Since 2010, employers declared guilty of violations under sections 236 and 237 of the Act Respecting Occupational Health and Safety (AOHS) may have to pay very high fines. A recidivist employer may even have to pay over $300,000 in fines!
Section 236 (AOHS): Every person who contravenes this Act or a regulation or refuses to conform to, or incites a person not to conform to, a decision or order rendered under this Act or the regulations is guilty of an offence […].
Section 237 (AOHS; our underlining): Every person who, by an act or omission, does anything that directly and seriously compromises the health, safety or physical well-being of a worker is guilty of an offence […].
Visits of the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST)
Various reasons can justify the visit of a CSST inspector: a worker’s complaint, a severe accident, the exercise of a right to refuse work by a worker, the simple CSST’s action plan or in the context of scheduled visits for members of prevention mutuals.
Due diligence
Employers have the difficult task of demonstrating that they are responsible and proactive in order to avoid work injuries within their enterprise. Thus, they must make sure to respect their three due diligence duties: the duties of foresight, performance and authority. Here is a summary of what those three duties consist in.
Duty of foresight
To be proactive regarding occupational health and safety (OHS) means, among others, establishing a prevention program covering a certain number of management activities, including identifying risks, developing an action plan and work procedures and training employees.
Duty of performance
For an employer, the duty of performance means inspecting the premises, making sure OHS rules and policies as well as the action plan are applied, ensuring that proper equipment is bought and seeing to the preventive maintenance of this equipment. The employer must ensure that an appropriate and efficient supervision is carried out and note any deviating regarding the respect of sound OHS practices.
Duty of authority
The duty of authority is harder to comply with than the foresight and performance duties. For an employer, it means making sure instructions are respected, foreseeing the consequences in case of failures and applying the necessary sanctions. Rules must be applied in a fair and impartial way, that is, the same way for everyone. If need be, consequences proportional to the seriousness of the failure must be planned.
Example of an intervention of our preventionists
One of our clients asked for our assistance during a visit of the company by a CSST’s inspector. Before the inspector’s arrival, we proposed to visit the plant with the employer to make sure everything was in compliance. We noticed that two pieces of equipment were not: a saw bench and a conventional mandrel did not have any safety guard. These two items were part of the equipment targeted by the CSST in the context of the “zero tolerance” program from the “Machine Safety” action plan. In such a case, the employer would likely have had to pay fines. We thus recommended that these pieces of equipment be temporarily decommissioned (locked). At the end of the visit, the CSST’s inspector informed us that the employer would have received two statements of offence if those pieces of equipment would have been in function. Since the employer was not in disobedience, the inspector only expressed some general recommendations to rectify the situation. Result: the employer had to correct the two pieces of equipment and two fines of approximately $5,000 were avoided.
Employers’ obligations
Employers are often destitute in front of so much responsibilities. Section 51 of the AOHS is very clear regarding employers’ obligations. It thus becomes very profitable to work with our prevention specialists to obtain good advice and all necessary support to take charge of prevention activities. This way, employers are able to reduce the risk of accidents and fines.
Prevention activities
Implementing a prevention program is essential in order to ensure sound management of OHS issues. Tools such as inspection grids, accident investigations and various trainings, developed and supported by our specialists, may help to substantially reduce the occurrence of accidents and to make your work environment safer. All things considered, reducing the risk of accidents can be profitable!
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