Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion says employees allegedly involved in hazing incidents against co-workers were disciplined but not fired following a November 2009 investigation.
Reports suggest that at least one worker employed with the city's transportation department alleges that on several occasions colleagues were bound with duct tape and spanked.
Cellphone video footage of such an incident was broadcast Tuesday.
"As you can appreciate, it's completely unacceptable. It is contrary to the code of conduct of the employees of the city of Mississauga and the necessary disciplinary action has been taken," McCallion said.
"The employees have been warned and if any action anywhere near this were to happen again, they would be terminated from the city."
City manager Janice M. Baker expressed outrage at the contents of the footage, in a news release Wednesday.
"The City of Mississauga is disgusted and appalled…,"Baker said.
"A copy (of the video) was not provided to the city. We want to stress how seriously we took the allegations and that in no way do we condone this behaviour."
Following an investigation last year by the city's human resources department, the Ministry of Labour was invited to review the case.
"The independent investigation found there was some inappropriate behaviour on the part of a number of employees, however, a review of the results of the investigation by HR found that while discipline was warranted, dismissal was not," Baker said.
It was not immediately clear if the city plans to review the case again.
Police received a complaint in March 2009, but did not pursue criminal charges, police said.
At the time, police had not viewed the video broadcast Tuesday.
None of the people in the video had come forward to police as of Wednesday.
