The Occupational Health and Safety Act
(OHSA) creates a framework for achieving worker
safety in Ontario. Its provisions impose general duties on the
people who work at the workplace, and its regulations list specific
technical steps that must be taken to protect worker safety. For
example, the Construction and Industrial Regulations each
respectively speak to listed requirements of what must be done on
construction projects and in factories.
However, an interesting case from the Court of Appeal makes it
clear that simply complying with the regulations isn't always
enough. The regulations don't provide prescriptive certainty,
and employers must meet the higher standard of taking all
reasonable precautions to protect their workers. The case is
Ontario (Labour) v. Quinton Steel (Wellington)
Limited.
