Did you know? In Canada, as in France, standards have been established in in terms of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS). These include, for example, the obligation for employers to train their employees. This article will remind you which sectors are affected by those standards. It will also outline the various players involved and the training to be chosen to establish compliant activities.

What are the responsibilities of an employer in terms of OHS?

Contributing to Occupational Health and Safety is about minimizing possible hazards during work activities. The risks can be related to the use of sometimes dangerous chemical materials, or work at height or psychosocial risks due to aggressions within the company. To reduce such problems, standards have been created! You can find these in the second part of the Canada Labour Code. Among these are the duties of an employer with respect to OHS. What are they?

• The duty to inform: as a first step, you must assess the possible risks. Some areas present more considerable dangers and others less. Nevertheless, all activities involve risks for workers or for the environment! So make sure you identify them and inform the employees as soon as possible. Note that information is among the rights of workers.
• The training: To promote a risk-free workplace, it is important for the employer to train its employees. To do this, you can make use of various tools such as the Global Formation PAELO app.
• The supervision: This allows to check if health and safety measures are correctly applied;
• The investigation: Accidents can happen! To be able to control them in the future, it is essential to investigate properly. Therefore, the employer should question about accidents, investigate refusals to work as well as complaints received. This also allows managers to identify accidents and report them to the authorities.

What industries are affected by these standards?

You know the different obligations, but is your industry affected? As mentioned above, any workplace has health and safety risks. However, there are some activities that are particularly dangerous. Here are some examples:

• transportation of dangerous goods
• frequent contact with chemical materials
• work at height
• work in confined spaces
• activities that endanger respiratory equipment
• use of dangerous machinery.

These tasks are frequently encountered in industrial companies as well as in the mining, manufacturing and construction sectors. It is for this reason that the incentive to “zero accident” more often concerns these companies. Workers who have used such a program must be able to:

• identify the risks relating to their health and safety
• properly use machines and devices, but also equipment designed for protection
• know the measures to be taken and know how to apply them
• report incidents to his supervisor or managers.

Who are the most relevant players?

Within a company, there are people who are more relevant to these standards than others. Companies can choose for themselves who must complete the training. However, it should be noted that certain workers should be prioritized. The following is a non-exhaustive list of employees who should use information and training:

• Recently hired workers to better master their assigned activities and tasks
• Interns so that they can safely get their experiences
• Company employees who have been assigned to other positions. This is because safety measures may be different from one position to another
• employees who have been off work for more than 21 days.

Who are the primary responsible parties for this program? In terms of financing, the employer is usually the one who pays for the training. Nevertheless, different actors can intervene to improve it, including:

• The physician: he can contribute in the creation of training content for employees. It establishes sheets, some of which sometimes present the number of people exposed to occupational hazards
• the Health, Safety and Working Conditions Committee (CHSCT): it represents the employees and collaborates in the development of solutions in terms of occupational health and safety.

Which training company can help my company?

As you will have noticed in this article, training is a big part of an employer’s obligations to its employees. So, to build on a healthy and safe workplace, it is essential that the program chosen is effective and meets current standards. In addition, such training increases the performance of your employees and therefore, can increase your productivity rate and competitiveness.

Aware of these needs, Global Formation puts at your disposal its platform named PAELO. This one aims to make training much easier, flexible and consequently more efficient. In what way? As an LMS, it puts the worker and his trainer in interaction, no matter where they are and when. Even better, the employer has the possibility to access and monitor the progress of his employees! This allows the employer to see, for example, if employees can master the use of devices designated as hazardous.

To enhance your experience in using the PAELO, entrust the creation of your content to Global Formation trainers. These professionals will adjust the training program to better suit your goals and needs.