Did you know that if you work or have some form of employment, no matter what it is
You have 3 Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) Rights your employee must fulfill?
Although Alberta, and Manitoba are the only jurisdictions to specifically state these rights in their occupational health and safety legislation, all provinces, territories, and federal workplaces in Canada require these rights to be fulfilled.
In this post, we are going to discuss each of the right, as well as ways your employer may be fulfilling them.
1. The Right to Be Informed
Also called ‘the right to know’, this right means you have the right to be aware of hazards and controls that may affect you while you work. Your employer is legally required to perform regular hazard assessments of the work, including identifying health hazards and safety hazards.
Hierarchy of Controls
Once the hazards have been identified, your employer selects and implements controls to eliminate or mitigate the hazard; thus, protecting you from an incident.
By full filling the right to be informed you are being provided information regarding the hazards and the controls before you start work. This should be done during new hire orientation, and job specific training. This communication can also be performed during any other training provided, through conversations with your supervisor, and during health and safety meetings.
HEALTH HAZARDS
Have the potential to cause an acute or chronic
condition, illness or disease
- Noise
- Dust
- Heat
SAFETY HAZARDS
Have the potential to cause immediate injury
- Fall from heights
- Cuts
This may involve having documents translated into another langrage or the use of a translator person(?).
If English is not your main language of communication, your employer must still ensure your right is fulfilled.
2. The Right to Participate
Worker participation is an essential part of a successful occupational health and safety management system. Participation makes the program more effective and reflective of operations. The worker is the employee performing the work and generally has the most expertise. The right to participate means you are provided opportunity to give input on the health and safety program.
Your employer most likely fulfills this right by maintaining a Joint Health & Safety Committee (JHSC) or appointing a Health & Safety Representative. These parties meet with management on a regular basis to address worker health and safety concerns, review company health and safety processes, and assist with hazard identification and control. All employees should be provided the opportunity to joint the JHSC or act as the HSR if they wish to do so.
Here are some other ways your employer fulfills your right to participate in health and safety:
- Facilitating meetings to discuss health and safety and ensuring round table discussions.
- Providing processes beyond the JHSC / HSR for you to provide input, report health and safety concerns, and make recommendations. This could be through surveys, suggestion boxes, or one on ones with your supervisor.
- Soliciting feedback following in-house or third party training courses.
- Including workers in pre-task hazard assessments, inspections, and incident investigations.
- Including all employees when performing drills to evaluate the effectiveness of an emergency response plan.
3. The Right to Refuse
The Right to Refuse Dangerous Work is the original right, and we are all familiar with it. But are we, really? Has your employer communicated the process you are to follow to stop and report dangerous work? Do you feel confident your supervisor will fulfill this right, should you need to exercise? Are you aware of what constitutes dangerous work?
As per the Alberta Occupational Health & Safety Act, a worker may refuse to work or to do particular work if the worker believes on reasonable grounds there is an undue hazard, which is any hazard that poses a serious and immediate threat to the health and safety of a person. The undue hazard is the dangerous work.
These undue hazards could include many things:
- Working with or near equipment without adequate controls to protect you.
- Physical conditions of the work site, such as unbarricaded trenches or working in an unsafe trench.
- Unprotected exposure to a hazardous product or occupational illness.
- Exposure to workplace violence.
- Working with tools or equipment in need of repair or replacement, that could cause an injury to you.
Your employer must provide you a safe and healthy work place. If you have reasonable cause to believe something about your work or your work conditions is unsafe or unhealthy, you must be provided the opportunity to stop the work and have the situation remedied.
