CANADIAN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Health and Safety in the Workplace

Chapter 12

Krista Uggerslev, NAIT

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Federal and Provincial Safety

Regulations
• Each province and federal jurisdiction has detailed
legislation addressing health and safety
• 3 Fundamental Employee Rights
– The right to know about hazards in the workplace
– The right to participate in correcting hazards
– The right to refuse dangerous work

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Responsibility for Health and Safety
Cont’d

Top
Management

Responsibility
for Health and
Safety
Employees Supervisors

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Health and Safety

• Important in all industries
• Often the focus in classes and with other
audiences is for “high-risk” industries, which
we can agree is a critical focus
• But remember, all workplace should be
prioritizing safety – IN THE RIGHT CONTEXT –
for their industry

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Health Hazards

Physical Biological Ergonomic

Agents Agents Related

Exposure to Exposure to Caused by

physical natural the work
elements organisms environment
(e.g., repetitive
(e.g., Noise) (e.g., Viruses)
strain)

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Workplace Injuries and Health Hazards

• Workplace accidents and occupation-related illnesses:
– $8B annually in direct compensation
– More than $19B including indirect expenses
• Direct cost of injuries:
– Lost wages, medical treatment, rehabilitation, etc.
• Indirect costs:
– Lost production, recruiting, training, etc.
• On average, 2.5 employees die each day of the year
from workplace accidents (925 each year)
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Implications for HRM
• Ensure consistent enforcement
• Best defence to a health and safety offence is “due
diligence”
• Health and safety audit
• Safety climate
• Downsizing and safety

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Younger Workers
• Growing emphasis on the health and safety of young
workers
• 1 in 7 young workers is injured on the job
• One-fourth of all workplace injuries involve workers
aged 15 – 29 years
• Among injured workers under 25, 50% of injuries
occurred in first 6 months on the job, and 20% of
injuries and fatalities were in the first month
• Most common types of injuries are electrocution and
machine injuries
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OHS and Demographics

• Our textbook discusses the high incident

rates among young Canadians
• There is similar data among new Canadians
(of course we may see overlap here)
• What are the SHRM lessons in this? How
would we incorporate those lessons in
strategy??
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Psychological Safety, Emotional

Wellness, Stress, Etc.

• These are relatively new foci in OHS in

Canada
• What are some of the positive aspects of
such a focus?
• What are some of the challenges employer’s
face?
• How can we overcome these challenges?
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Lessons from Covid

• What OHS SHRM lessons can we garner from

the pandemic?

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OHS
• So – what other SHRM implications and
considerations for occupational health and safety
come to mind?

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Strategic OHS

• What can organizations do to ensure that

OHS is engrained in organizational culture
and truly manifest everyone owning OHS?
• What strategies have you seen?
• What communication would be relevant?
• What should we consider about timing?

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LO6
Occupational Health and Safety
Strategy
• Top management’s involvement in setting health
and safety policies is essential
• Clearly assign responsibilities for plant safety and
health programs to ensure that the company’s
policies are carried out
• An occupational health and safety committee with
enforcement authority is very helpful

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