It’s Your Business: A Domestic & Intimate Partner Violence Workplace Toolkit

Brief Description

In 2018, new legislation came into effect under the New Brunswick Employment Standards Act requiring that employers provide certain leaves for their employees who have been impacted by domestic, intimate partner or sexual violence. In April 2019, the New Brunswick Occupational Health and Safety regulation pertaining to workplace violence and harassment came into effect, requiring employers to take precautions to ensure every worker has a healthy and safe workplace that is free of violence and harassment.

The Domestic & Intimate Partner Violence (DIPV) Workplace Toolkit provides employers, unions, and employees with information and resources to recognize and respond to situations in which DIPV enters the workplace. The toolkit includes an intersecting package of fact sheets, an e-learning training, and in-person trainings.

Goals

The main goals of the It’s Your Business: A DIPV Workplace Toolkit are to:

• Educate and raise awareness of the need for early intervention in situations where domestic or intimate partner violence may have an impact on the workplace;
• Promote safer practices, policies, and procedures that support victims of DIPV in the workplace; and
• Support businesses, large and small, in meeting their social responsibility to prevent DIPV from spilling over into the workplace.

Clientele

The It’s Your Business: A DIPV Workplace Toolkit is applicable to unionized and non-unionized workplaces, business owners, management, and employees. It can be used in large and small businesses, in rural and urban workplaces, and across all industry sectors. 

Core Components

The core training content of It’s Your Business: A DIPV Workplace toolkit is comprised of 12 interconnected fact sheets. These fact sheets, supplemented by e-learning modules and in-person trainings, provide employers and employees with information and resources to recognize and respond when DIPV enters the workplace. Appropriate elements of the toolkit can be incorporated into businesses and workplaces.

Fact sheets and trainings provide learners an opportunity to:

• Learn about the impacts of DIPV on employees and the broader workplace,
• Understand why there is a need to address issues of DIPV in the workplace
• Learn their rights and responsibilities with respect to addressing DIPV in the workplace;
• Learn how to help create a safer and more positive work environment; and
• Develop practical tools and identify workplace measures that can be implemented.

Implementation Information

Some of the critical elements for the implementation of this program or initiative include the following:

• Organizational requirements: The lead organization should have expertise with DIPV and/or public education and training.
• Partnerships: Strong relationships with unions, professional associations and governing bodies, workplace safety organizations, chambers of commerce, local Domestic Violence Death Review Committees (if applicable), local campaigns or initiatives with similar goals, and subject matter experts are required to develop appropriate and accurate training and reach target audiences.
• Training and technical assistance: Limited information on this topic.
• Risk assessment tools: In New Brunswick, all employers must perform a risk assessment for the likelihood of violence at their workplace. Employers who regularly employ 20 or more employees, specific types of work and workplaces (e.g., emergency service providers, early learning and childcare services, or cannabis retail outlets), or if risk of violence was identified during the risk assessment, must develop and implement a written code of practice to manage violence. Guides, templates and support are provided by WorkSafeNB.
• Materials & resources: Awareness and familiarity with applicable legislation and regulations is required to ensure materials are relevant to the jurisdiction delivered. The lead organization, or a partner agency, should have capacity to host materials developed and e-learning trainings online.

International Endorsements

The most recognized classification systems of evidence-based crime prevention programs have classified this program or initiative as follows:

• Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development: Not applicable.
• Crime Solutions/OJJDP Model Program Guide: Not applicable.
• SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices: Not applicable.
• Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy: Not applicable.

Gathering Canadian Knowledge

Canadian Implementation Sites

The It’s Your Business: A DIPV Workplace Toolkit was inspired by the work of the Family Violence and the Workplace Research Team at the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research in the 1990s. The Toolkit and its website were launched in the early 2000s to develop, manage and distribute resources to address domestic violence in the workplace. New Brunswick’s Domestic Violence Death Review Committee recommended the development of e-learning modules to ensure information was accessible to all employers. Subsequently, an updated Toolkit was re-launched with e-learning modules in 2023. The Toolkit is now housed with the Public Legal Education and Information Service of New Brunswick and is overseen by the New Brunswick D/IPV in the Workplace Committee.

Through Public Safety Canada’s Gun and Gang Violence Action Fund, funding was provided to the Department of Justice and Public Safety to implement its 5-year plan on gun and gang violence. As part of that plan, the province implemented a Crime Prevention Conditional Grant fund to facilitate local-level crime prevention initiatives. The Toolkit received funding from this grant program in 2022-2023 to support re-launch.

Main Findings from Canadian Outcome Evaluation Studies

No information available.

Cost Information

No information available.

References

It’s Your Business: A Domestic & Intimate Partner Violence Workplace Toolkit. (2021). www.toolkitnb.ca

WorkSafeNB. (2024). Violence. https://ohsguide.worksafenb.ca/topic/violence.html

For more information on this program, contact:

Public Legal Education and Information Service of New Brunswick

P.O. Box 6000

Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5H1

Telephone: (506)453-5369

Email: pleisnb@gnb.ca

Website: https://www.legal-info-legale.nb.ca/