Module 2.1 - Teamwork and the Internal Responsibility System (IRS)
Successful employers understand that healthy and safe workplaces are productive workplaces. They also know that all those involved in the workplace need to work together to create and maintain the health and safety of everyone at the workplace. As you have seen, the Occupational Health and Safety Act is very clear about the different roles assigned to the employer, supervisor and worker, and how these roles intersect to promote a safe and healthy workplace. This is the Internal Responsibility System, or IRS as it’s commonly known.
Communication is a big part of the IRS in any workplace, and the ability to communicate effectively is an important skill for any supervisor. To communicate effectively, you need to be good at both listening and speaking. You need to be a leader as well as a supervisor. A leader adds to the supervisor’s basic role of overseeing the work by listening to workers, trying to understand their point of view, supporting them when they need help, and always setting a good example. Given that the University has the senior leadership position, it has the most important role in creating an effective Internal Responsibility System. As a supervisor, you need the support of your employer to carry out your duties, and the workers need to know that their supervisor (and by extension their employer) will listen to their concerns and work with them to recognize, assess and control hazards. This is a legal requirement.
Even if you feel you can handle a health and safety concern, you should always inform the appropriate University representative (i.e. your supervisor, a Chair, a Director, etc.). The University may need to know about the problem in order to fulfill its duties under the Act.
Module 2.2 - Rights of Workers
As seen in the worker orientation course, the OHSA gives workers three important rights:
- The right to know about workplace hazards and what to do about them;
- The right to participate in solving workplace health and safety problems;
- The right to refuse work that they believe is unsafe.
As a supervisor, it’s important that you know and understand these three worker rights. They are at the heart of the OHSA and the Internal Responsibility System, and they are directly related to your duties as a supervisor and to those of the employer. Let’s take a look at how these rights apply to supervisors.
The right to know. It’s your job to tell the workers about any health or safety hazards and to show them how to work safely. This supports the workers’ right to know about hazards to which they might be exposed. For example, the law says that workers must receive information and training on the chemicals or hazardous materials that are used, handled or stored at work. This information is available either on warning labels or information sheets. Sometimes, you may also be required to give the worker written instructions on how to do the work.
The University supports the workers’ right to know by making sure that workers have:
- Information about the hazards involved in performing the work they are doing – this should be communicated by you – the supervisor!
- Training to do the work in a healthy and safe way, including monitoring the work to ensure that the worker has acquired sufficient knowledge.
- Competent supervision to stay healthy and safe. This means that the University must make sure that you know how to do your job.
The right to participate. As a supervisor, you support the workers’ right to participate in health and safety by encouraging them to get involved. There are various ways to be involved in workplace health and safety, such as asking questions, raising concerns and giving positive feedback. One of the most effective ways for workers to participate in health and safety is by becoming a member of the Joint Health and Safety Committee.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act mandates the University, because of its size and composition, to establish a Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC). Consequently, the University has established the “University Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee” (UJOHSC) which deals with policy matters and overarching activities. The University has also established three subcommittees to perform specific functions related to areas spaces on campus. They are:
- The Laboratory Functional Occupational Health and Safety Committee
- The Office Functional Occupational Health and Safety Committee
- The Facilities and Protection Functional Occupational Health and Safety Services Committee
- The Alta Vista Functional Occupational Health and Safety Committee
- The Psychological Functional Occupational Health and Safety Committee
JHSCs must include at least one worker and one management representative who are certified members. The University has a number of worker and employer representatives; to find their contact information consult the list of health and safety committee members.
The JHSC committees have many powers, including the power to identify workplace health and safety problems and to recommend to the employer ways to solve problems and improve health and safety in the workplace. For example, a member of the committee who represents workers must regularly inspect the workplace. Information from these inspections is brought back to the committee. The committee then makes recommendations to the employer to improve health and safety. The employer is required to respond to these recommendations, typically within 21 days. Because the employer and the workers are represented on the committee, everybody has a role in recognizing, assessing and controlling hazards.
The right to refuse. Under the OHSA, workers, have the right to refuse to perform work that they have reason to believe is unsafe for them or another worker. As a supervisor, you respect that right by taking “every precaution reasonable” in the circumstances to protect workers, by complying with the process for work refusals specified in the Act, and by following the University procedures that apply in such cases. If a worker tells you that he or she is refusing to perform some particular task because he or she feels it is likely to pose a danger to him or hers or to another worker, you must look into the worker’s concerns and do everything you can to help the University address them. Most of the time, the situation will be resolved within the University, using resources available in house (i.e. by following the work refusal procedure (PDF, 356KB). However, if the situation remains unresolved, and the worker still feels the work is unsafe, a Ministry of Labour inspector will be called in to investigate.
Do all workers have the right to refuse unsafe work? In specified circumstances, the right to refuse unsafe work is limited for firefighters, police officers, workers employed in the operation of correctional institutions and similar institutions/facilities, or health care workers and persons employed in workplaces like hospitals, nursing homes, sanatoriums, homes for the aged, psychiatric institutions, mental health centres or rehabilitation facilities, residential group homes for persons with behavioural or emotional problems or a physical, mental or developmental disability, ambulance services, first aid clinics, licensed laboratories—or in any laundry, food service, power plant or technical service used by one of the above.
It’s important to know that the OHSA strictly forbids the employer or a supervisor from firing, disciplining or even threatening workers for doing what the OHSA expects them to do. This includes workers reporting hazards to you, or asking you or the University to do what the OHSA expects you or the University to do.
Remember that you, as a supervisor, are also a worker. As a worker, you too may exercise the right to refuse unsafe work in the circumstances specified in the OHSA. As we saw earlier, the OHSA prohibits the employer from taking action against a worker for such things as complying with the OHSA or seeking its enforcement. Together, these OHS duties support a strong internal responsibility system in the workplace. Different people have different roles or positions, but they all have the same goal. As a supervisor, you can be a leader in making your workplace safer and healthier, but you can’t do it alone.