Running head: BRIAN STEWART’S RESTAURANT INCIDENT INVESTIGATION 1

Workplace Accident Investigation: Racial Harassment at the Brian Stewart’s restaurant

Pham Bao Ngoc Vuong (Megan) – N01238584

Jayshree Carpen – N01274534

Ngoc Nguyen – N01255182

BHSW 2502- Occupational Health and Safety

Professor Jennifer Whitaker

Humber College

April 5th, 2020

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Table of content

Introduction …………………………...…………………………...…………………………….. 3

Purpose and Objective …………………………...…………………………...……………….… 3

The Incident Investigation Team …………………………...…………………………...………. 3

Critical factors in the Investigation Process …………………………...……………....………… 4

Gathering Evidence …………………………...…………………………...…………………….. 5

Human Factors

Situational Factors

Environmental Factors

Investigative Methods ...……………...…………………………...……………………...……… 5

Walkthroughs

Interview process

Re-enactment

Investigative Tools …………………………...…………………………...……………….……. 8

Framework, Approach and Theory …………………………...…………………………...……. 8

Ecosocial Theory

Epidemiology Theory

Results ...………………………...…………………………...…………………………...…….. 11

Recommendations ...………………………...…………………………...…………………...… 13

Reference ...………………………...…………………………...………………….………...… 14

Appendix ...………………………...…………………………...………………….………...… 16
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Introduction
There has been a recent spike in racism toward Asians since the emergence and spread of
the COVID-19 pandemic in North America (Francisco, 2020). Due to the fears surrounding the
outbreak from China, there have been countless discriminated cases documented in which the
targets are not only Chinese community, but also the Asian communities in general (Lau, 2020).
Last week, the Occupational Health and Safety Department received a racial harassment
complaint from an employee who used to work for the Brian Stewart’s restaurant. The employee
was terminated after filing the complaint. According to the complaint, while still working at the
Brian Stewart’s restaurant, the employee was repeatedly and openly exposed to incidents of
racial discrimination and harassment because of their Asian ethnicity. This circumstance warrants
further inquiry.
Purpose and Objective of the report
The specific scope of this report is to examine the racism and harassment issues of reporting and

presenting the process of undertaking an Accident Investigation at the Brian Stewart’s restaurant.

The key objectives of the report are to:

1. Identify any applicable legal requirements of the incident investigation

2. Gather information on the human, situational, and environmental factors contributing to

incident

3. Present the investigative methods to conduct interviews concerning an incident

4. Analyze the information gathered by utilizing appropriate tools  

5. Report the type of incident as well as the results of the incident investigation

6. Suggest recommendations to prevent similar incidents in the workplace

The Incident Investigation Team

The Incident investigation team included the human resources coordinator, the health and

safety officer, human rights officer, a licensed private investigator and a lawyer. Each individual

conducting the investigation were required acknowledge about the workplace harassment
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incident, reprisal provisions and rather than just potentially participated in the discrimination

incident to avoid distorted information and bias.

Critical factors in the investigative process

Incident investigation is influenced by timing, severity, and legal requirements

(Kelloway, Francis, & Gatien, 2017, p.293). Since the incident is currently happening, it was

essential to perform a walkthrough at the Brian Stewart’s restaurant in a timely manner. The

racial harassment incident resulted in the termination of the complainant’s job and potentially

mental issues. After the severity of the incident was identified, it was necessary to give the

complainant proper medical attention such as counselling with a mental health practitioner and

medical treatment if needed.

Regardless of the system used to judge seriousness, the restaurant has a legal obligation

to report injury-related incidents (Kelloway, Francis, & Gatien, 2017, p.294). The legal

requirements are determined based on the seriousness of the incident. The Human Rights Code

Amendment Act (2006), section 5(2), suggests that all employees have the right to freedom from

harassment in the workplace by anyone because, of among other prohibited grounds, including

race, color, ancestry, place of origin, ethnic origin, citizenship and creed (see Appendix A). The

complainant can file a formal human rights application with the Human Rights Tribunal of

Ontario (Ontario Human Rights Commission, n.d.).

Under section 32.0.7 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), when a

complaint is raised, the onus is on the restaurant to ensure that a fair investigation is conducted.

(see Appendix B). Under clause 32.0.1 (1) (b) (2016), the employer also shall, in consultation

with the committee or a health and safety representative, develop and implement the workplace

harassment policy in writing (see Appendix C). The investigation could be carried out by
BRIAN STEWART’S RESTAURANT INCIDENT INVESTIGATION 5

someone external to the organization if the employer or supervisor is the alleged harasser

(section 32.0.6 (2) (b), 2016, see Appendix C).

