Introduction
Health and Safety at Work
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This module explains your rights and responsibilities on your job and the things that you need to know and understand so that you can be safe at work today and every day. Everyone in the workplace, from the employer to the newest worker, has different but important duties to keep the workplace safe. Because employers have the most authority in the workplace, they have the greatest responsibility but it’s important for your own safety that you understand everyone’s health and safety duties, including yours.
The purpose of this module is to give you specific information and instructions about how to stay safe on your job, prevent injuries and illnesses
What you learn from this module will help you start to understand those instructions. We hope you will use what you learn here every day of your working life.
Task
Get to know with hazards
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Get involved
Working together for safety
Understanding the Health and Safety Act is all about knowing the health and safety
duties of employers, supervisors and the duties and rights of workers, and putting them into action.
We all have to get involved.
If an employer knows about a hazard and doesn’t try to eliminate or reduce it, or make sure the workers are told about it and how to deal with it, that employer is not doing what the law requires.
If a supervisor knows about a hazard and doesn’t explain to the workers how to deal with it, that supervisor is not doing what the law requires.
If a worker knows about a hazard and doesn’t report it to the supervisor or the employer, that worker is not doing what the law requires.
If you see a hazard on the job, you have a duty to speak up. This includes reporting
equipment that isn’t working right.
It’s important that you report to your supervisor or employer any injury, incident or close call, so that they can prevent those kinds of things from happening again in the future.
The right to participate in health and safety gives you the right to participate and get involved in keeping your workplace safe and healthy. There are many ways you can do this. Can you think of three?
Here are four good ways to get involved in keeping your workplace safe, but there are many more:
1. You can ask questions when you’re not sure about something.
2. You can volunteer to become a worker health and safety representative or a worker member
of the joint health and safety committee.
3. You can help your health and safety representative or joint health and safety committee with
health and safety inspections by pointing out possible hazards in your work area.
4. You can take your health and safety training seriously and put what you learn into practice
in your job.
What to look for and what to ask
Your employer must post health and safety information in your workplace, such as an occupational health and safety poster. Look for the posted names of your health and safety representative or joint health and safety committee members – these are people you can talk to if you need help. And if your workplace has more than 5 workers, your employer has to post the company health and safety policy.
If you can’t find any of this information in your workplace, talk to your supervisor about it.
Health
and safety is an important part of his or her job. You can also talk to the people you work with and benefit from each other’s experience.
Always be on the lookout for hazards to yourself or others. Before you start your work day, ask yourself questions like:
› Is any of the machinery broken?
› Are there warning labels or signs?
› Is there any moving equipment I could get caught in?
› Is there something I could slip or trip on?
› Do I need protective equipment?
› Do I know how to do this job safely?
Can you think of any other questions to ask yourself? Here are a couple of examples.
Try to list a few more.
› Is there another worker nearby who could get hurt by what I’m doing?
› Is this task more than I can physically handle?
These are good questions for everyone in the workplace to ask. Prevention starts here, by paying attention to details and by following the OHSA and the workplace health and safety procedures.