A shared responsibility

As an employee or an employer, it doesn’t matter. If you don’t clean up your act when a safety violation order has been issued, you can be fined under new provincial regulations that went into effect last month.

The province can now issue fines to employees, supervisors and employers for safety violations under new administrative penalties regulations. The new rules allow an administrator in the Department of Labour and Workforce Development’s occupational health and safety division to assign a penalty ranging from $100 to $500 after reviewing orders issued by a health and safety officer. Orders are issued when violations are found in the workplace.

“These new teeth in the Occupational Health and Safety Act remind us that workplace safety is a shared responsibility between the employees and the employer,” says Ray Ilson, director of Dalhousie’s Environmental Health and Safety Office.

The introduction of administrative penalties represents the first time employees can be penalized for safety violations in the workplace. Employees will be subject to smaller penalties than employers and supervisors. Any fines can be increased for repeat offences. Penalties can be appealed to the Occupational Health and Safety Appeal Panel.

Penalties range from $100 to $500 for the initial offence and can increase to $2,000. In addition, penalties for the same offence in a three-year period will double.

The Occupational Health and Safety division issues about 4,000 orders each year, or about 20 orders a day in an average work year. Although workplace injuries are on the decline, there were 32 workplace fatalities in 2009 and 8,000 incidents where employees were not able to go to work the next day in 2008.

Although largely a teaching facility, Dalhousie has its share of potentially hazardous work areas, including research laboratories, machine shops, construction and renovation sites, even a small nuclear research reactor. As well, employees are at risk of slips and falls, overexertion and strains. The university’s records show that there are about 300 reported incidents annually. The great majority of these are minor – about 0.1 per cent require medical attention. But it’s important for people here to be aware of the new legislation, says Mr. Ilson, since unsafe acts and conditions are the target, even if no injury occurs.

The university’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety  will be providing information sessions on the topic. For further information, please contact the Office of Environmental Health and Safety at safetyoffice@dal.ca or 494-2495.