Labour ministry plans inspection blitz

Thursday, May 7, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

Ontario Labour Ministry inspectors will be visiting agricultural workplaces that hire young and seasonal workers again this spring and summer as part of the province’s ongoing Safe At Work Ontario enforcement strategy.

This is the eighth year the ministry will be doing the younger worker inspection blitz, says labour ministry spokesman William Lin. “Every summer we conduct a blitz. This year we’re looking at the industrial sector and we will be looking at farming operations and agricultural services” along with other workplaces, such as tobacco operations, retailers, and food and beverage manufacturers.

“Young workers are considered to be vulnerable workers,” he says, noting they are three times more likely to be injured during the first month on the job than at any other time.

The goal of the blitz, which runs from this month to August, is to “educate and to promote compliance by workplace parties to prevent injuries before they occur.”

The ministry’s website says the workplace blitzes are announced to the sector in advance but individual workplaces that will be inspected aren’t given advance notice of a pending inspection.

To help employers prepare for possible inspections, Workplace Safety and Prevention Services is hosting a free webinar on May 14 at 10 a.m.

The webinar is geared to various sectors and is aimed at supervisors, managers and human resources specialists who hire young or seasonal workers.

The topics covered include why health and safety training for new and young workers is important, the new mandatory awareness training requirement that became effective July 1, 2014 and what new and young workers need to know.

Workplace Safety and Prevention Services has 154,000 members in the farming, industrial, manufacturing and service sectors, according to its website. It provides management solutions to help businesses create healthy work environments.

Ken Forth, chair the agricultural industry’s Labour Issues Coordinating Committee, says the labour ministry inspections on farms are not new. “They’ve been doing that for the last two years.”

Labour ministry statistics on its website indicate that during the 2014 young and seasonal worker blitz inspectors conducted 2,560 visits to 2,059 workplaces (some workplaces were visited several times) and issued 7,941 orders under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and its regulations.

The top three most frequently issued orders were for employers’ failure to:

• Assess the workplace for a risk of violence and have a workplace violence and harassment policy in place.
• Take reasonable precautions to protect the health and safety of workers.
• Post a copy of the Ontario Health and Safety Act in the workplace.

As part of the 2014 vulnerable and new young worker blitz, inspectors visited 29 farming operation workplaces and issued 52 orders. The farming operations visited represented 1.4 per cent of the total number of workplaces visited during the blitz, the website says. The orders represented 0.7 per cent of the total orders issued during the blitz and included one stop work order.

The labour ministry says on its website inspectors look to determine if employers are following a number of requirements, including:

• Checking to see ensure new and young workers were given required information, instruction and training to protect their health and safety when starting a job and had supervision as required.
• Checking to ensure employees have the minimum age requirements in jobs where those are mandatory.
• Ensuring employers have a joint health and safety committee or health and safety representative at their workplaces.
• Verifying required safety measures and procedures are in place to prevent injuries and occupational illnesses. BF