Canadian Occupational Safety

6 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com WORKPLACE NEWS Canada, U.S. take step toward regulatory harmonization T he Canadian and United States governments have announced a new step toward co-ordinating their regulatory environments across a broad range of indus- tries, including occupational health and safety. Federal agencies will work with their cross-border counterparts to produce public statements explaining how they'll work with industry, and each other, to simplify regulations for businesses operating in both countries, according to the Joint Forward Plan. The process will involve two-dozen areas including occupational, hazardous materials, rail, marine and avia- tion safety. On the occupational health and safety front, the Occu- pational Safety and Health Administration in the U.S. and Health Canada will work together to co-ordinate the adoption of updates to the Globally Harmonized System for Classifi cation and Labelling of Workplace Chemicals (GHS). This is the latest push forward in the long journey to transition from the Canadian Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) to the universal GHS. GHS is expected to improve on Canada's current WHMIS system by clarifying the communication of hazard information, identifying hazards not addressed under the current system and providing more detailed information on hazardous products to both employers and employees. The amended Hazardous Products Act (HPA) received royal assent in June 2014, allowing the federal govern- ment to propose a plan to replace the Controlled Products Regulations (CPR) with the Hazardous Products Regula- tions (HPR) and implement GHS. According to Health Canada, the updated WHMIS laws are expected to be in force by June 2015. Under the proposed legislation, GHS would apply to sectors currently under WHMIS. Additionally, eight sectors currently excluded from WHMIS — including consumer products, pest control products, explosives, cosmetics, medical devices, drugs, food, wood and products made from wood — could be moved to a schedule on the HPA under the new legislation. The Joint Forward Plan also announced that Natural Resources Canada and the Pipe- line and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in the U.S. will work to align and promote the safe man- agement of explosive materials including classifi cation requirements (TDG class 1). "Efforts will be made to align test procedures in order to reduce discrepancies in explosives classifi cation for producers and to align labelling information… to ensure consistent outcomes in occupational health and safety," said the report. When it comes to rail safety, the governments will put the necessary processes and protocols in place to co-ordi- nate joint development of regulatory standards focused on existing and emerging railway safety issues such as train control systems and fatigue management. The process will be overseen by the Regulatory Coopera- tion Council, created in 2011 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama. OSHA introduces best practices to protect temporary workers By Sabrina Nanji T he Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the United States has released recommendations for the protection of a rapidly emerging faction of the workforce — the tem- porary worker. According to OSHA, the recommended practices for protecting temporary workers — those that are hired through staffi ng agencies, temporary foreign workers and part-time or contract workers — are necessary in a changing labour force. The agency pointed to an incident where a 27-year-old employee, hired through a staffi ng agency, was killed after being pulled into the rotating part of a machine. "While the company's permanent maintenance employees were provided with training on proce- dures to ensure workers were not exposed to energized equipment during maintenance or cleaning, this training was not provided to cleaners employed through the staffi ng agency," OSHA explained. Incidents such as these prompted the need for a universal safety regime for temporary workers. Ide- ally, the document should be enforced by the staffi ng agency or host employer, and would be agreed upon through a written contract at the time of hiring, OSHA said. As part of maintaining a safe job site for temporary workers, OSHA recommended safety agencies evaluate the host employer's work site prior to accepting them as a client. This include s a list of tem- porary worker-specifi c training and competencies related to the tasks to be performed. Training staffi ng agency workers to recognize safety and health hazards is another way to better enable them to eliminate or lessen the hazards before an injury or illness occurs. Employers should also ensure the staffi ng agency meets or exceeds their own standards, by reviewing its injury and illness prevention programs. For instance, host employers in certain industries such as construction will only accept bids and hire staff from staffi ng agencies that have been previously verifi ed and deemed safe. Once an employee is hired, it is important to conduct safety and health training as well as new project orientation, OSHA noted. "The training of temporary workers is a responsibility that is shared between the staffi ng agency and the host employer," the agency said. "Host employers should provide temporary workers with safety training that is identical or equivalent to that provided to the host employers' own employees performing the same or similar work." Finally, an injury and illness prevention program must be maintained, and an employer should keep up regular assessments, investigations and contact with workers. Sabrina Nanji writes for Canadian Safety Reporter, a sister publication of COS. By Liz Bernier D uring pregnancy, workers often become more vulnerable to health risks in the work- place and a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada reinforced pregnant workers' right to refuse unsafe work in Quebec. In Dionne v. Commission scolaire des Patriots, the Supreme Court considered the case of a pregnant supply teacher, Marilyne Dionne, who was advised by her doctor she was susceptible to a number of harmful viruses. Her work environment — the classroom — posed a health risk because children are common carriers of viruses. Her doctor fi lled out paperwork with the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du tra- vail (CSST) to obtain preventive withdrawal for Dionne. Under Quebec's occupational health and safety law, pregnant women have the right to refuse unsafe work and receive a reassignment or, if that is not possible, the right to stop working and receive income replacement benefi ts. However, the school board — her employer — argued that because she was a supply teacher, Dionne did not have a contract of employment and so was not con- sidered a "worker." The court delivered a unanimous decision that Dionne did meet the criteria of an employee and was entitled to all of the legislated protections. The decision makes a very strong statement about the right of preg- nant workers to refuse unsafe work, said Sean Bawden, an employment lawyer at Kelly Santini in Ottawa. "The upshot of all of it was Supreme Court reinforces pregnant

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