Employees punched, threatened with firearms, spat on or sexually assaulted, finds report
Many Statistics Canada (StatCan) workers who went door-to-door to collect data for the 2021 census did not have an easy time of it.
They logged 680 injury reports in that year overall, reported The Canadian Press, which obtained that data through access-to-information law.
That included more than 280 cases of harassment or violence, and at least 15 assaults by members of the public.
In the most extreme cases, employees were punched, threatened with firearms, spat on or sexually assaulted, according to the report, which was published on CTV News.
Three in five workers (61%) have observed instances of sexual harassment, but just 7% of either those who’ve seen sexual harassment happen or have had it happen to them report the issue to HR, according to a previous report.
StatCan workers also reported 137 cases of people’s dogs being aggressive or biting employees and 158 reports of slips, trips or falls.
Meanwhile, details about the total number of assaults and psychological injuries, and information about workplace fatalities were redacted, according to the report.
Population data for Canadian citizens is collected by the government every five years, with Statistics Canada workers visiting the households of anyone who is late to submit their census questionnaires.
Employees have experienced growing numbers of violence and harassment at work. In the House of Commons, for example, there were 13 such complaints from employees at the workplace in 2022-2023, nearly double the eight complaints recorded in 2021-2022.
