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OH&S DUE DILIGENCE IN ONTARIO
Benefits Of This Program:
  • Complete program for supervisors and managers on how to implement and manage OH&S due diligence standards in the workplace
  • Confronting reality of workplace accidents that fatally injure hundreds and permanently disable thousands of Ontario workers each year
  • Awareness of frequency of corporations, supervisors, officers, and directors being convicted of violating the OHSA
  • Preventive insight to avoid corporate fines as high as $100,000 to $500,000 and individual fines up to $25,000, plus jail terms
  • Considering courts’ and prosecutors’ increasing perception of OH&S violations as “crimes” under the Criminal Code of Canada
  • Applying court-established OH&S due diligence standards to prevent most accidents and prosecutions as part of workplace health and safety programs

Learn:

  • Concurrent responsibilities of workplace parties
  • Reasons to go beyond the OHSA and regulations
  • Use of non-government standards and guideline as “every precaution reasonable”
  • Understanding the responsibilities and potential liability of corporate officers and directors
  • How to implement proactive systems
  • How to establish a health and safety program that meets key, court-established due diligence standards
  • Understanding court standards for hazard identification, monitoring, and communication: why you can’t argue “we didn’t know” about a hazard, practice, or new issue at the workplace
  • Meeting court expectations of discipline: how and when to discipline for health and safety infractions
  • How and when to use notes and checklists (precedents provided)

Agenda

Obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act – A Refresher

  • The workplace parties: employers, constructors, supervisors, officers and directors, workers
  • Basic obligations of each party under the Act
  • Obligation to ensure competency of supervision
  • How the obligations of the parties fit together
  • Regulations: how they fit with the Act and determining which ones apply to the workplace

Consequences for Failure to Meet Obligations Under the Act

What happens if you violate the Act

  • Penalty provisions for corporations and individuals
  • Aggressive enforcement
  • Trends in sentencing and fines being imposed against companies, supervisors, officers, and directors

How to Bring Due Diligence to the Workplace: A Step-by Step Review

  • Components of a workplace program of due diligence
  • How to implement an ongoing due diligence program
  • Identification of foreseeable hazards in the workplace
  • Developing proper policies, practices, and procedures: supervisory role in development and on-going review
  • Supervision and expectations of supervisors
  • Ensuring proper training in specific policies and rules for work
  • Ensuring worker familiarity with specific safety hazards and risks with work
  • Creating a system to ensure that supervisors train each new and transferred worker in procedures and specific hazards
  • Creating a system to alert workers to hazards of new equipment, machinery and communicate, and coordinate work
  • Creating a system to monitor compliance
  • Auditing and inspecting for risks
  • Creating a system for ongoing reminders of risks and policies, practices, and procedures (crew meetings and other mechanisms)
  • Determining whether supervisors are monitoring with sufficient frequency for risks
  • Real court case examples and problems or relevant workplace issues dealing with key components of due diligence
  • Practical aspects of distinction between how the company properly implements due diligence and how supervisors and managers implement personal due diligence

Discipline for Safety infractions: An Important Aspect of Due Diligence

  • Court comments and arbitral review of discipline for health and safety
  • Practical and legal aspects of imposing discipline effectively
  • Case examples and problems using actual arbitration cases

Documentation of Due Diligence Efforts

  • Importance of supervisory documentation of key due diligence components
  • Documentation of facts to support discipline and the disciplinary process
  • Limitation periods for prosecutions under OSHA and time frames for maintaining documentation

Book an In-House or Remote Program

For further information on our training, please call your lawyer at the Firm. If you are not a current client, please contact:

Program Administrator
Tel: 416-862-1616 or 1-866-821-7306
[email protected]

contact
Phone: +1 416-875-2235
Fax: 416-363-7358
contact
Phone: +1 416-875-2235
Fax: 416-363-7358
Clear Filters
Ryan J. Conlin
Ryan J. Conlin

Partner

Haadi Malik
Haadi Malik

Associate

Jeffrey D. A. Murray
Jeffrey D. A. Murray

Partner

Jeremy D. Schwartz
Jeremy D. Schwartz

Partner

Allison L. Taylor
Allison L. Taylor

Counsel

Landon P. Young
Landon P. Young

Managing Partner