Kelly VanBuskirk: Protect your employees or pay the price
Tuesday, December 4, 2007 | 08:12 AM ET
Money Talks is a collection of daily columns from The Business Network, which airs weekday mornings on CBC Radio One at 5:45 a.m. ET (6:15 a.m. ET in N.L.).
It would not come as a surprise to most employers that harassment in the workplace can be disruptive and difficult to deal with. But, as one recent case from Prince Edward Island demonstrates, employers who fail to take care of their own may end up paying a costly price.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gael Matheson was a Presbyterian minister in P.E.I. Reverend Matheson was the minister for four isolated communities in rural P.E.I. During the late 1980s she was subject to sexual harassment by a member of her parish. At the same time, she was receiving anonymous threatening letters from a parishioner who did not believe women should be ordained.