Health and Safety Training
As an employer, it is your responsibility to ensure your employees have proper awareness and training when it comes to health and safety in the workplace. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), all employees must complete a basic occupational health and safety awareness training program that meets the requirements outlined in the Act as soon as possible.
For supervisors, training must be completed within one week of becoming a supervisor. Employers must maintain records of when each employee and supervisor completed their basic training.
Training for Joint Health and Safety Committees
Workplaces with 20 or more employees are further required to have a joint health and safety committee (JHSC) that meets certain standards set forth by the OHSA. At least two of the committee members, one representing the worker side and one representing the managerial side, must be certified in health and safety.
There are two parts to the training that committee members must complete in order to be certified:
- Part One: Basic Training
- Part Two: Hazard-Specific Training
There is also a refresher training that all certified members must take every three years in order to maintain their certification. For a list of all approved providers for certification training and refresher training, visit the Ministry of Labour.
Training for Health and Safety Representatives
Health and safety representatives (HSRs) are not held to the same standard of certification as the joint committees, but they are still expected to have a broad foundational understanding of occupational health and safety.
The Ministry of Labour and its health and safety partners have established an online voluntary basic training program that HSRs can take to better perform their legislative functions. It covers similar ground to the certification program above, including training on how to:
- Occupational health and safety law;
- Rights, duties and responsibilities of the workplace parties;
- Duties and responsibilities of the HSR under the OHSA;
- Common workplace hazards;
- Hazard recognition, assessment, control, and evaluation (RACE methodology) of hazard controls;
- Applying the RACE methodology (recognize, assess, control and evaluate) to a workplace hazard; and
- Health and safety resources available to the workplace parties.
As an employer, you may choose to guide HSRs to this training.
Do you have questions about training options, tools and responsibilities?
Give our health and safety experts a call and we can help you with your health and safety training needs. Whether it’s a second set of eyes to look over an existing policy or guidance on establishing a training program from the ground up, we are happy to help small businesses. Give us a call at 1-888-216-2550.