Blog Post #300 – Hurray – I Finally Made it!

It has been my sincere pleasure to bring all this important information to the readership. The research has been fun and is hard work, but if you love something, then it becomes easy to do.

There are still many more things needed to be said and I will continue to say them. There are still too many employers not understanding their responsibilities under the ACT and appropriate regulations. I see it every day. Just the other day, I had an employer come in for training on ‘Fall Protection’ and he allows his employees to use body belts as a travel restraint device when working on the roof. In fact, the workers tie off to the front ‘D’ ring. Could you picture someone falling with this set up? He/she would fall and land sideways and probably severely injure his/her back with possible long term complications. The proper way for ‘Fall and Travel Restraint is to attach to the back ‘D’ ring on a full body harness so as to end up in an upright position.

This employer could not get his employees to take what would amount to a refresher training course in ‘Fall Protection’ as they are under the impression that it is a one-time event. Section 25 of the OHSA, subsection 2(a) states,

“The employer shall provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker to protect the health and safety of the worker.”

The worker, if required by the employer to take upgraded training, must do so and apply the knowledge received in the training. The employer described above must wonder about the training previously received if the employees see that a body belt, tied at the front ‘D’ rings is an adequate ‘Fall Protection’ device. Body belts are not allowed today and the employees should be questioning their previous training to better protect themselves.

In closing,

This scenario is only one of many that have been described to me on an on-going basis. Some are much more serious than this one and the MOL sure has its hands full. They have a very good record up to now and I do hope that they continue with proper enforcement into the future. There are still too many workplaces out there that are unsafe. Way too many!

Remember — In Ontario, “ALL Accidents are Preventable”

‘Work’ and ‘Play’ safe.

Daniel L. Beal
CHSEP – Foundation Level
VP & Senior Trainer
HRSGroup Inc.