Remaining Flashcards
Define OH&S.
The study of identification, evaluation, and control of hazards associated with the work environment.
Define hazard.
Any source of potential adverse health effect, damage, or harm on something or someone under certain conditions at work. Includes chemical, biological, physical, and pyschological agents.
What is the goal of OH&S programs?
Reduce occupational injury and illness.
Define occupational illness.
Any abnormal condition or disorder caused by exposure to environmental factors associated with employment.
What causes brown lung?
Excessive inhalation of dust from textiles.
What does WHMIS stand for?
Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System.
What are the three imperatives/considerations for OH&S?
Economic, legal, and moral considerations.
What is the term meaning “the system of shared responsibility for health and safety that is the basis for most Canadian OH&S legislation”?
Internal responsibility system (IRS)
What do employers need to do?
- Prepare and display OH&S policy.
- Provide and maintain equipment, materials, and protective devices
- Ensure the manner in which the work is performed is safe, and environment is free from hazards and serious risks
- Monitor workplace and report injuries, illnesses, and toxic substances
- Establish health and safety committees with strong employee representation
- Alert employees to any known or perceived risk and hazards in workplace
- Provide health and safety training
What do employees need to do?
- Perform duties and tasks in safe and responsible manner
- Wear protective equipment in compliance with company and legislative regulations
- Report defective equipment and other workplace hazards to safety professionals, joint health and safety committee, or manager
What does the union need to do?
- Take part in the joint OH&S Committee
- Bring emerging problems and issues in health and safety to attention of government and employers
- Pressure other stakeholders to take corrective action
- Use collective bargaining process to incorporate health and safety provisions in many contracts
What are some barriers to OH&S?
- Employers who value production over safety
- Employers who focus on safety only when they feel they must
- Employers may be uninformed or lack confidence about safety concerns
What certifications can OH&S professionals have?
CRSP (Canadian registered safety professionals)
What are the three e’s (the traditional views of safety)?
Engineering, educations, enforcement.
Why include safety in HR?
- Safety is integrated into other HR functions
- Safety requires legislative compliance
- Safety decreases costs
Which branch of government is responsible for enforcing the OHSA?
The OH&S Branch of the Ministry of Labour
All OH&S legislation includes:
- An act
- Powers of enforcement
- The to refuse
- Protection from reprisals
- Duties and responsibilities assigned to employers and others
What are the general employer duties?
- Take every reasonable precaution to ensure employee safety.
- Appoint a competent supervisor.
- Provide info in a medical emergency.
- Inform supervisors and workers of possible hazards.
- Post the OH&S act in the workplace.
- Prep and maintain h&s policy and review annually
- Prepare policies regarding workplace violence and workplace harassment
What are the duties of the JHSC?
- Hazard recognition
- Risk assessments
- Ensuring that records are maintained and monitored
- Responding to employee concerns
In Ontario, when do companies need a JHSC?
When they have 20 or more employees, or there is a special provision.
Describe the general process of reporting an investigating a work refusal.
- Worker alerts employer to the danger and indicates intention to refuse work due to reasonable assumption that the work is unsafe.
- Employer investigates and no other worker should be assigned to perform the job instead.
- Following the investigation, the employer will write a report, and conclude whether there is danger or not, and take corrective action if there is.
- If they conclude there isn’t and the worker disagrees and still refuses, the refusal is taken to a committee that conducts additional investigations and reporting.
- If the conclusion is the same, the refusal can be taken to the relevant governmental ministry.
- While investigation continues, the worker may be assigned to other work.
When can a worker not refuse work?
- When that work is a normal condition of employment.
- When that refusal places another person’s life in danger.
- When the profession is specified in legislation, like police officers, firefighters, correctional workers, and health care workers in Ontario legislation.
What does Ontario legislation describe as dangerous circumstances?
- A provision of the act or the regulation is being contravened
- The contravention presents a danger or hazard to a worker
- The danger or hazard is such that any delay in controlling it may seriously endanger a worker
When did WHMIS enter legislation?
1988
What does WHMIS consist of?
- Labels to alert the worker that a container contains a potentially hazardous product
- Material safety data sheets (MSDSs) outlining a product’s potentially hazardous ingredient(s) and safe handling procedures of the product
- Employee training
What is GHS?
An international standard for the classification and labelling of chemicals being adopted by countries around the world. Globally harmonized system of classification.
Who administers Workers’ Compensation?
A board or commission typically known as the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) and Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) in Ontario.
What are the regulations and responsibilities of WCB?
- Injured workers receive payment while off work and medical bills paid (if injury happened at work and because of work)
- Injured worker gets a pension if the injury is/becomes permanent, or benefits if they cannot earn the same amount as before
- Injured worker’s immediate family and dependents entitled to benefits if the worker is killed or dies as a result of the injury
- Classify employers (rate groups) to ensure consistency
- Decide how an individual is classified
- Pay benefits if a worker is affected by an industrial disease that has resulted from their occupation
What are the two methods for determining the amount of compensation?
Percentage of net earnings
Percentage of average earnings
Define vocational, physical, and social rehabilitiation.
