Systemic workplace abuse, including persistent bullying and sexual harassment, has been revealed as a pervasive problem for trainee participants in a national On-the-Job Training (OJT) program, with past efforts to bring dedicated mental health support ultimately collapsing, according to testimony given before a parliamentary committee addressing youth unemployment. OJT Director Joann David shared the details of the crisis during the seventh convening of the Committee on Social Services and Public Administration, held to examine rising youth unemployment and underemployment. The discussion of workplace mistreatment was triggered when committee member Sean Sobers pressed David on protections for female trainees, after noting in her written submission that women make up the majority of participants across all five OJT stipend pay brackets. David’s disclosure confirmed that over the three-year period a contracted in-house psychologist served the program, roughly 50 verified cases of workplace abuse were documented by program leadership. Currently, the program relies on placement and marketing officers to act as de facto human resources contacts for trainees, with each staff member managing between 200 and 250 trainees. During pre-placement orientation, all trainees are told these officers are their first point of contact if they experience issues at their host workplaces. David acknowledged that many trainees delay reporting out of fear of retaliation or professional repercussions, but said that once the program is notified via its frontline officers, formal intervention is initiated. In 2022, David, who took over leadership of the OJT program in 2019, pushed for the creation of the in-house psychologist role after observing widespread mental health struggles among trainees between 2019 and 2022. Beyond common workplace stress and anxiety, David said the most pervasive problematic issues uncovered were bullying and sexual harassment. Prior to adding the in-house role, trainees were referred to public mental health services run by the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, but extensive wait times and backlogs left many without timely care. “We felt it was prudent to be able to have somebody on staff to be able to guide and provide that support system for the trainees while they were in the programme,” David explained. The role was launched as a pilot project to gather data on the scope of need to justify expanding the program’s mental health services, a point David emphasized in response to Sobers’ observation that one psychologist could not adequately address the volume of abuse cases. Though the pilot successfully collected data demonstrating clear demand for ongoing mental health support, the psychologist’s contract expired and was not renewed, leaving the program with no dedicated mental health support for trainees currently. David also fielded questions about two other gaps in trainee protection: access to the national Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and penalties for host employers found responsible for perpetrating or allowing harassment. She confirmed that OJT trainees are not eligible for EAP benefits, and called on the Ministry of Tertiary Education to step in to address this gap. When abusive conduct is confirmed, David added, the only current consequence for problematic host employers is that they are removed from the program as training providers, with no further regulatory or legal penalties pursued through the OJT program itself.