New Protections For People At Work – Workplace Violence Legislation Passed

Today, the Ontario government passed legislation that requires all businesses to develop policies and programs to help further protect workers from violence and harassment in workplaces.

The new protections will require employers to:

• Develop and communicate workplace violence and harassment prevention policies and programs to workers
• Assess the risks of workplace violence, and take reasonable precautions to protect workers from possible domestic violence in the workplace.
• Allow workers to remove themselves from harmful situations if they have reason to believe that they are at risk of imminent danger due to workplace violence

Amendments to Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act passed today and will go into effect six months after Royal Assent.

What does this mean for your business?

1.  You will have to develop a workplace violence policy to include in your health and safety manual and/or employee manual.  This policy needs to be specific to your business.
2. The policy will need to be posted and communicated to workers through other means.  It should be communicated to new employees through a health and safety handbook. 
3. Workplaces need to examine the risk of violence/harassment in the workplace.  For example, perhaps workers should not be working alone.
4. The policy needs to include the fact that workers must understand they can legally stop work if they feel they are in danger of workplace violence.  There should be a process to follow.
5. Companies, a minimum of once per year, need to assess their program, examine trends and alter that policy if needed. 

 

Erin Savoie is a small business consultant based out of Sudbury, Ontario.  One of her areas of expertise lies is policy development in health and safety.  She can be reached at (705) 929-0467 or at info@erinsavoieconsulting.ca.