Vocational: helps injured workers return to their place of employment or find similar work elsewhere.
Physical: restores workers’ physical function.
Social: psychological and practical services to help workers with severe disabilities cope with daily life activities.
What are the three groups of stress-related disabilities?
- Physical injury or occupational disease leading to mental disability
- Mental stress resulting in a physical disability, traumatic occurrence, or series of occurrences
- Mental stress resulting in a mental condition
What form must the Employer file to WCB within three days?
Form 7, which requests information about the worker, the workplace, the injury, the hours of work, the wages, and details of lost work time and medical treatments.
What form must the worker file to WCB?
Form 6.
What form must the health care provider file?
Form 8 (to determine the worker’s capabilities).
How are industry groups assessed in terms of rate?
Injury frequency = (number of injuries / total hours worked) * 200,000
What is the severity rate?
The ratio of the number of days lost due to injuries to a factor of 200,000.
Severity = (# days lost to injuries / total hours worked) * 200,000
How to calculate WCB Premium rates.
Premium amount = (insurable earnings * premium rate) / 100
Define Disability Management.
Proactive employer practices to prevent or reduce workplace disability, intervening early in the event of risk or injury, and providing coordinated management and rehabilitiation functions to promote workers’ recovery and safe and timely return to work.
Define systems approach.
An approach to disability management that emphasizes the work and organizational context - focuses on the type of work and the safety record of the organization, instead of focusing solely on individual employees.
What are the benefits of effective disaibility management and return to work programs to employers? (9)
- Minimizing the costs of disability
- A quick return to previous productivity levels
- Less and shorter absences
- Reduced work delays
- Retaining skilled workers
- Reduced training costs
- Better reputation
- Help reduce insurance costs
- Avoiding litigation for failure to accomodate
How many workplace accidents occur worldwide each year?
300 million.
How much do occupational injuries cost the Canadian economy per year in direct costs?
$9.7 billion.
What is the duty to accomodate?
Legislated responsibility of employers to accommodate workers who are attempting to return to work following an injury or illness via changes in job tasks and/or the work environment to enable workers with a temporary or permanent disability to perform work productively.
What is the name for a program that helps an individual who cannot return to their original workplace?
Labour market re-entry programs.
What is light-duty work?
Workplace accommodation where workers return to a job that is less demanding than their previous job. Gradual work exposure is a kind of light-duty accommodation.
What is the term for modified work arrangements designed to help those with
permanent disabilities who have either not been
successful in competitive work environments or require
substantial support to return to work?
Supported and sheltered work.
What is the difference between PDA and FAA?
Physical Demands Analysis is a standardized evaluation of the physical and cognitive demands of a job, completed by someone familiar with the job. Functional Ability Assessment is a standardized assessment of an injured or ill worker’s ability to perform job tasks, completed by a member of the health care team treating the injured worker.
Name some barriers to return to work.
- Slowdowns in the process
- Psychosocial factors
- Fear of stigma
- Long absences
What are the three stages of disability-related absence and their time frames?
Acute (1-30 days)
Subacute (31-90)
Chronic (>90)
Define safety compliance.
The extent to which employees follow safety rules and procedures.
Define safety participation.
The extent to which employees go beyond compliance and engage proactively and voluntarily to actively improve safety.
What three factors (model components) influence safety performance?
Ability, motivation, and opportunity.
What are the three theories of motivation relating to safety behaviour?
Reinforcement theory, goal-setting theory, and self-determination theory.
What is the ABC model?
Antecedent > Behaviour > Consequence
What do Behaviour-based safety programs do?
They attempt to institute positive, immediate, and certain consequences for safe working procedures.
What are the two kinds of extrinsic motivation?
Autonomous (self-directed) and Controlled (in response to pressure)
Define safety climate.
Shared perceptions among employees and organizational stakeholders of the importance of workplace safety.
What is an OHSMS?
An Occupational Health and Safety Management System - reflects an interactive collection of strategic organizational approaches and programs focused on identifying, achieving, and maintaining desired occupational health and safety targets.
What is an OHS program?
A health and safety program is a definite plan of action designed to prevent incidents and occupational diseases.
What is work-family conflict?
Inter-role conflict where pressures in the work and family domains are incompatible.
What are the two kinds of Flexible Work Arrangements?
Reduced Time in Workplace (Compressed Workweek, Job Splitting, Job Sharing)
Increase Control of Schedule (Flextime, Flexplace)
What are the two categories of Workplace Well-being Initiatives?
Health Promotion Programs and Family Friendly Policies
What does EFAPs stand for?
Employee and Family Assistance Programs, which provide counselling and assistance to employees and their family members with problems that may interfere with worker productivity.
What kinds of stress management programs are there?
Cognitive-behavioural skills training (helping people think about events in new ways and to be aware of how they view stressful events, and coping with stress).
Relaxation training, meditation, and mindfulness.
Increasing social support.
Define hazard.
Any object, action, or condition that can be a source of potential adverse health effect, damage, or harm to people, processes, or equipment within the workplace.
