OH&S Due Diligence in Ontario:

A Complete Program for Supervisors and Managers - How to Implement and Manage OH&S Due Diligence Standards in Your Workplace

Workplace accidents fatally injure hundreds and permanently disable thousands of workers in Ontario each year.  Almost every day, corporations, supervisors, officers and directors are convicted of violating the OHSA.  Fines are high, often ranging from $100,000 to $500,000 for corporations, and up to $25,000 for individuals. Jail terms are frequently imposed. Courts and prosecutors are increasingly considering OH&S violations to be "crimes" under the Criminal Code of Canada.  This important session will teach you how to apply court-established OH&S due diligence standards to prevent most accidents and prosecutions as part of your workplace health and safety program.

You Will Learn:

• The concurrent responsibilities of workplace parties
• How you must go beyond the OHSA and regulations; use of non-government standards and guideline as "every precaution reasonable"
• The responsibilities and potential liability of corporate officers and directors, and how to implement proactive systems to protect them
• How to establish a health and safety program that meets key, court-established due diligence standards
• Court standards for hazard identification, monitoring, communication - why you can't argue "we didn't know" about a hazard or practice or new issue at the workplace
• Meeting court expectations of discipline: how and when to discipline for health and safety infractions
• How and when to use notes and checklists (precedents provided)  

The Program Will Cover: 

Obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act - A Refresher 

• The workplace parties: employers, constructors, supervisors, officers and directors, workers
• Basic obligations of each party under the Act
• Obligation to ensure competency of supervision
• How the obligations of the parties fit together
• Regulations: How they fit with the Act and determining which ones apply to the workplace 

Consequences for Failure to Meet Obligations Under the Act 

• What happens if you violate the Act
• Penalty provisions for the Corporation and for individuals
• Aggressive enforcement
• Trends in sentencing and fines being imposed against companies, supervisors, officers and directors 

How to Bring Due Diligence to the Workplace: A Step-by Step Review

• Components of a workplace program of due diligence
• How to implement an ongoing due diligence program
• Hazard identification: Foreseeable hazards in the workplace
• Developing proper policies, practices and procedures: supervisory role in development and on-going review
• Supervision and expectations of supervisors
• Ensuring proper training in specific policies and rules for work
• Ensuring worker familiarity with specific safety hazards and risks with work
• Creating a system to ensure that supervisors train each new and transferred worker in procedures and specific hazards
• Creating a system to alert workers to hazards of new equipment, machinery and communicate and coordinate work
• Creating a system to monitor compliance
• Auditing and inspecting for risks
• Creating a system for ongoing reminders of risks and policies, practices and procedures (Crew meetings and other mechanisms)
• Determining whether supervisors are attending to monitor with sufficient frequency for risks
• Case examples and problems dealing with each of these key components of due diligence using real court cases or your workplace issues
• Practical aspects of distinction between how the company properly implements due diligence and how supervisors and managers implement personal due diligence

Discipline for Safety infractions: An Important Aspect of Due Diligence

• Court comments and arbitral review of discipline for health and safety
• Practical and legal aspects of imposing discipline effectively
• Case examples and problems using actual arbitration cases

Documentation of Due Diligence Efforts

• Importance of supervisory documentation of key due diligence components
• Documentation of facts to support discipline and the disciplinary process
• Limitation periods for prosecutions under OSHA and time frames for maintaining documentation