Legal: Workplace safety beyond compliance

Protective measures are crucial for all areas where employees are working from heights. Photo courtesy Skyline Group.

Occasionally, occupational health and safety (OHS) and facility maintenance professionals face stark reminders that meeting minimal legal compliance does not necessarily equate to safety. Whether these incidents entail a death, serious injury or near miss, they serve as grave indicators of the human cost of relying solely on basic legal standards. More than anything, they are an urgent call for employers to adopt more comprehensive safety measures.

One example of this urgent need was a tragic incident in 2021 at a manufacturing facility in St. Catharines, Ont., where a worker died while replacing a pneumatic cylinder on a milling machine. According to the provincial ministry of labour, the worker was not wearing any protection when they fell 2.86 m onto a concrete floor below and were fatally injured.

The ministry found the manufacturing facility failed to take every responsible precaution to prevent the injury, including “ensuring the worker used an adequate means of fall protection,” as outlined in the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA). The manufacturer was fined $325,000, including a 25% victim surcharge, as mandated by the Provincial Offence Act.

The human cost

The incident was tragic—and current statistics paint a sobering picture for Ontario, where the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) reported approximately 92,000 workplace injury claims in 2022 alone.

OHSA and its construction and industrial regulations set a baseline for essential safety practices, including crucial stipulations for fall protection at heights exceeding 3 m. However, as the incident at the manufacturing facility highlighted, fatal accidents can occur even below these thresholds.

More than any other case in recent years, the incident exemplifies the inherent risks Canadians face when their workplace’s safety measures are designed to meet minimum compliance requirements, rather than ensure total safety.

Redefining safety

The urgent lesson to be drawn from this tragedy is we should view compliance not as a ceiling or goal, but as a floor or minimum requirement for safety. To demonstrate leadership and provide a workspace that considers the safety of its users, we must go far beyond the bare minimum prescribed by legislation, taking a proactive approach, identifying potential hazards and implementing protective measures that anticipate—rather than react to—those hazards.

No two working environments are the same, but there are universal principles around safety that, if implemented at the manufacturing facility, could have prevented the loss of life:

Proactive risk assessment
Regular and thorough risk assessments should serve as the cornerstone of safety protocol. These assessments must consider all potential hazards, regardless of whether or not they fall under regulatory mandates.

Cultural commitment
Safety should be prioritized in every decision and communication, so as to create a ‘culture’ of safety that permeates every level of the organization and is valued over productivity or cost-cutting.

Safety innovation
Decision-makers can leverage a range of technologies and innovative practices to significantly enhance safety. In the case of the manufacturing facility, integrating fall protection systems where falls are less than 3 m could prevent injuries and fatalities.

Education and training
There is no ‘end point’ when it comes to health and safety training. Rather, it is a continuous process that evolves according to the changing risks of the work environment.

Engaging with experts
When it comes to height safety, collaboration with experienced safety specialists is very important. Experts can provide insights that surpass basic compliance requirements, helping organizations develop customized plans that address unique challenges.

Charting the way forward

The death at the manufacturing facility should not be viewed merely as a failure of legal compliance, but also as a missed vital opportunity for leadership in preventative safety. It underlines the necessity for employers to ensure safety systems are robust, regularly reviewed and, most importantly, designed to truly protect workers.

For the relatives of the deceased, little can be done to ease the pain and trauma they will carry for the rest of their lives. For companies, however, such incidents should serve as a wake-up call, leading to deep introspection and realignment of their existing safety protocols. It is not enough to ask if we are meeting the standards set by law; the real question is whether or not we are doing everything possible to ensure this tragedy is never repeated.

Engineers, specifiers, contractors, facility managers, property owners and OHS representatives share a responsibility to ensure safety for working at heights. The power is in our hands to redefine protocol. By adopting a more holistic and proactive approach, we can ensure legal standards are just the beginning to the process of protecting every worker.

Vincenzo Cutrone is marketing manager for Skyline Group. For more information, contact him at marketing@skylinegroupintl.com.

Vincenzo Cutrone. Photo courtesy Skyline Group.