Bartenders and servers are among thousands of frontline workers about to get training on how to “identify and intervene” in incidents of sexual harassment and violence involving colleagues and customers.

Ontario is spending $1.7 million on education for staff and managers in the hospitality, community service, aboriginal, school and university sectors as part of the Liberal government’s “It’s Never Okay” campaign to stop sexual violence and harassment.

“Attitudes are changing, but changing behaviour, I think we all will agree, takes longer,” Women’s Issues Minister Tracy MacCharles said Wednesday at a downtown bar.

The training will teach workers, “how to intervene in a safe way,” MacCharles told reporters, saying the response depends on circumstances.

“It could be calling the authorities,” said Labour Minister Kevin Flynn. “Maybe it’s saying something to somebody across the bar.”

Concerns about sexual harassment in the hospitality industry led to a conference a year ago called “Kitchen Bitches: Smashing the Patriarchy One Plate at a Time.”

It followed allegations, detailed in the Star, from Toronto pastry chef Kate Burnham who alleged former bosses subjected her to unwanted sexual banter and grabbed her crotch and breasts. A complaint before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal was settled last September in a confidential agreement.

About 25,000 frontline hospitality workers will be trained under the government’s new program, said Fatima Finnegan of the Ontario Restaurant, Hotel and Motel Association, which will develop training for bartenders, servers and managers with a $300,000 grant.

“Harassment is present in every single industry. The hospitality industry is not immune.”

Many workers in the sector, which employs 450,000 people, are young and female or new Canadians, making them vulnerable to sexual harassment and violence.

But as frontline workers in restaurants and bars where alcohol is often a factor in behaviour, they are in a unique position to intervene when they see something inappropriate happening with colleagues or customers.

“Everyone should be free from the threat of harassment at work,” Flynn said.

New Democrat MPP Peggy Sattler (London West) said she’s concerned only a fraction of workers in the hospitality sector will get training, and maintained the initiative leaves “many questions unanswered.”

“Are the Liberals proposing voluntary or mandatory training? We know from experience with domestic violence in the workplace that voluntary training is rarely implemented by employers.”

The rest of the $1.7 million will be shared with Women’s College Hospital, to train health and community service workers on helping sexual assault survivors with their recovery, along with aboriginal and French-language groups and the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children, associated with Western University.

Meanwhile, new elements of the Occupational Health and Safety Act taking effect Thursday require employers to take complaints about sexual harassment or violence more seriously.

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Every employer must set out who will investigate if the alleged harasser is a supervisor and provide written results of the investigation to the complainant.

The measures, along with changes to the Residential Tenancies Act allowing shorter notice periods to end rental agreements for people experiencing sexual or domestic violence, were passed by the legislature earlier this year.