Roles and responsibilities

The statutes and policies that are referred to in the Road Map use different terms to identify equivalent roles. For example, the OHSA refers to the employer, the supervisor and the workers; in the context of the Education Act and Ministry of Education policies, the equivalents are the school board, the principal and the board employees. This training resource adopts the terms used in each of the statutes and policies as they are discussed.

The principal is also a board employee and a worker. Although principals have a leadership role, they are also board employees and workers. If the principal is a victim of workplace violence, whether involving an injury or not, the reporting requirements for board employees and workers apply. As a worker, the principal has the same rights to occupational health and safety as other workers do.

High school co-op students, teacher candidates and designated early childhood educator (DECE) candidates are also workers. The OHSA definition of “worker” includes secondary students on unpaid work experience placements, including cooperative education placements; and teacher candidates and DECE candidates who are on placements with school boards. These students have the rights and responsibilities of workers.

Responsibilities for health and safety in schools

Everyone working in the school board has responsibilities in making sure that schools are safe and healthy places to work and to learn. Their combined efforts help to build a strong Internal Responsibility System (IRS) among workplace parties.

The Internal Responsibility System

Simply put, the IRS means that everyone in the workplace has a role to play in keeping workplaces safe and healthy. Workers in the workplace who see a health and safety problem such as a hazard or contravention of the OHSA in the workplace have a statutory duty to report the situation to the employer or a supervisor. Employers and supervisors are, in turn, required to address those situations and acquaint workers with any hazard in the work that they do.

The IRS helps support a safe and healthy workplace. In addition to the workplace parties' compliance with their legal duties, the IRS is further supported by well-defined health and safety policies and programs, including the design, control, monitoring and supervision of the work being performed.

Ministry of Labour, “The Internal Responsibility System” in Guide to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2017.

As the employer, the school board has the overarching responsibility to provide safe and healthy workplaces. The school board has extensive responsibilities with respect to safe schools under the Education Act and with respect to worker health and safety under the OHSA. Safe and healthy working and learning conditions are good for everyone in the school community.

Under the Education Act and ministry policy, when a board employee becomes aware that a student may have engaged in a serious student incident, the employee must report the matter to the principal. The principal has extensive duties with respect to investigating and dealing with these reports and making decisions about suspension or expulsion (Education Act, Part XIII).

All workers must comply with the OHSA and report to their employer or supervisor any contravention of the OHSA and the existence of any hazards they know of (OHSA, s. 28(1)(a) and 28(1)(d)).

Workers' rights to health and safety

Workers have 3 basic rights under the OHSA:

  • the right to participate
  • the right to know about hazards in their workplace
  • the right to refuse unsafe work

The worker's right to participate

The worker's right to participate means that they are directly involved in the process of identifying and resolving health and safety concerns. For example, a worker can participate as a member of the Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) that oversees their workplace. The JHSC has the power to, for example, identify situations that may be a source of danger or a hazard to workers and make recommendations to the employer for the improvement of health and safety of workers (OHSA, s. 9(18)).

The worker's right to know

The worker's right to know about any hazards they may be exposed to relates to a number of employer and supervisor duties under the OHSA. These include “general duty” clauses such as the employer's duty to provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker to protect the health and safety of the worker (OHSA, s. 25(2)(a)) and the supervisor's duty to advise a worker of any potential or actual danger to the health and safety of the worker that the supervisor is aware of (s. 27(2)(a)).

Dangers may include other people. Under the OHSA's specific duties around violence (Part III.0.1), the employer and the supervisor have a duty to provide information to a worker, including personal information, related to a risk of workplace violence from a person with a history of violence. This provision of information is required if the worker can be expected to encounter that person in the course of their work and if the risk of workplace violence is likely to expose the worker to physical injury (s. 32.0.5(3)).

It is important to note that the employer or supervisor must limit the disclosure of personal information about this person to what is reasonably necessary to protect the worker from physical injury (s. 32.0.5(4)).

The worker's right to refuse unsafe work

The worker's right to refuse unsafe work is set out under Part V of the OHSA. For example, a worker may refuse to work or do particular work if they have reason to believe that workplace violence is likely to endanger them or another worker (OHSA, s. 43(3)).

Note that Regulation 857: Teachers limits a teacher's right to refuse unsafe work where “circumstances are such that the life, health or safety of a pupil is in imminent jeopardy” (Reg. 857, s. 3(3)).

School boards have their own written procedures for work refusal, including the work refusal process for teachers and other workers. Employee unions also offer support and information for workers regarding the work refusal process.