hampstead mayor vows to act on complaint of 'hostile' work environment
mayor jeremy levi says an external investigation is underway and he’ll abide by its recommendations.
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hampstead mayor jeremy levi, left, and city councillor jason farber at a council meeting monday, dec. 2, 2024.
photo: city of hampstead / youtube
hampstead mayor jeremy levi says any necessary corrective action will be taken after a former employee of the town alleged at a council meeting monday night that colleagues have been harassed and discriminated against with the knowledge of several superiors.
the former employee, jeremy biskin, alleged during the public question period that he “witnessed multiple instances of discrimination, verbal harassment and verbal abuse toward my colleagues and to an extent myself” while working for hampstead for two years and that the incidents “created an extremely hostile environment to work in.”
biskin, who said he worked for hampstead until a few weeks ago, said he’s “worried about the mental health” of his former colleagues and asked the hampstead council when action would be taken. he invoked the 2021 suicide of a côte-st-luc employee who had complained about psychological harassment and the 2023 suicide of a montreal blue-collar worker employed at the botanical garden, who died a few months after her union filed a complaint with the city of montreal about bullying by colleagues.
“i can speak for everybody at this table when i say that i’m completely stunned by what you just said,” levi told biskin. the mayor added that he would speak to the town manager immediately after the meeting and said the matter would be “thoroughly investigated.”
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“i’m at a loss for words because i’m literally stunned,” levi said. he added: “you can be certain that since you brought this to council, council will take this extremely seriously.”
however, biskin said an investigation is already underway.
on tuesday, levi told the gazette that he learned in a caucus meeting following the council meeting that the situation described by biskin is “an already existing issue we knew about. an investigation is underway.”
the matter involves one employee’s complaint against one other employee, levi said. the town has about 140 full-time, part-time and auxiliary workers, he said.
in october, the council voted to award a $19,000 contract to an external human resources firm to conduct “an investigation on psychological harassment in a workplace,” as the resolution states.
“when i said i was stunned and shocked,” levi said of his reaction monday night, “i thought this was something different and totally new.”
local 429 of the canadian union of public employees, which is the municipal union representing hampstead white-collar workers, told the gazette it’s aware of a “process underway” to examine the work climate in hampstead.
levi said he’ll act on the recommendation of the report from the external investigation.
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“we under no circumstance will ever tolerate harassment, abuse, discrimination, anything like that in our workplace,” he said.
“when we have people come to work for the town, we want them to feel 100 per cent comfortable and at ease. and for my understanding, that is the case. if it’s not, you can be darn sure that i’m going to take corrective action.”
the mayor said there’s no problem with employee morale.
“we have our holiday party this saturday night, and i’m told that we’re going to have the highest number of attendants of employees that we’ve had in years, which is a very good sign,” he said.
as part of the agenda on monday, the council voted to award $300 bonuses to all blue-collar and white-collar employees of hampstead. the town will spend $18,600 on the bonuses for 62 employees.
levi said it’s not the first year hampstead was offering bonuses to deal with the high cost of living. this was done even during covid when the cost of living was out of control, he said.
the council also voted to offer $100 to $300 individual bonuses for eight employees who have reached 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years of service with the town. hampstead has offered length of service bonuses for years as a “token of appreciation,” levi said.
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the allegation of harassment comes after hampstead was in the news earlier this year over a scathing report by the commission municipale du québec (cmq) that found “inadequate” control of expenses by the town, notably in connection with the now-retired town manager’s benefits and corporate credit card charges, including trips to walt disney world, las vegas and barcelona.
the cmq report, released in january, concluded “reprehensible acts were committed” against hampstead, including “contraventions of the law, abuse of public funds and a serious case of mismanagement.”
at the time, levi defended the former town manager, telling a january council meeting that “the expenses outlined in the cmq report were incurred with the full knowledge and approval of council.”
the trip to disney world in 2019 was to attend a conference on municipal business and didn’t involve a visit to the theme park, levi said in january. at the time, the town ordered an external investigation of expenses and levi said the town needed to improve “expenditure documentation.”
if you are having thoughts of suicide, call 911 or suicide action montreal at 1-866-277-3553.
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