Every Employee Deserves to Feel Safe at Work
What Nova Scotia’s new workplace rules mean for businesses and nonprofits.
Employee raising her hand during a workplace discussion representing psychological safety, respectful workplaces, and clear HR practices for nonprofits and small businesses.
If you have employees in Nova Scotia and you're not a bank or a broadcaster, new workplace safety rules now apply to you.
Since September 1, 2025, every provincially regulated employer in Nova Scotia is required to have a written harassment prevention policy. There's no minimum number of employees. If you have someone on payroll, this applies to you.
The language "provincially regulated employer" tends to make people think it refers to government or large industry. Almost 90% of employers in Canada are provincially regulated. The ones who aren't are federally regulated industries like banks, telecoms, and interprovincial transportation companies. Everyone else falls under provincial law.
What changed and why it matters
Nova Scotia's Stronger Workplaces for Nova Scotia Act came into force last fall and made some significant changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The biggest one for most employers is that psychological well-being is now part of the legal definition of health and safety.
That matters because every health and safety obligation in the Act now includes psychological health and safety. It's no longer a nice-to-have. It's built into the same framework as physical safety.
On the WCB side, psychological injuries are now compensable. Gradual onset psychological injuries, the kind that build up over time from repeated bullying, harassment, or significant workplace stressors, are now covered under workers' compensation. In 2025 alone, WCB Nova Scotia recorded 173 psychological injury claims. That number is going up, not down.
What the policy requirement actually looks like
Your written harassment prevention policy needs to cover some specific ground. At minimum it must:
Define workplace harassment consistent with the regulations, including bullying, intimidation, threats, and unwanted sexual conduct.
State clearly that every employee is entitled to a workplace free of harassment and that all employees have an obligation not to engage in it.
Encourage employees to report incidents and commit to confidentiality in the process.
Commit to no retaliation against employees who make a complaint in good faith.
Include procedures for receiving, investigating, and resolving complaints.
Train all employees on the policy and review it at least every 3 years.
One clarification worth knowing: the definition of workplace harassment expressly excludes actions taken by an employer or supervisor relating to the management and direction of employees. Managing performance, setting expectations, and making operational decisions are not harassment. That distinction matters, and it's worth having in writing.
Harassment doesn't stop at the front door
The regulations cover incidents that happen outside the physical workplace too. Work-sponsored events, conferences, client meetings, and situations involving contractors or members of the public all fall under your responsibility as an employer.
Employees don't need to demonstrate a pattern of repeated behaviour before a complaint is valid, a single serious incident is enough.
The duty to accommodate intersects with all of this
Under the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act, your duty to accommodate has always existed. What's shifted is how often it now comes up in the context of mental health and psychological injury.
When an employee is dealing with anxiety, depression, or a stress-related condition connected to the workplace, you have an obligation to provide reasonable accommodation, up to the point of undue hardship. The size of your organization affects what that looks like in practice. A small business reaches that threshold sooner than a large employer with more resources and flexibility.
What hasn't changed: accommodation doesn't have to be perfect, but it has to be reasonable. The best approach is an open, ongoing conversation with the employee about what they need and what you can offer.
Where most small employers are right now
In my experience, most business owners and nonprofit leaders genuinely want their people to feel safe. They may not have had the roadmap and somewhere along the way the policy piece got pushed to the bottom of a very long list.
A written policy isn’t just a legal requirement; it’s a signal to your team about what kind of workplace you’re running. People notice when there’s a clear process and they also notice when there isn’t one.
Getting this in place doesn't have to take months. With the right support, most organizations can have a solid, compliant policy built and communicated to their team in a matter of weeks.
Not sure where your organization stands?
The EmpowHR HR Foundations Checklist covers 24 things every small business and nonprofit should have in place, including your harassment prevention policy. Download it free at empowhrconsulting.ca.
If you'd like to talk through what your organization needs, I'm happy to connect. Reach me at jan@empowhrconsulting.ca or 902-222-2046.
Jan Underhill, CPHR, CCDP | EmpowHR Consulting | empowhrconsulting.ca | People • Performance • Protection