Health and Safety Regulations/Legislation at the Silo

Provide a Safe Workplace for Employees

Section 8 of the Act gives the general duties of employers to their employees. This section says the employer has a duty to provide and maintain a safe working environment without risk to the health of workers, as far as is reasonably practicable. They must ensure health and safety laws are being complied with in their workplaces and for their employees, wherever they are working. This includes the responsibilities to:

• provide and maintain a safe and healthy workplace with safe systems of work, plant and machinery.
• identify the health and safety hazards of the work processes used.
• find out what precautionary measures are needed to protect workers from the hazards, and ensure the precautionary measures are put in place.
• control hazards first by getting rid of the hazard or by controlling or reducing the risk posed by the hazard, before making workers use personal protective equipment. (That is, they must follow the hierarchy of control measures which prefers to control hazards at the source rather than at the worker.)
• make sure work is supervised by people who know about the hazards and with the authority to ensure precautionary measures taken by the employer are in place.
• provide information, instructions, training and supervision to ensure the health and safety of employees doing the work.
• not allow employees to do work tasks where the hazards of that work have not been identified and properly controlled. [OHS Act 8]

Protect Non-Employees

Employers are also responsible for the safety and health of people who are not their employees, but who are affected by the employer’s activities. This includes visitors to a workplace, such as contractors and delivery or service workers. This also includes members of the public who may live near or pass near work activities of the employer. [OHS Act 9(1)]

Inform Workers

Employers have a duty to inform employees, in a way they understand, about the hazards of their work and the precautionary measures in place to address those hazards. [OHS Act 13].

Appoint Health and Safety Representatives

Employers must appoint health and safety reps, from among their employees, to oversee health and safety at the workplace. This must be done through negotiation with workers and their unions. Information on the role of health and safety reps is found elsewhere in this guide. [OHS Act 17 and 18, GAR 6 and 7]

Establish Health and Safety Committees

Employers must set up a health and safety committee if there are two or more health and safety reps at a workplace. The employer must consult with the health and safety committee about measures that are in place to ensure the health and safety of employees. [OHS Act 19 and 20]

Comply with Regulations

There are a number of health and safety regulations about specific hazards that the employer also must follow. For example, there are regulations on safety, hazardous substances, electrical machinery and installations, construction, noise, driven machinery such as cranes and conveyors, and others.

Record and Investigate Incidents

Employers have specific duties related to incidents where a worker is killed, injured or made ill at work, or in case of certain dangerous events, even if no one was hurt. Employer obligations include:

• Record all incidents in which a worker requires medical attention other than first aid.
• Investigate all incidents in which a worker requires medical attention other than first aid and record the findings in a report.
• Report an incident within seven days to the Department of Labour's (DoL) Provincial Director.
• Report immediately to the DoL Provincial Director if someone dies.
• Conclude the investigation within a reasonable time or within the contracted time of contracted workers.
• Ensure that the health and safety committee examine the incident investigation’s findings.
• Inform health and safety reps and the health and safety committee of incidents. [OHS Act 24; GAR 8 and 9]

Taking Responsibility for their Employees’ Actions

Employers are responsible for acts and omissions or mistakes of their employees, unless it can prove:

• the employee acted without employer’s permission.
• the employee acted outside of his or her scope of authority or condition of employment.
• all reasonable steps were taken by the employer to prevent such an act. [OHS Act 37(1)]

Taking Responsibility for Contractors’ Actions

A contractor or subcontractor is referred to as a mandatory in the OHS Act. An employer is responsible for the actions (or failure to act) of their contractors (mandatories) regarding health and safety. The exception is if the employer and contractor have a written agreement that the contractor will take responsibility for the health and safety of its own employees and comply with the OHS Act. There must also be procedures set up that ensure the contractor carries out these responsibilities. [OHS Act 37(2) and (3)]

Providing free Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Section 23 of the OHS Act says employers cannot charge employees for anything that must be provided for health and safety. The OHS Act generally does not require employers to provide specific PPE, but some regulations do. Provision of PPE can be the subject of health and safety committee recommendations, or even negotiated with the union, but the employer must still pay. This is reinforced by:

General Safety Regulation 2 (2) and (3) which state that the employer must take into account the nature of the hazards and provide free of charge and maintain in a good and clean condition such safety equipment and facilities as may be appropriate to ensure that a person who is exposed is protected from that hazard.

Click here to view a video that explains explaining the OHS act and how it impacts a Silo Manager.