to his sexual demands was a condition of the promotion. She also has a claim if she refused and didn’t get the promotion.

Now, if she was just having an affair with him because she wanted to, there is no claim.

What about the other assistants? Do they have a case because the other assistant got a promotion because she was sleeping with the boss, and they did not? Probably not. In California and in most states, there is no sexual harassment or discrimination claim because a lover got special treatment. However, if the boss made sexual demands, which they refused, and that’s why they didn’t get the promotion or other benefits, they have a claim.

What about the person who accepts the offer of advancement in exchange for sex. Can she sue? She can certainly sue – she either deserved the promotion or didn’t deserve it; she shouldn’t have been put in the position of considering whether or not to sell her body to get it. The problem is the idea of “consent”. Sexual harassment must be unwelcome. If she was happy with the trade-off, she has a difficult case.

Hostile Environment Harassment

Hostile environment sexual harassment is a situation in which the employer (or a supervisor or co-worker) does or says things that make the victim feel uncomfortable because of his or her sex. Hostile environment sexual harassment does not need to include a demand for an exchange of sex for a job benefit. It is the creation of an uncomfortable environment.

First, the conduct must be offensive. If two employees have a good time exchanging sexual jokes, it would not be sexual harassment. If one employee kept telling another employee sexual jokes that the second employee found offensive, it would be sexual harassment. If two employees dated and engaged in consensual sex, this would not be sexual harassment. If one of the two then wanted to terminate the relationship, and the other used the unequal relative terms and conditions of employment of the work place to further the relationship, this would be sexual harassment.

Jokes, pictures, touching, leering, unwanted requests for a date have all been found by courts to be sexual harassment. Sexual harassment can be between people of the same sex. Sexual harassment can be a woman harassing a man.

Who Can Sue?

Anyone who is offended by a sexually harassing environment may theoretically sue. However, that employee’s offense must be reasonable. An extremely sensitive person might not be able to maintain a claim, because her feelings of having been offended were not reasonable.

The reasonableness is evaluated by a standard that is the same as a person in the victim’s circumstances. For example, what a reasonable woman might think is a hostile environment is not necessarily the same as what a man might think is a hostile environment. If it’s a woman who was harassed, it’s the woman’s point of view that counts.

Consider the following – If you believe that a comment you are about to make may be offensive to one or more people, DON’T SAY IT !.

Check for Respect and Dignity

If every employee displays respect for the dignity of others in the workplace, most problems are avoided. Consider the following when considering if a reasonable person would be offended:

• Treat others as you want to be treated.

• Treat others as you want your loved ones to be treated.

• Treat other the way they want to be treated
  
• Certainly, there are times when there are misunderstandings among employees. “Respect for dignity” means that the person who perceives behavior to be offensive will tell the other person the behavior is offensive. It is possible that the other person did not know or did not intend it to be offensive. Ask yourself:
  

HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF YOUR

• Spouse

• Child

• Parent

• Sibling

• Grandparent

Was Treated That Way?

WOULD YOU BE PROUD OR ASHAMED IF YOUR ACTIONS APPEARED

• On the Front Page of the Sunday Paper?

• On the 6 O’Clock News?

Adapt your own Zero tolerance threshold.

The plant’s response to treating harassment seriously can lead the offending workers to complain that political correctness has gone too far and that they “can’t have fun at work anymore.” Many employees beg to differ with this opinion. Generally it is the employees who believe harassment creates a hostile environment, tend to remain silent fearing harassment for their opinions. Many companies have created work environments in which employees do have fun — just not at the expense of others. What differentiates these companies is that employees are at work to work and respect each other. A Zero tolerance policy for harassment, sexual harassment, and workplace violence. By adapting your own Zero tolerance policy, co-workers must honor threshold for Zero tolerance. Simply advise co-workers that you have adapted a Zero tolerance policy. Co-workers, supervisors, managers, vendors and customers must honor your policy and refrain from offensive conduct and behavior in your presence and workplace.

Making the commitment to eradicate and prevent workplace sexual harassment makes great business sense for many reasons:

• Employees will be comfortable at work, less distracted and more productive;
  
• The company will be less vulnerable to frivolous complaints brought by opportunistic employees;
  
• The company can avoid the many negative side effects of allowing inappropriate conduct to continue (such as poor morale, gossip, absenteeism, high turnover and bad publicity); and
  
• The best employees will seek to work at the company (an ever more important issue in this era of low unemployment)
  

Sexual Harassment — Is This A Problem?

Mistake Number 1 – “Oh, That’s Just John”

John is a hard working manager. Everyone know that he only hires pretty young women, that he makes flirtatious comments to employees, and that he has a tendency to hug workers. Management is aware of these tendencies, but doesn’t believe it can afford to discipline John because he consistently exceeds production and efficiency goals.

Mistake Number 2 – The Differences Between Men And Women

Jim is an intelligent employee who has made substantial contributions to the company, however, he is facing his second complaint based on his persistence in asking female employees for a date. Jim has not received sexual harassment training and attributes his co-workers’ reaction to his efforts to the “difference between men and women.”