Gathering evidence

The sources of incidents can be identified by considering the three contributing factors:

human, situational, environmental.

Human factors

In the restaurant, people who the complainant had interacted with on a daily basis were

customers, coworkers and supervisor. The step of asking the worker and people they worked

with was intended to collect information and facts, not to blame (Kelloway, Francis, & Gatien,

2017, p.295). The following questions were asked during investigating human factors (See

Appendix D).

Situational factors

Next, it was critical to identify the work environment and conditions that led to the incident. The

following questions were asked during investigating situational factors (See Appendix E).

Environmental factors

Environmental factors include the indoor environment, space and workplace management.

Culture also has a significant impact on the occurrence of harassment. The following questions

were asked during investigating environmental factors (See Appendix F).

Investigative methods

We conducted a detailed timeline of the incident during the investigation to structure

events and actions in time, accurately. Doing this helped the investigator evaluate potential,

causal pathways. After the timeline was partly developed by approach and theory, the available
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tools were used to support the evaluation, structuring and communication of the findings since

the gathering of information and the analysis of the incident need to take place as a process.

Walkthroughs

At the beginning of the investigation, a thorough walkthrough was performed to record any

observable, causal factors including work habits and routine, working conditions, mandatory

document and posters related to occupational health and safety on the bulletin board. Here, it was

the supervisor’s responsibility to answer and provide all necessary information during this

process due to their familiarity with the workspace.

Interview process

The first interview with the complainant was scheduled after the walkthrough process was

completed. Before the interview, the victim consulted with a mental health practitioner to ensure

that they felt respected and comfortable to talk about their experience more openly and honestly.

The victim’s emotional responses were observed throughout the interview process and the

investigators responded accordingly either by taking a break or moving on with another question.

Afterwards, the incident investigative team scheduled interviews with the suspects and the

witnesses involved in the racial harassment case based on the victim’s declaration including the

supervisor. Firstly, the specialists introduced themselves to the employees and supervisor at the

restaurant to make them aware that they were under investigation. We aimed to carry a

confidential and neutral interview. Hence, the employees were interviewed separately with the

specialist. Timely appointments were made with the employees who were absent on the day of

the interviews. This was done to facilitate all parties during the investigation process. An onsite

interview booth was set up in an office, at the back of the restaurant. This allowed easy
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accessibility for all workers and was less time consuming, since they did not have to travel to

their interview.

During the interview process, we tried to ensure that the interviewees were comfortable with the

surroundings, offered them to drink some water and keep a friendly manner when asking them

questions. After listening to the interviewees, we repeated what they said to make sure we

understood correctly their statements. One specialist sat outside to make sure that all information

revealed during the interviews were kept private and confidential before any conclusion was

drawn. Also, during the interview process, the employees and supervisors were encouraged to

recall the event in their own way. We tried to not put any pressure on them, not blaming them or

interrupting their train of thought. At the end of the interview, we thanked the employees and

supervisor for their valuable time and cooperation. We left each of them our contact information

and encouraged them to contact Occupational Health and Safety if they remember further

information.

Re-enactment

Re-enactment is an effective recall method to complete a thorough investigation. Since racial

harassment could directly and indirectly make the victim feel humiliated, offended or degraded,

it was not recommended to request a re-enactment of the events. Therefore, we conducted a “do

not show-tell” guideline that each of the witnesses was asked to recall, in their own words what

they observed. Their stories were analyzed to help confirm the relevance of the information.

After that, all of the employees were asked to gather to listen to a summary of the incident. If any

of them disagreed with any details of the incident, we would ask to see them separately to get

more information.
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Investigative Tools

At the beginning of the investigation, the investigator completed a form (See Appendix

G), to help gather necessary background information on the incident and to make the creation of

an investigation plan easier. During the walkthrough investigation, a checklist was used to

document observations. Pictures were also taken in and around the workspace, particularly of the

bulletin board and the employees’ social space. The CCTV camera was accessed to collect any

relevant evidence since the incidence of harassment occurred on several occasions. The list of

open-ended questions was asked at appropriate times and according to the flow of the

conversation. Conversations during the interview were recorded with full consent of the

interviewees. The specialist also took notes of any important information with the consent of the

interviewees during the interview such as response times and body language.

