Workplace health and safety is about identifying and preventing hazards that could lead to injury, mental and physical illness, and fatalities at work. The main goal of safety and health programs is to prevent workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths, as well as the suffering and financial hardship these events can cause for workers, their families, and employers.
Health and safety awareness and practices help to manage risk for both the employers and workers thereby promoting healthier workplaces, high retention of workers, higher productivity, fewer fines, and work interruptions.
Finding and fixing hazards before they cause injury or illness is a proactive and far more effective approach rather than the reactive approach that address the health and safety issues after an injury or fatality has occurred hence the need to raise awareness as often as possible. Here are a few step-by-step processes to establish a health and safety program:
Make health and safety one of the core values of the organization.
Assign roles and responsibilities to employees, supervisors and managers so that everyone takes ownership of workplace health and safety.
Create a reporting line for health and safety concerns.
Train all employees on hazard identification and control
Conduct regular inspection of the workplace for hazards.
Be open to receiving hazard control ideas and any other input on workplace changes from workers.
Put hazard control measures in place.
Identify potential emergencies and address them immediately.
Employees have both rights and responsibilities under the law with regards health and safety in the workplace.
Rights of Employees
Right to Know
Employees 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.
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.
Right to Refuse
Workers have the right to refuse to work if there’s a reasonable cause to believe that:
the 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.
Duties of Employees
Use all safety materials, equipment, devices, and clothing that are provided by the employer and are intended to protect employees.
Follow all instructions provided by the employer concerning the health and safety of employees.
Report to the employer anything or circumstance that is likely to be hazardous to
employees or any other person in the workplace.
Report to the employer all work-related accidents, occupational diseases, or other hazardous occurrences that have caused injury to you or any other person.
Comply with every oral or written direction given by a health and safety officer.
Respond in writing to a health and safety officer's direction or report when requested to do so by the health and safety officer.
Responsibilities of the Employer
Employers play an important role in preventing workplace accidents and injuries and promoting safe and healthy workplaces. These responsibilities and obligations include:
Information, Training, and Supervision
As an employer, you must ensure that employees have the necessary information, training, and supervision to perform their work safely.
Employer Investigations
Employers are required to protect the health and safety of employees at work, by ensuring that employee complaints, including refusals to work, and accidents and injuries are properly investigated.
Inspections
The health and safety committee/representative conduct monthly workplace inspections in whole or in part. If a hazard is identified, and the committee/representative is not authorized to remove it, recommendations must be forwarded to the employer. The employer is required to provide a written response to the committee/representative within 30 days on how to resolve the issue.
Accident Investigations and Reporting
Report all serious injuries to the Labour Program within 24 hours.
Submit written investigation reports to the Labour Program, for all temporary and permanent disabling injuries, within 14 days of the occurrence.
Submit three annual reports to the Labour Program:
Employers Annual Hazardous Occurrence Report,
Employer Annual Harassment and
Violence Occurrence Report and the Workplace Committee Report.
If you have a health and safety concern in your organization - creating a health and safety policy, conducting an accident/incident investigation, conducting a health and safety training or any other health and safety related concern, please contact us for assistance at conduithr.com.
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