System priorities

The Healthy and Safe Ontario Workplaces Strategy guides the efforts of the:

  • Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)
  • Health and Safety Associations (HSAs), and
  • Ministry of Labour (MOL) enforcement staff.

Safe At Work Ontario:

  • is aligned with the priorities in the Healthy and Safe Ontario Workplaces Strategy, and
  • delivers on the Healthy and Safe Ontario Workplaces Strategy’s overall goals, which are to target the areas of greatest need and to enhance service delivery.

The priorities are set out in the Healthy and Safe Ontario Workplaces Strategy:

  1. Assist the most vulnerable workers
  2. Support occupational health and safety improvements in small businesses
  3. Address the highest hazards that result in occupational injuries, illnesses or fatalities
  4. Build collaborative partnerships
  5. Integrate service delivery and system-wide planning
  6. Promote a culture of health and safety.

To support the Safe At Work Ontario strategy, what follows is a brief overview of 2017-2018 enforcement focus areas for inspectors who will visit workplaces.

Enforcement focus

Assist the most vulnerable workers

During the ministry’s annual Safe At Work Ontario consultation sessions, stakeholders stressed the importance of improving general occupational health and safety awareness and communication to workplaces. They highlighted the challenges facing vulnerable groups such as new immigrants and young workers, and raised concerns surrounding changing workplaces, including the aging workforce and precarious employment.

The ministry’s Healthy and Safe Ontario Workplaces Strategy includes activities to target those at greatest risk. While all workers are vulnerable to injury, illness and fatality, some workers are at greater risk than others. Those who are at greatest risk may experience vulnerability through a combination of individual, workplace and work activity characteristics.

The ministry’s Prevention Division led the development of a comprehensive Vulnerability in the Workplace Action Plan to:

  • address recommendations of the Vulnerable Worker Task Group, and
  • support the needs of vulnerable workers in Ontario’s workplaces.

The Vulnerable Worker Task Group provided advice on how to improve outreach to increase awareness of the OHSA and its regulations among vulnerable workers and their employers.

The Occupational Health and Safety Branch at the Ministry of Labour collaborates with the Prevention Division. As part of this Vulnerability in the Workplace Action Plan, the ministry will continue to place a strong emphasis on assisting workplaces to:

  • maintain a functioning internal responsibility system (IRS)
  • provide training to all workers, and
  • ensure workers understand their rights under the OHSA.

Resources/compliance support

Support occupational health and safety improvements in small businesses

Small businesses face unique occupational health and safety challenges.

The ministry’s Healthy and Safe Ontario Workplaces Strategy includes a Small Business Action Plan that contains activities to support health and safety improvements at small businesses. The plan was developed in collaboration with the ministry’s occupational health and safety partners and a Small Business Task Group.

An update on the plan is included in the Occupational health and safety in Ontario 2015-2016 annual report.

During annual Safe At Work Ontario consultations, stakeholders noted that small businesses may be less aware of the legislation and may have fewer resources for complying with the legislation.

They suggested that the ministry should continue developing simple resources and tools to assist small businesses.

The Small Business Task Group provided advice on how to improve small business outreach to help create healthy and safe workplaces. Emphasizing outreach and awareness, their report focuses on small businesses that lack the necessary knowledge to comply with the OHSA and its regulations.

The ministry will continue to support the Small Business Action Plan.

Resources/compliance support

The MOL and the occupational health and safety system partners have many resources available to assist small businesses on a variety of topics.

The ministry continues to work with its system partners to develop new fact sheets, online tools and information guides. For updates on small business products and resources, please refer to the Small Business Topic section on the MOL website.

Address the highest hazards that result in occupational injuries, illnesses or fatalities

Regardless of size, almost all Ontario workplaces employ workers who may be at risk of serious injury, illness or fatality.

Every year, the ministry plans provincial blitzes and enforcement initiatives based on stakeholder consultations, analysis of WSIB information and internal enforcement data. These planned activities are intended to raise awareness among workplace parties and mobilize the ministry’s inspectorate to target workplace hazards in Ontario.

When blitzes or other enforcement initiatives are not under way, inspectors will still inspect workplaces for high hazards and workplace parties’ compliance with the OHSA at provincially regulated workplaces.

Workplace Violence Prevention in Health Care Leadership Table

To better protect health care professionals on the job, Ontario established a joint Workplace Violence Prevention in Health Care Leadership Table (Leadership Table). This is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

Owing to the nature of their work, health care workers face a number of workplace hazards including violence. The Leadership Table brings together key stakeholders and experts, including labour unions and patient advocates, to provide advice on how to reduce and prevent workplace violence for health care professionals.

Phase 1 of the multi-phased project focused on workplace violence prevention for nurses in hospitals. Subsequent phases will focus on all health care workers in hospitals and long-term care homes, followed by all health care workers in health care workplaces.

On May 15, 2017 a Progress Report summarizing findings from Phase 1 of the Leadership Table was released.

The report includes the 23 recommendations and 13 products that were endorsed by Leadership Table members. The recommendations are directed to three ministries (Ministry of Labour, Health and Long-Term Care, and Advanced Education and Skills Development), to hospitals, and to a number of other partners. Action is already being taken to address these recommendations, and to shift workplace culture in Ontario’s hospitals to create safer work environments for Ontario’s nurses. The Ministry of Labour is enhancing its enforcement strategy on workplace violence and the tools from the report will help inform workplaces of the Ministry of Labour’s compliance expectations.

Please see the Workplace Violence Resources/Compliance Support sub-section in this sector plan for links to additional workplace violence resources, including the Leadership Table recommendations and tools, and the Public Services Health and Safety Association Violence, Aggression and Responsive Behaviour project toolkits.