Make Safety a Habit!
North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) week (May 4-10, 2014). The intent is to raise awareness about occupational safety, health and the environment in an effort to prevent work injuries and illnesses
Identifying and correcting health and safety concerns
The Canada Labour Code provides the following rights and responsibilities. This is an extract from the website of Labour Canada.
Right to Know
You have the right to be informed of known or foreseeable hazards in the workplace and to be provided with the information, instructions, training, and supervision necessary to protect your health and safety. The Code requires the use of appropriate methods of communication for all employees including those with special needs.
In addition, you are given the right to have access to government or employer reports related to the health and safety of employees through your policy health and safety committee, workplace health and safety committee or health and safety representative.
Right to Participate
As health and safety representatives or workplace health and safety committee or policy health and safety committee members, employees have the right to participate in identifying and correcting work-related health and safety concerns.
Employers with 300 or more employees are required to establish a policy health and safety committee. The purpose of the committee is to handle issues that are organization-wide in nature.
The Code also provides for employee participation through the use of an internal complaint resolution process.
Right to Refuse
You have the right to refuse to work if you have reasonable cause to believe that: your workplace presents a danger to you; the use or operation of a machine or apparatus presents a danger to you or to another employee; and the performance of an activity constitutes a danger to you or to another employee.
In order for you to be protected by the Code when exercising your right to refuse to do dangerous work, you must follow the proper procedure.
For information on this procedure and other aspects of the right to refuse dangerous work, see Right to Refuse Dangerous Work – Pamphlet 4.
Duties of employees
As an employee under the Canada Labour Code, you are required to: use all safety materials, equipment, devices, and clothing that are provided by the employer and are intended to protect employees;
follow procedures relating to the health and safety of employees;
follow all instructions provided by the employer concerning the health and safety of employees;
co-operate with any person carrying out a duty or function required by the Code;
report to the employer any thing or circumstance that is likely to be hazardous to employees or any other person in the workplace;
report to the employer all workrelated accidents, occupational diseases, or other hazardous occurrences that have caused injury to you or any other person;
report to the employer any situation you believe to be a contravention of Part II of the Code by the employer, another employee, or any other person;
comply with every oral or written direction given by a health and safety officer or an appeals officer; and
respond in writing to a health and safety officer's direction or report when requested to do so by the health and safety officer.
Employer responsibilities
As an employer, you play an important role in preventing workplace accidents and injuries, and promoting safe and healthy workplaces. These responsibilities and obligations apply to workplaces under federal jurisdiction only. Editor’s note: Workplaces under federal jurisdiction are listed elsewhere on the site and it is as comprehensive list. However, citing the responsibilities here does provide a good insight into what may be expected to be employer responsibilities generally.
Employers must ensure that employees have the necessary information, training and supervision to perform their jobs safely. Managers, supervisors, health and safety committees and representatives must also understand their roles and responsibilities under the Code. Additional areas of employer obligations include investigations, inspections, accident reporting, and the Hazard Prevention Program.
Information, Training, and Supervision
As an employer, you must ensure that employees have the necessary information, training, and supervision to perform their work safely. This includes: an appropriate understanding of overall work safety procedures; knowledge of the safe use of workplace tools and equipment; awareness of known or foreseeable workplace hazards; and (whenever possible) training sessions should include documentation.
You must also ensure that health and safety committees/representatives understand their duties with respect to: maintaining regular meetings (this applies to committees only); conducting monthly inspections; and participating in accident investigations and job hazard analyses.
In addition, you must ensure that managers and supervisors understand their duties related to the internal complaint resolution process, refusals to work, and accident investigations and reporting. - Extract from website of Labour Canada