Analysis of Framework, Approach and Theory

After information has been gathered by walkthrough, interviewing, and conducting the

timeline, the next step was to conduct the actual analysis to determine the root cause of the

incident by using framework and approach. The analysis and evaluation of the incident aimed to

induce change in attitudes towards accident prevention, paying more attention to the source of

causes and highlighting weaknesses of the system in the workplace.

Eco social Theory

From an Occupational Health and Safety management perspective, the main goal was to

understand the causes of the incident. To deeply understand ‘root causes’ rather than just the

immediately apparent causes, we created a framework based on the Ecosocial Approach

advanced by Krieger. We analyzed and evaluated the attitudes towards the causes of the incident

by using a conceptual framework (Figure 1), to illustrate the various relationships suggested by
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our research within employees at Brian Stewart’s restaurant. Particularly, this model illustrated

pathways between the racial harassment in the workplace environment and the illegal responses

from the management that lead to unhealthy and unethical outcomes.

Figure 1: Ecosocial theory: schematic illustration as applied to analyzing the embodiment of racial

inequality and its implications for health inequities. Source: Krieger (1999) & Krieger (2010)

The framework illustrated the components of an eco-social analysis between racism and mental

health consequences. This was investigated the levels of the incident throughout the interviews

and the walkthrough observations. A major challenge was to develop the methods to study the

health impact of structural determinants of racial inequality, including institutional policies and

practices. That requires legislation related, including national, regional, state, political

infrastructures, and workplace conditions (Gee & Ford, 2011).

Epidemiology Theory

To fill out the challenge of the framework, we also used the epidemiologic approach to support

the harassment’s investigation, in order to create the incident causation. Investigative

BRIAN STEWART’S RESTAURANT INCIDENT INVESTIGATION 10

epidemiology (Figure 2) entails a detailed investigation of a group of incidents, selected or

otherwise, by personal interview with the vulnerable worker and could be called "case"

epidemiology (Iskrant, 1962).

Figure 2: Investigative epidemiologic approach to accident causation. Source: Iskrant, 1962

In Brian Stewart’s restaurant, we were more seriously considering the multiple dimensions of

structural racism as fundamental causes of mental health disparities. While certain tentative

hypotheses were included in the selection of some of the questions, the investigation generally

was unstructured and allowed for open-ended questioning and spontaneous statements. These

questions and statements potentially provided more details on the levels of incidents through

different viewpoints of individuals. For instance, the situation characteristics are indicated by the

questions from situational factors of the incident (appendix B) of interview. This type of

investigation has been challenged as not being true epidemiology, since there is no population

base and rates cannot be calculated; however, with the combination of the framework and

epidemiologic approach, the results of the investigation will be accurate as well as eliminating

the failures from the investigative process by filtering and systemizing the information.
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Results

After a careful and rigorous investigation of the racial discrimination incident at the Brian

Stewarts’s restaurant, our questions were answered. It was found, based on the evidence gathered

surrounding the human factors of this investigation, that:

 The racial slurs were made and used daily either by the supervisor, I fellow employees or

even customers. The discrimination happened for two months before the employee was

terminated. 

 The harassers, found to be the supervisor, fellow employees and even customers, would

make inappropriate comments to this particular Asian employee, blaming them for the

spread and outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Supervisor and other workers would

refuse to talk to or be in close contact with this individual. The individual was even

blamed for the reduction in business sales for the restaurant. Customers would appear

upset when served by this Asian worker and would even make comments such as, “you

shouldn’t be here.” 

 The worker did perform all job duties thoroughly, safely and according to the restaurant's

policy and procedures. 

 The worker would try to ignore the racial slurs thrown at them from all parties. It was

reported that, sometimes the worker would lock themselves in the washroom and cry. A

change in attitude was also seen as time progressed and the harassment continued. The

worker appeared sad, unmotivated and stressed, all contrary to their initial work behavior

and attitude.
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 The harassment from the supervisor and the employees was witnessed by other

employees.

Based on the situational factors which led to the incident, it was found that:

 The harassment would usually occur in the storage area where there are not many people

present but there were instances where it occurred in the kitchen, in the presence of other

employees. 

 In places such as the storage area, where many employees were not usually present at a

time, footage from the CCTV camera was retrieved and analyzed to reveal that incidents

of harassment, to this specific employee, indeed occurred on several different occasions

throughout the two months from the first harassment incident to the employee being

terminated. 

 This Asian worker held a full-time position and would work a standard 9AM to 5PM

shift, Mondays to Fridays. Incidents of the harassment were unpredictable and would

occur at any point of their shift. 

