Under section 25 of Occupational Heath and Safety Act states that employers in Ontario “shall ensure that they prepare and review a written occupational health and safety policy, and develop and maintain a program to implement that policy”. Industries must have a written plan on how they will ensure... Read More ››
According to forklift accidents statistics, forklift operation presents a significant hazard to people occupying the same work space. Forklift injuries can be severe or fatal as forklifts are heavy and powerful vehicles. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported that forklifts strike pedestrians everyday, and result in hundreds... Read More ››
What is E – Learning E-Learning refers to learning and supportive resources that are made available through a computer. Features If you like to learn at your own pace and in the comfort of your own environment our e-learning courses are for you. Using a computer, you work through... Read More ››
Here are some tips to simplify the due diligence process and implement a health and safety system 1. It Must Come From the Top! When an employee is injured many companies don’t realize that a failure to act rests on the shoulders of all involved. That means directors and... Read More ››
Health and safety risk assessment has become a matter of prime importance for employers. Performing a risk assessment is a good start to demonstrating employer health and safety due diligence All work environments pose some sort of risk to the employees and could affect their health or well-being, and... Read More ››
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[post_content] => How does not conducting exit interviews or failing to use the data collected during exit interviews put an organization at risk and inflate their hiring expenses:
- Inability to identify causes of turnover to prevent future resignation
- No plan for developing retention focused programs due to no data
- Lost opportunity to avert litigation. Exit interviews can act as early warning signs to potential harassment or human rights issues
- Inability to gather competitive intelligence. What did your competitor offer to this former employee?
- Unnesessary costs for recruiting and training new personnel
- Guessing why the employee resigned. Was it due to management/coworker/salary/benefits/work hours
- Inability to measure differences by department or management
- Overlooking positive comments or suggestions that may aid in future retention
Exit interviews should clearly be a part of every human resource program due to the valuable information collected.
[post_title] => Is Conducting Exit Interviews Important?
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[post_content] => A forklift is a heavy piece of equipment and deserves to be treated with respect by the operator and others that come in close proximity to it. If operated in an unsafe manner, this equipment can cause extensive damage to surrounding fixtures, buildings, cargo, or worst of all, major injury or death to operators or others.
Governments are implementing more stringent occupational health and safety regulations relating to forklift operation. In response, many companies are recognizing the importance of safety in the workplace and are reviewing the safety records of their warehouse and material handling operations. The Forklift Safety Program is designed to help the operator be more aware of safe operating practices while operating any type of a lift truck. It is an awareness program and an attitude check on what makes a safe lift truck operator. This course consists of both classroom instruction with discussion portion and a hands-on portion. Each operator will be required to demonstrate his or her knowledge and skills while operating a motorized lift truck.
The following are some topics addressed in the training program:
Elements of a professional operator Inspection and safety checks
Proper and safe refueling
Forklift maneuvering techniques
Stability
TriangleLifting
Transporting and depositing a load Ramp
Dock operation
Each course meets all relevant government and industry standards. Training courses include both classroom and practical (hands-on) segments, review/recap of materials discussed, question & answer periods and a written evaluation. Upon successful completion, each participant receives a certificate and record of training. Training can be conducted at our on site multi-media facility or at individual customer worksites. Customized courses to meet individual company needs are available upon request.
Purpose for Forklift Training:
To train operators on all aspects of safe lift truck operation for Counterbalance Forklifts.
More In Class Topics Include:
•The definition of Material Handling
•ITA Classifications of Equipment
•Importance of Training
•The Operator: Attitude, Rules and Guidelines, Authorization
•Safe / Unsafe Practices
•Maneuvering Skills
•Stability Factors
•How to Approach Ramps
•Load Capacities
•Adverse Operating Conditions: Obstructed Vision, Uneven Terrain, Overhead Conditions, Blind Corners, etc.
•The Load: Landing Point Load Limits, Transporting the Load, Placing the Load, etc.
•Inspection and Maintenance, Engine, Electrical System, Hydraulics, Warning Devices, etc.
•Safe Refueling, Gas / Propane Handling
•Review of CSA, Occupational Health and Safety and Ministry of Labour Regulations
Practical Training Topics Include:
•Pre-operational Inspection
•Operation of Equipment: Loading / Unloading, Narrow Aisles, Blind Corners, Proper Shutdown Procedures
•Operator Evaluation (Driving Test)
Contact us for a specific quote..
