The Mayor of Kamloops has launched the latest salvo in the ongoing battle over claims of workplace bullying and harassment levelled against him.
Reid Hamer-Jackson says he’s initiated a process to look into possible abuse of human resource claims by staffers at City Hall.
“If they’re on sick leave due to my presence at City Hall, I thought, there’s got to be fraud going on here,” Hamer-Jackson told Radio NL. “So I called the Fraud Department, started a file, with the Fraud Department of WorkSafeBC in Vancouver.”
He says he’s basing his call for the probe on recent public comments from the Deputy Mayor of Kamloops for November, Councillor Dale Bass, who said that an undisclosed number of staff members at City Hall are on “medical leave” connected specifically to Hamer-Jackson.
“She told the world that people on sick leave due to my presence at City Hall. And here, she’s wanting me to meet people at City Hall, not my own office or their place or that. She wants me to go to City Hall,” argued Hamer-Jackson. “Well, I guess they’re going to have a hard time having a bullying and harassment case against me when I’m not even there.”
“There are investigations going on from WorkSafe complaints. He knows that. That’s the whole point of an investigation, to see if there is some factual backing to it,” Bass told Radio NL in response to the suggestions of fraud by Hamer-Jackson. “We do have staff off on medical leave. We have had some staff put in WorkSafe complaints. WorkSafe will investigate them.”
WorkSafeBC is refusing to comment on the situation.
“We are unable to speak to a report made to WorkSafeBC, including confirming whether WorkSafeBC received such a report, due to privacy requirements,” said the organization in its one-line response to Radio NL’s request for more information.
Meanwhile, Hamer-Jackson says the move to lock him out of the main floor Mayor’s office at City Hall — with Council citing the wellbeing of staff as the rationale — is unjustified.
“I had no employees near me, other than me passing papers through a plexiglass hole in City Hall,” claimed Hamer-Jackson. “And those employees are great. I get along with them really good. I mean, I haven’t seen a lot of them for a while because I’ve been restricted.”
Under a previous directive issued in April via the City’s Civic Operations Director, Hamer-Jackson — as well as all other members of council — are restricted from moving freely in staff areas of City Hall, with a staff chaperone required to gain access to certain areas.
That move also relates to allegations of workplace bullying and harassment.
Last month, in a bid to limit his interactions with City staff specifically, council issued a decree requiring Hamer-Jackson move out of the Mayor’s main floor office space by an October 22nd deadline, and into a renovated office the floor below.
Despite being locked out of the main floor Mayor’s office, Hamer-Jackson has refused to move into the new office, saying instead he’ll be using his auto dealership down the street from City Hall on Victoria Street West as a base of operations.
His use of his auto dealership office will be limited, with Hamer-Jackson saying he doesn’t intend to take any documents out of City Hall, while noting the use of his business address comes with restrictions of its own.
“I still have a license with the Vehicle Sales Authority [of BC]. I can talk to people and discuss things. But I don’t do any City business there,” pointed out Hamer-Jackson and his association with the industry-led watchdog. “You can’t operate another business within a business when you’re licensed with the Vehicle Sales Authority of British Columbia.”