 No objects were involved in the harassment incident. 

Investigating the environmental factors of the incident, it was revealed that:

 There was a social space/lunch room available for workers. However, it was a small

space, hence it did not allow employees preferred distance from others. 

 There was a stable working schedule. However, demand for workers to stay overtime was

unpredictable and based on circumstances out of the control of management. Occurrences

of such were usually seldom. 

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 There was a poor employee dynamic in the workplace; feedback from supervisor and

colleagues was disrupted, there was poor leadership and there was also a lack of cultural

integrity. 

 The workplace culture lacked communication skills, had poor management and

workplace practices and inadequate policies and philosophies.

Recommendations

Recommendations urge specific actions to be taken with regard to policy, practice,

theory, or subsequent research. They are specific suggestions that are made with regards to

further research on the topic. Some suggestions we can offer to handle our results include:

 Training for the supervisor to better manage the day to day activities and operation of

the organization. This will help the supervisor to empower employees to make

decisions, support and interact with them, and act consistently.

 Improve workplace practices. Practices related to recruiting, selection, onboarding,

compensation and benefits, rewards and recognition, training and development,

advancement/promotion, performance management, wellness, and work/life balance.

 Implementing new or modifying existing employment policies including, but not

limited to, attendance, dress code, code of conduct, and scheduling, in addition to

organizational philosophies such as hiring, compensation, pay for performance, and

internal transfer and promotion.

 Improve the work environment to include what people place on their desks, what the

organization hangs on its walls, how it allocates space and offices and how common

areas are used.

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References
Francisco, T. (March 25, 2020). Asian Americans reporting racism, harassment and COVID-19
pandemic. WGN American. Retrieved April 2, 2020 from
https://wgntv.com/news/coronavirus/asian-americans-reporting-racism-harassment-amid-
covid-19-pandemic/
Gee, G. C., & Ford, C. L. (2011). Structural Racism and Health Inequities: Old Issues, New
Directions. Du Bois review : social science research on race, 8(1), 115–132.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742058X11000130
Government of Ontario (2019, October 28). Understand the law on workplace violence and
harassment. Retrieved from https://www.ontario.ca/page/understand-law-workplace-
violence-and-harassment#section-5
Greenwald, A. G., Banaji, M. R., Rudman, L. A., Farnham, S. D., Nosek, B. A., & Mellott, D. S.
(2002). A unified theory of implicit attitudes, stereotypes, self-esteem, and self-concept.
Psychological review, 109(1), 3.
Iskrant, A., P., (1962). The epidemiologic approach to accident causation. American journal of
public health and the nation's health, 52(10), 1708–1711.
https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.52.10.1708
Iskrant, A. P. (1962). The epidemiologic approach to accident causation. American Journal of
Public Health and the Nation’s Health, 52(10), 1708-1711.
Kelloway, K., Francis, L., & Gatien, B. (2017). Management of Occupational Health and Safety
(7th ed.). Scarborough, ON: Nelson Education
Krieger, N., et al (2008). The inverse hazard law: blood pressure, sexual harassment, racial
discrimination, workplace abuse and occupational exposures in US low-income black,
white and Latino workers. Social science & medicine, 67(12), 1970-1981.
Krieger, N. (1994). Epidemiology and the web of causation: has anyone seen the spider?. Social
science & medicine, 39(7), 887-903.
Krieger, N. (1999). Embodying inequality: a review of concepts, measures, and methods for
studying health consequences of discrimination. International journal of health services,
29(2), 295-352.
BRIAN STEWART’S RESTAURANT INCIDENT INVESTIGATION 15

Krieger, N. (2010). 11 The Science and Epidemiology of Racism and Health: Racial/Ethnic
Categories, Biological Expressions of Racism, and the Embodiment of Inequality—an
Ecosocial Perspective. WHAT’S THE USE OF RACE?, 225.
Lau, R. (March 11, 2020). Selective xenophobia: What COVID-19 is teaching us about who we
target when it comes to racism. Montreal. CTV News. Retrieved April 2, 2020
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/selective-xenophobia-what-covid-19-is-teaching-us-about-
who-we-target-when-it-comes-to-racism-1.4848134
Occupational Health and Safety Act. (1990). Violence and harassment. 32.0.7 Duties re
harassment.
Olson, A., Tang, T. (2020). ‘Chinatown is bleeding’: Misguided COVID-19 fears hit Asian
American businesses. The Associated Press. Global News. Retrieved April 2, 2020 from
https://globalnews.ca/news/6563834/chinatown-restaurants-suffering-coronavirus/
Ontario Human Rights Commission. (n.d.). Racial harassment: know your rights (brochure).
Retrieved April 2, 2020 from http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/racial-harassment-know-your-
rights-brochure
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Appendix A
3.4. Racial harassment

