New Bill 176 Psychological Harassment Deadline Doesn’t Revive Expired Claims

On Jan. 31, 2018, an employee filed a psychological harassment complaint for offending conduct that last took place on Oct. 13, 2016. At that time, the deadline to file psychological harassment complaints was 90 days. But by the time the hearing was held on August 23, Qu‚bec had passed Bill 176 extending the deadline to 2 years, effective retroactively. So, the employee contended he still had time to bring his claim. But the Tribunal disagreed, noting that the deadline was 90 days at the time he filed the claim on Jan. 31. Even though the new deadline applies retroactively, it doesn’t revive a claim that had expired before Bill 176 was adopted [Dinu and 9227-3754 Quebec Inc., 2018 QCTAT 4502 (CanLII), Sept. 17, 2018].