Mistake Number 3 – Flirting With Disaster

Sue files a complaint against Tom. She claims that he follows her around the office, ogles her, makes inappropriate comments about her clothes and has even engaged in unwelcome touching. Tom claims the two of them have flirted with each other for years and that the conduct was welcomed. Sue contends that she has asked Tom to stop the behavior but his comments and touching have actually escalated. She finally filed a complaint after Julie, a co-worker, mentioned that Tom has flirted with her as well.

Despite significant employer efforts, many employees (and supervisors) continue to believe that sexual banter is acceptable in the workplace. Thus, merely establishing harassment policies and complaint procedures is not enough — the employer must also aggressively enforce these policies. If any workers exhibit inappropriate tendencies or are “flirting with disaster,” the management team at the San Bernardino plant together with the Human Resources department must identify the problem and determine how to stop the conduct before it creates a hostile environment, loss of reputation, litigation or liability.

Issue 3 – Workplace Violence

According to widely accepted statistics, workplace violence is having a major impact on the United States. Listed below are a few of the alarming statistics.

Annually there are over 111,000 incidents of workplace violence. This number only account for those reported incidents. It has been suggested that 43% of those who are threatened and 24% of who are attacked don’t even report the incident.

Workplace homicide has been described as the fasted growing form of homicide in the country.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported over 5,000 homicides at work over the past five years.

• The number one leading cause of death on the job for women is homicide.
  
• The number two leading cause of death on the job for men is homicide.
  
• It is estimated that corporate America spends $4.2-6.4 billion per year in the aftermath of workplace violence.
  
• As of 1994, an estimated 80% of American companies and organizations had not taken steps toward dealing with the prospect of violence and aggression at work.
  
• Much of this under reaction is due to the belief that…”violence is random and unpredictable”. If this is the premise, then the natural conclusion is…” So why bother spending the energy or the money if it can still happen?” This conclusion is wrong; acts of violence can be predicted.
  

THE THREE STAGES OF VIOLENCE

The process of becoming violent can be broken into three separate and distinct stages. They are:

Stage I: Early Potential

The following behaviors are characteristic of Stage I, indicating early potential for violence:

• Objectifying and dehumanizing others
  
• Challenging authority
  
• Regularly becoming argumentative
  
• Alienating customers or clients
  
• Originating and spreading lies about others
  
• Swearing excessively; using sexually explicit language
  
• Abusing others verbally; sexually harassing others
  

When one examines Stage I violence there is the tendency to minimize the behavior as “inappropriate” but not violent. After all, the individual displaying the above behaviors has not put their hands on anyone, or even threatened to put their hands on anyone.

Stage II: Escalated Potential

The following behaviors are characteristic of Stage II, indicating escalated potential for violence:

• Arguing frequently and intensely Blatantly disregarding organizational policies and procedures
  
• Setting traps for others
  
• Stealing from the company or from other employees
  
• Making verbal threats
  
• Conveying unwanted sexual attention or violent intentions by letter, voice mail or e-mail
  
• Holding others responsible (blaming others) for all problems or difficulties
  

Stage II is considered to be the “bridge” stage, meaning that individuals at Stage I don’t generally commit acts of violence, but people, at Stage II are very close to doing so. They are still considered “potentially” violent, but are closer to realizing that potential

Stage III: Realized Potential

While Stages I and II are types of violence, State III is the most severe form of violence. The following behaviors are characteristic of Stage III, indicating realized potential for violence (for example, actual violence):

• Getting involved in physical confrontations and altercations
  
• Displaying weapons (guns, knives, pepper spray, etc.)
  
• Committing or attempting to commit assault, sexual assault, murder, arson or suicide.
  

1. There is no such thing as “A Little Pushing and Shoving”. Adults don’t get into Fistfights, except if they are Defending Themselves or Out of Control.
   

   WARNING
   

   1. The individual who displays Stage III violence is very dangerous
      
   2. These behaviors have clear intent to hurt
      
   3. Great potential for psychological harm, even if physical harm is narrowly avoided
      
   4. Intervention is generally not appropriate for co-workers, supervisors, or management
      
   5. Requires the assistance of Law Enforcement, or Mental Health Professional
      

   WARNING SIGNS CHECKLIST
   

   There are nine danger signals, or warning signs, associated with an increased risk for violence. The nine warning signs are highly correlated to workplace violence. How many warning signs can signal a problem? Only one! For these behaviors are not one-time occurrences. Rather, they are almost always part of a pattern, and are usually suggestive of an overall style of non-compliance.
   

   The Nine Warning Signs of Violent Behavior:
   

   1. Fascination with weapons
      
   2. Substance Abuse
      
   3. Severe Stress
      
   4. Violent History
      
   5. Sever Changes in Psychological Functioning
      
   6. Decreased or Inconsistent Productivity
      
   7. Social Isolation and Poor Peer Relationships
      
   8. Poor Personal Hygiene
      
   9. Drastic Changes in Personality
      

   What can an Employee Do ?
   

   If you observe a co-worker who may be at risk, advise your supervisor. The San Bernardino plant has a trained Crisis Management Team. The Crisis Management Team will evaluate the level of risk and act accordingly. The management team can provide a troubled employee with a variety of resources to assist an employee in crisis. Get involved.