Work Place: Are you following the health and safety regulations for you and your employees?

Monday, February 4, 2008

The rules established by Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act in 2006 are quite specific and farms with more than five employees are expected to demonstrate due diligence in applying them

by SAM BRADSHAW

I recently attended a health and safety workshop put on by Jay Remsik, a health and safety consultant with the Ontario Farm Safety Association and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. It became evident that there is some confusion in the countryside about who must abide by the new rules.

The new rules state that, as of June 30, 2006, Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act applies to all farming operations which have paid workers. For example, the act applies whenever there is a paid worker on the farming operation, even if only for a short period of time. The act will not apply at those times of the year when there are no paid workers on the farming operation.

The act does not apply to a farming operation operated by solely by a self-employed person (which includes a husband and wife). Nor does it apply to a farmer's children if they are not paid a wage.

The employer who regularly employs more than five employees must prepare and review, at least annually, a company safety policy, and develop and maintain a program to implement that policy. (Regularly employed means for a consecutive three month period.) This program will vary, depending upon the hazards encountered in a particular workplace.

If you employ more than five but less than 20 workers, you will need to have the workers select a health and safety representative. Please note that a safety rep must volunteer - an employer can't designate a representative.

If you have more than 20 regularly employed workers, you will require a joint health and safety committee only if your operation falls into six specific commodity groups outlined below. The committee must be made up equally of management and employees. The six groups concerned are mushroom farming, greenhouse farming, dairy farming, hog farming, cattle and poultry farming.

If you are one of the above types of farming operations and you regularly employ more than 50 workers, at least two members (one worker, one management) of the committee will need to be certified.

A good health and safety program should include the following components:

• A written health and safety policy. This simple statement shows your commitment to health and safety for all employees. It only needs to be a few sentences or a short paragraph.
• Written safety rules. These should include a set of basic rules for your operation as well as specialized safety rules for specific tasks, equipment or processes. The list should not be long and unmanageable and the rules should be simple, easy to understand and may need to be translated into a worker's language. They should be reviewed with new and existing employees and posted for all to see.
• A safety director or co-ordinator. If you have more than five employees, you need to appoint someone to look after safety as a part of their job.
• Employee training. Employees should receive periodic training as necessary to refresh safety procedures. New employees should receive safety training both before and on the job. Close calls or accidents should trigger an immediate review of procedures and safety with employees.
• Workplace inspection. A system of workplace inspection should be set up so as to review hazards and practices in the workplace. Any time a new process is introduced or new machinery installed, an inspection and training should take place. Employees should be encouraged to report hazards, close calls or anything out of the ordinary that could lead to injury.
• Emergency plan. There should be an emergency plan for any accident, fire or other disaster that may occur. Employees should know what their responsibilities are during an emergency. A plan could include what to do during fires, power failures and the like.
• The plan. Should be signed by the owner and the employee and be dated. It is important to keep records of training, safety meetings and concerns, corrective actions and accident investigations as part of "due diligence."

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) requires that any farmer who employs labour must have insurance coverage for those workers through the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. WSIB has an agriculture sector office located in Guelph and questions regarding WSIB coverage should be directed to that office (tel. 1-888-259-4228).

As an employer, you have the responsibility to:

• Keep a safe and well-maintained workplace. You are required by law to take all reasonable precautions to protect your workers from illness or injury.
• Provide proper safety equipment and training.
• Provide first aid training and first aid kits. The Act requires you to provide specific first aid equipment and training for your workers. (See Regulation 1101 for details.)

You must also post the WSIB's "In Case of Injury at Work" poster (Form 82) in a prominent place. This poster is available in several languages and can be obtained through the forms order line at 1-416-344-3862.

The Act is conveniently printed as a small green book and it, too, should be posted in a prominent place. You can also view the Occupational Health and Safety Act on line at the Ontario Ministry of Labour website.

How does an employer establish a program for due diligence? For a start, paperwork is a must!

An employer needs to have in place written occupational health and safety policies, practices and procedures. Documentation should demonstrate that the employer has carried out workplace safety audits to identify hazardous practices and conditions and made the necessary changes to correct them. It would also show that employees were provided with information to enable them to do their work safely. If it isn't written down somewhere, how do you prove it?

Worker instruction is also essential. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, employers are required to instruct workers on the safe way to carry out their jobs. The employer must also provide the appropriate instruction, training and education to workers so that they understand how to carry out their work according to the established polices practices and procedures of the company. The employer must also instruct and train the supervisors to ensure they are competent persons, as defined in legislation.

The employer must monitor the workplace and ensure that employees are following the policies, practices and procedures. Written documentation of progressive disciplining for breaches of safety rules is considered due diligence.

Workers also have responsibilities for due diligence. They have a duty to take reasonable care to ensure the safety of themselves and their co-workers and this includes following safe work practices and complying with regulations.

An accident investigation and reporting system should be in place. Workers should be encouraged to report "near misses" and these should be investigated and corrections made to prevent future injuries or property damage. Being flexible enough to incorporate information from these investigations into improved policies, practices and procedures will help to establish that the employer is practicing due diligence.

Employers should document, in writing, all of the above. This will give the employer a history of how the company's occupational health and safety program has progressed over time. It may also provide up-to-date documentation that can be used as a defence to charges in case an accident occurs, despite an employer's due diligence efforts.

For more information or assistance, contact the Farm Safety Association Inc., 101 - 75 Farquhar Street, Guelph, ON N1H 3N4 .Tel: 1-800-361-8855. Fax: 1-519-823-8880.
Email: info@farmsafety.ca
Website: www.farmsafety.ca. BP

Sam Bradshaw is environmental specialist with Ontario Pork.