3.4.1. Code protections for harassment

Section 5(2) of the Code provides that all employees have a right to freedom from

harassment in the workplace by the employer, employer’s agent, or by another

employee because of, among other grounds, race, colour, ancestry, place of origin,

ethnic origin, citizenship and creed. This right to be free from harassment includes

the workplace but also the “extended workplace,” i.e. events that occur outside of the

physical workplace or regular work hours but which have implications for the workplace

such as business trips, company parties or other company related functions.

Section 2(2) of the Code provides that every person who occupies accommodation

has a right to freedom from harassment by the landlord or agent of the landlord or by

an occupant of the same building because of among other grounds, race, colour, ancestry,

place of origin, ethnic origin, citizenship and creed.

The Code contains no explicit provisions dealing with harassment in the areas of services,

goods and facilities (section 1 of the Code), contracts (section 3 of the Code) or

membership in trade and vocational associations (section 6 of the Code). However, it

is the position of the OHRC that racial harassment in such situations would constitute

a violation of sections 1, 3 and 6 of the Code, which provide for a right to equal treatment

without discrimination with respect to services, goods and facilities, contracts and

membership in trade and vocational associations respectively.

Note. Racial harassment. Policy and guidelines on racism and racial discrimination. Ontario Human Rights

Commission.

http://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/attachments/Policy_and_guidelines_on_racism_and_racial_discrimination.

pdf
BRIAN STEWART’S RESTAURANT INCIDENT INVESTIGATION 17

Appendix B

Duties re harassment

32.0.7 (1) To protect a worker from workplace harassment, an employer shall ensure that,

(a) an investigation is conducted into incidents and complaints of workplace harassment that is appropriate in the

circumstances;

(b) the worker who has allegedly experienced workplace harassment and the alleged harasser, if he or she is a

worker of the employer, are informed in writing of the results of the investigation and of any corrective action that

has been taken or that will be taken as a result of the investigation;

(c) the program developed under section 32.0.6 is reviewed as often as necessary, but at least annually, to ensure that

it adequately implements the policy with respect to workplace harassment required under clause 32.0.1 (1) (b); and

(d) such other duties as may be prescribed are carried out. 2016, c. 2, Sched. 4, s. 3.

Note. https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90o01?_ga=2.135007537.1561260683.1585941130-

1581508020.1583661166#BK62
BRIAN STEWART’S RESTAURANT INCIDENT INVESTIGATION 18

Appendix C.

Program, harassment

32.0.6 (1) An employer shall, in consultation with the committee or a health and safety representative, if any,

develop and maintain a written program to implement the policy with respect to workplace harassment required

under clause 32.0.1 (1) (b). 2016, c. 2, Sched. 4, s. 2 (1).

Contents

(2) Without limiting the generality of subsection (1), the program shall,

(a) include measures and procedures for workers to report incidents of workplace harassment to the

employer or supervisor;

(b) include measures and procedures for workers to report incidents of workplace harassment to a person

other than the employer or supervisor, if the employer or supervisor is the alleged harasser;

(c) set out how incidents or complaints of workplace harassment will be investigated and dealt with;

(d) set out how information obtained about an incident or complaint of workplace harassment, including

identifying information about any individuals involved, will not be disclosed unless the disclosure is

necessary for the purposes of investigating or taking corrective action with respect to the incident or

complaint, or is otherwise required by law;

(e) set out how a worker who has allegedly experienced workplace harassment and the alleged harasser, if

he or she is a worker of the employer, will be informed of the results of the investigation and of any

corrective action that has been taken or that will be taken as a result of the investigation; and

(f) include any prescribed elements. 2009, c. 23, s. 3; 2016, c. 2, Sched. 4, s. 2 (2).

Note. Program, harassment. https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90o01?_ga=2.135007537.1561260683.1585941130-

1581508020.1583661166#BK62
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Appendix D.  showing the list of questions asked to investigate the human factors of the incident

Appendix E. showing the list of questions asked to investigate the situational factors of the

incident
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Appendix F.  showing the list of questions asked to investigate the environmental factors of the

incident
BRIAN STEWART’S RESTAURANT INCIDENT INVESTIGATION 22

Appendix G. Showing investigation form.

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