Safetydude's Safety Tip of the Week
Handling Work Refusals
During my tenure as a Corporate Multi-location Health and Safety Professional, I have had many occasions to support and guide the Operations Team through Work Refusals. I offer, you my standard guidance and directions that I have found very useful.
1) First and foremost, know and understand the prevailing Health and Safety Legislation whether it be the Provincial Act or the Canada Labour Code. While I didn't expect that the Operations Team Member could repeat the legislation verbatim, I did expect that they:
- Understood and appreciated their duties and responsibilities
- Knew how to access pertinent sections the Legislation
- Understood how the steps required by the legislation were to be implemented in their workplace
2) Maintain an active and effective Health and Safety Program. My experiences are that locations that maintained an active Safety Committee, that regularly performed their workplace inspections, and responded promptly to their findings didn't have Work Refusals. If they did they were quickly resolved as the condition reported was clearly an unexpected condition that occurred since the last inspection.
3) Remain calm and act professional at all times. Unfortunately, in many of the cases, the Operations Team Member acted "impulsively" or "emotionally". This commonly left me in the position of protecting them from a Reprisal compliant.
- Remember not to do or say anything that could be misconstrued as discipline, punishment, threat, intimidation, or act of coercion.
- Do not use any profane words or jargon
- Control your facial expressions and other non verbal actions
4) Ensure that the Employee is refusing unsafe work. Reporting a hazard to their Supervisor, and invoking their right to refuse unsafe work are two separate and distinct situations. If in doubt, directly ask the Employee if "they are invoking their right to refuse unsafe work"
5) Follow exactly the steps required by the Legislation. Don't add or delete steps.
6) Keep copious amounts of notes. The list below is just a short collection of the prudent information that should be documented:
- Statements made by the Employee (Time, location, witnesses)
- Your actions throughout the event (Calls made, persons contacted or interviewed)
- Names and positions of every person that becomes involved in the investigation or handling of this situation. Why they were involved, what they had to say or offer.
- Time Worker Member of the Joint Health and Safety Committee was contacted, and their arrival time.
- Observations made by yourself or the Worker Member of the JHSC during your initial investigation (record any readings that could be used to quantity the situation)
- Your analysis of the conditions after the initial investigation
- The analysis of the Worker Member of the JHSC of the conditions after the initial investigation
- Efforts made to resolve the reported situation, or explanation why no efforts were made
- Responses to any efforts made or suggestions to resolve the reported situation.
- Time the appropriate Government organization (Provincial Safety or HRSDC) was contacted and whom was spoken to
7) Take pictures. Also allow the Worker Member of the JHSC to take pictures. Remember to document what pictures where taken, and why.
8) Error on the side of Safety. Keep in mind that the general duty clause requires that you "do everything reasonable for the protection of the worker". Try to put yourself in the shoes of the Employee, and see things from their perspective.
9) Don't hesitate to call in the appropriate Government Organization, if you truly believe that no hazard exist. I have often found that many Operations Team Members are reluctant to make the call to request the assistance of the Ministry of Labour or HRSDC Inspector. Their past relationship was always one where the Inspector was there to write "orders" and cause the Employer "harm". My experiences are that the Inspectors have seen through the "politics" or "underlying issues" causing the work refusal. It is permissible, to advise the Inspector of your beliefs that this work refusal is brought on by other conditions or situations not related to safety.
10) Do a Post mortem at your next Joint Health and Safety Committee Meeting. Learn from the event, what was done correctly, opportunities for improvement, missing documentation, barriers to resolving the issue, etc.
From the Courts
Gas Company, Utility Locator and Excavator Fined in Excess of $1.1 Million Total After Explosion
Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc., of North York, was fined $350,000 for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after an explosion near a construction site. Precision Utility Limited, a Mississauga provider of underground pipeline location services, was fined $200,000 in relation to the same incident. In addition, Enbridge pleaded guilty to charges under sec. 9(2) of Ontario Regulation 210/91 under the Technical Standards and Safety Act, 2000 and was fined an additional $350,000. Furthermore, the excavator on this project, Warren Bitulithic Ltd. pleaded guilty in October of 2006 under the same regulation and was fined $225,000.
During the spring of 2003, a construction company was performing road work in Toronto along Bloor St. W. between Kipling Ave. and The East Mall. This project included excavation work on Bloor St. W.
In March 2003, the company requested that underground natural gas pipelines in the construction area be located and marked. Enbridge Gas, the natural gas distributor, had a contract with Precision Utility to locate and mark their gas lines. Precision Utility sent a worker to identify and mark all underground natural gas pipelines along the construction area on Bloor St. However, the worker did not locate a natural gas line leading into the plaza at Bloor St. W.
On April 24, 2003, a backhoe struck and damaged the gas line not located by the Precision Utility worker. This caused gas to escape into the basement of the building. The gas was ignited and the resulting explosion killed seven people, some of whom worked in the plaza, destroyed the plaza and damaged several nearby buildings.
A Ministry of Labour investigation found that the Precision Utility worker did not use all available records while in the field. Also, the worker did not act on visual clues to the presence of natural gas.
Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that gas services in and near the area to be excavated were accurately located and marked before the excavation began.
Precision Utility Limited pleaded guilty to failing to adequately supervise an employee in the implementation of the locate process.
Click here to review additional cases.
Picture of the Week
