Intimate Partner Violence Is a Workplace Issue. Most Workplaces Still Aren’t Set Up to Respond.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing a short, three-part series on intimate partner violence (IPV) (domestic violence, as it's called in the legislation) as a workplace issue.

This post accompanies the third and final resource in that series: a practical 90-day roadmap for organizations that want their response to IPV to hold up in real life — legally, operationally, and humanly — rather than relying on policy language or improvisation in high-risk moments.

Together, the three tools are designed to support judgment and effective implementation, not check-the-box compliance:

1. a trauma- and violence-informed (TVI) workplace response self-assessment

2. a legal awareness self-assessment focused on how IPV engages employment law obligations

3. a 90-day roadmap to help organizations move from uncertainty to capability

Each tool can stand on its own, but they are meant to be used together. You can download the consolidated package here:

Workplace DV Readiness Package.pdf

Download PDF • 15.37MB

Why this series exists

Canadian employment-related laws have recognized IPV as a workplace issue for well over a decade. Depending on the circumstances, IPV can engage employment standards, occupational health and safety, human rights, privacy, and reporting obligations.

And yet, in practice, IPV is still widely understood as private, exceptional, or outside an employer’s role.

That assumption shows up everywhere:

• in organizational policies that exist on paper but aren’t trusted in practice;

• in uncertainty about when legal duties are triggered; and

• in responses that depend heavily on individual judgment or improvisation when risk emerges.

The result is that disclosures remain hidden, risks go unaddressed, and both employees and workplaces are left vulnerable, often without realizing it.

This isn’t about blaming employers. It reflects a broader systemic disconnect between legal frameworks, evidence-based guidance, and how workplaces actually operate under pressure.

The critical gap in workplace intimate partner violence

There is no shortage of strong, evidence-based resources on IPV and work. The Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children at Western University, in particular, has done extensive work translating research into practical guidance for employers, including policies, risk assessment tools, safety planning templates, and training materials. Their work is foundational, and I regularly point employers toward it.

The challenge I continue to see is the distance between:

• those resources,

• jurisdiction-specific legal obligations, and

• real-world workplace decision-making.

Employers may adopt a model policy without understanding how it interacts with their existing health and safety obligations. Others may hesitate to act at all, unsure what the law requires (or permits) when IPV risk becomes known. In some cases, well-intentioned responses can inadvertently increase risk, legal exposure, or harm.

That gap is where these tools are intended to help.

What the three tools are designed to do

This series is not about providing templates or legal advice. It’s about helping organizations think more clearly about how decisions are made when IPV intersects with work.

Taken together, the tools are intended to help employers:

• understand how and when legal duties are engaged,

• recognize how discretion needs to operate differently when IPV is involved,

• assess whether their workplace is actually safe for disclosure, and

• move from good intentions to coordinated, defensible practice.

The final resource — the 90-day roadmap — is deliberately practical. It focuses on sequencing, governance, and capability-building, rather than trying to do everything at once.

Using the resources

If you’re encountering these materials for the first time, you may want to start with the legal awareness self-assessment, then move to the TVI response assessment, and finally the 90-day roadmap. If you’re already working in this space, you may prefer to dip into the sections most relevant to your current challenges.

All three tools are shared for education and capacity-building purposes only. They do not constitute legal advice.

My hope is that, used thoughtfully, they help workplaces move closer to responses that are safer for employees and more defensible for organizations.

From awareness to workable practice

I’m an Ontario employment lawyer, and my practice focuses on legally complex and sensitive workplace issues, including the intersection of intimate partner violence, employment law, occupational health and safety, human rights, privacy, and trauma- and violence-informed practice.

Across this work, the through-line is the same: helping organizations strengthen decision-making so that risk, harm, and inequity are addressed through design, not reaction. In the context of IPV, that means building workplace approaches that don’t depend on individual heroics, ad hoc judgment, or crisis response, but on systems that are clear, coordinated, and capable of holding under pressure.

For organizations ready to move beyond reflection into structured action, I support leadership teams in translating legal obligations and evidence-based guidance into workplace practice that actually works in real conditions.

A common starting point is an IPV Legal & Organizational Readiness Alignment Session. This is a practical, working session designed for HR, Health & Safety, legal, and senior leadership, focused on clarifying obligations, decision points, and next steps.

These sessions typically help organizations:

• clarify legal duties across employment standards, occupational health and safety, human rights, privacy, and reporting considerations

• understand how legal judgment and discretion may need to operate differently when IPV is involved

• assess where current policies, systems, and lived practice align — and where material gaps or risks exist

• build a shared language and coordinated approach across functions

• leave with a clear, prioritized roadmap for the next stage of capability-building

If your organization is ready to move from awareness into credible implementation in ways that are aligned with Canadian law, trusted by employees, operationally realistic, and defensible, I would be glad to support you. Please reach out to get started.