The Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA)

Overview

In spirit, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, on the one hand, promotes the partnership between employers and workers in sharing the responsibility for workplace health and safety; on the other hand, sets out the authority of the Ministry of Labour to enforce the law, once the internal responsibility system fails or malfunctions.

The internal responsibility system is made possible by several critical provisions of OHSA. First, workers’ active participation in workplace health and safety is secured as the Act clearly states major rights of the workers in the system. Second, employers and other stakeholders are given the duties to protect the health and safety of workers. Lastly, the Act mandates and authorizes representatives or committees to inspect and provide recommendations to potential workplace hazards; these representatives or committees help alleviate the initial inequality of bargaining power between workers and employers.

The Rights of Workers

Workers are given the rights to actively participate in workplace health and safety. As individuals, workers have the right to refuse work under unsafe working conditions or in workplace tainted by violence (43.). Through worker health and safety representatives or committees, workers have the right to identify and resolve workplace health and safety concerns, and they are even given the right to stop work in severe circumstances, when they deem the working conditions dangerous to the workers (45.). Furthermore, workers are entitled to know any workplace injury and fatality (51.(1)), and any hazardous materials they are asked to process (43.).

Duties of Employers and Beyond

Duties of employers and other persons are prescribed by the Act. These include constr...

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...stablish positive relationships among stakeholders. The WSIB Board is given the power to administer its operating and capital budgets (159. (2)(C)), and to hire employees (159. (3)). Such powers ensures the smooth operation of the Board to actively intervene and supervise workplace health and safety. Also, the Act aims at achieving balance between employers and workers’ rights. On the one hand, employers have the duty to cooperate in return to work case by providing proper employment upon an injured worker’s recovery (40. (1), while workers are also required to cooperate in matters such as maintaining communication with employers once the injury occurs. When dispute arises, the WSIB Board is entitled to determine whether a worker is physically fit to perform essential duties of his or her work, while the employer has the duty to accommodate the worker’s condition.