[post_title] => Forklift Training in Vaughan
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[post_date] => 2012-03-29 20:30:11
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[post_content] => Commissioners of oaths are persons who are empowered under provincial legislation to administer and witness the swearing of oaths or solemn affirmations in the taking of an affidavit for any potential legal matter. Commissioners of oaths are also empowered to witness any declaration as required under a statute. The person swearing an oath, making an affirmation or making a declaration is called a deponent or declarant. A commissioner of oaths only certifies that the required oath or affirmation or declaration has been properly administered.
Commissioners of oaths do not certify the truth of the statements contained in a document; which remains the responsibility of declarants or deponents themselves.In most provinces and states, a commissioner of oath must administer the oath or declaration in the manner prescribed by law. This requires that the deponent be physically present before the commissioner of oaths. Also, the commissioner of oaths must be satisfied about the authenticity of the deponent's or declarant's identity and signature before a he or she can sign the document themselves. The deponent's or declarant's signature can usually be confirmed through comparing the signature on a piece of identification such as a driver's licence or on a provincial health insurance card.
Types of Oaths
Where an oath is being witnessed by a commissioner of oaths, the deponent is required to confirm the following: "Do you swear that the contents of this affidavit as subscribed by you are true? So help you God".
If this type of oath is not preferred, deponents may instead affirm by responding 'yes' to: "Do you solemnly affirm and declare that the contents of this affidavit as subscribed by you are true?".
Where a solemn declaration is required instead, the deponent must declare in the positive to: "Do you make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing it to be true and knowing that it is of the same force and effect as if made under oath".
In every case, the deponent must be physically present before the commissioner of oaths.
Contact us at wpl@workplacelawconsulting.com for more information on this service provided.
[post_title] => Commissioner for Taking Oaths and Affidavits in Vaughan, Woodbridge, Concord, Richmond Hill, Markham and Surrounding Areas
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[post_content] => A recent decision from the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeal Tribunal (WSIAT) lowers the threshold for entitlement to benefits for traumatic mental stress. An important departure from existing decisions, the decision has significant implications for employers in Ontario. Under s. 13 of Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA), an employee is entitled to receive Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) benefits for traumatic mental stress if the employee has “an acute reaction to a sudden and unexpected traumatic event arising out of and in the course of employment”.
Acute reaction
The WSIA itself does not define the phrase “acute reaction.” However, the WSIB’s policy on traumatic mental stress clarifies matters somewhat. According to the policy, an acute reaction is a significant or severe reaction to a work-related traumatic event that results in a psychiatric/psychological response. The reaction must result in an Axis I diagnosis in accordance with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).
Sudden and unexpected traumatic event
The phrase “sudden and unexpected traumatic event” is also not defined in the WSIA. However, the WSIA does state a claim for mental stress cannot arise solely from an employment decision such as termination, demotion, transfer or disciplinary action; a statement that is positive for employers.
The policy sheds additional light by stating a traumatic event may be a result of “a criminal act, or a horrific accident, and may involve actual or threatened death or serious harm against the worker, a co-worker, a worker’s family member or others.” Examples include:
• witnessing a fatality or a horrific accident;
• witnessing or being the object of an armed robbery;
• being the object of
o physical violence
o death threats
o threats of physical violence where the worker believes the threats are serious and harmful to herself or others (i.e. a bomb threat)
o harassment that includes physical violence, threats of physical violence, being placed in a life-threatening or potentially life-threatening situation.
Previous WSIAT decisions have applied these criteria to limit benefit entitlement to situations in which the traumatic event involves a “real or perceived threat” to a worker, which is life- threatening or potentially life-threatening. This interpretation is consistent with the DSM-IV definition of post-traumatic stress, which requires a life-threatening or potentially life-threatening triggering event. This application of the policy has, until now, provided a degree of predictability for employers by narrowly restricting the circumstances in which a worker is entitled to receive benefits.
Implications for employers
For an employer, this decision has both positive and negative implications. On the positive side, an employee’s entitlement to WSIB benefits is granted in lieu of all rights of action against the employer. As such, an increase in the scope of entitlement to benefits under the WSIA should result in a corresponding decrease in the employee’s right to sue his employer for compensation for traumatic mental stress arising out of or occurring in the course of employment.
Employers should therefore expect to see fewer lawsuits brought by employees for damages for traumatic mental stress. In the event an employer is sued by an employee for such damages, the employer may now be in a stronger position to argue the employee’s right to commence an action against the employer has been taken away by the WSIAT.
On the negative side, this shift in the scope of entitlement to benefits carries with it the potential for a significant increase in the number of successful claims by employees for WSIB benefits for traumatic mental stress. A successful claim typically means an increase in the employer’s cost statement, a reduction in rebates or an increase in annual premiums required to be paid, each of which has financial implications for an employer.
[post_title] => WSIAT and Traumatic Mental Stress..
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[post_content] => Creating non-violent and supportive health-care workplaces might help prevent prolonged work absences among nurses. This is the upshot of a new study from the Institute for Work & Health. With the health-care sector having the highest rate of lost-time claims and work absence in the country, disability managers in Canada’s health-care organizations may want to join forces with their counterparts in human resources to implement violence prevention and respectful workplace programs.
A new study from the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) shows that emotional and physical abuse at work, as well as disrespectful and unsupportive work environments, are associated with prolonged work absences among nurses. “Our findings suggest that violence prevention is also work absence prevention,” says IWH Adjunct Scientist Dr. Renée-Louise Franche, a clinical psychologist at Vancouver General Hospital, who led the study looking at the impact of worker and workplace factors on absenteeism among nurses. “According to our study, being abused or assaulted on the job is strongly associated with nurses having prolonged work absences. It is also indirectly connected by creating a poorer workplace culture and lower respect and support from co-workers, both of which are associated with increased work absence duration.”
The study, published in the August 2011 issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (vol. 53, no. 8, pp. 919-927), collected information on almost 12,000 female, direct-care Canadian nurses from Statistics Canada’s 2005 National Survey of the Work and Health of Nurses. Factors related to nurses’ personal health and their workplaces were examined relative to three categories of work absences: none, short-term (one to 10 work days) and prolonged (11 or more work days).
Worker health factors—namely pain that interfered with the ability to work, more severe pain, depression and having a higher number of chronic health conditions (such as arthritis, migraine and back pain)—had the biggest effect on the length of nurses’ work absences. Workplace factors had a smaller effect overall, with those having the most impact being emotional or physical abuse by a patient, visitor or co-worker, and low respect and low support at work.
The combined effect of worker and workplace factors was the most novel finding in this study, as few previous studies have examined this. Take pain-related work interference, for example, the factor most strongly associated with prolonged absences among nurses. “It looks like pain interference is a product of both worker and workplace factors,” says Franche. “That is, the degree to which pain interferes with work may depend not only on a nurse’s pain level, but also on the demands, both physical and social, of the environment in which she works.”
Strategies to reduce long absences:
The study’s findings suggest a number of ways in which health-care organizations can help decrease time away from work among nurses. Franche points to these potential strategies:
Implement or augment violence prevention programs. Among those in the 2005 Statistics Canada nurses’ survey that were included in this study, 57 per cent reported being emotionally abused at work and 31 per cent reported being physically assaulted at work during the previous year. Abuse or assault at work by a co-worker was particularly common, with 55 per cent of nurses reporting abuse or assault by a co-worker, compared to 25 per cent reporting abuse or assault by a patient or visitor. “Many health-care organizations have implemented violence prevention programs since then,” says Franche. “But they need to keep vigilant on this front.”
Address respect, support and organizational culture. This includes nurses’ feelings of control over their practice and autonomy at work, as well as their relationships with doctors and co-workers. Focus disability management practices on workers who are still on the job but struggling with multiple physical and mental health conditions.
Offer self-management programs that address pain and depression, focusing on the work environment. “The workplace doesn’t have full control of workers’ pain and depression, but it can help deal with issues by offering self-management approaches,” says Franche. “For example, more workplaces are offering relaxation and meditation courses, and these could be extended to include strategies on how to manage symptoms and episodes at work.”
[post_title] => Workplace Violence and Excessive Absenteeism!
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[post_content] => How does not conducting exit interviews or failing to use the data collected during exit interviews put an organization at risk and inflate their hiring expenses:
- Inability to identify causes of turnover to prevent future resignation
- No plan for developing retention focused programs due to no data
- Lost opportunity to avert litigation. Exit interviews can act as early warning signs to potential harassment or human rights issues
- Inability to gather competitive intelligence. What did your competitor offer to this former employee?
- Unnesessary costs for recruiting and training new personnel
- Guessing why the employee resigned. Was it due to management/coworker/salary/benefits/work hours
- Inability to measure differences by department or management
- Overlooking positive comments or suggestions that may aid in future retention
Exit interviews should clearly be a part of every human resource program due to the valuable information collected.
[post_title] => Is Conducting Exit Interviews Important?
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