Occupations Health and Safety

Workers’ right to workplace health and safety appear as standards in workplace health and safety laws. A regulation contains the minimum protection an employer must give a worker against dangers to the worker’s good health and safety. The minimum protection is defined as a standard.

The provinces regulated workplace health and safety in Canada, through an Occupational Health and Safety Acts. The Acts requires the establishment of health and safety committees in all workplaces with 20 or more employees. Regular inspections of the workplace by an employee representative are compulsory and, in appropriate circumstances, employees may refuse to work in situations where their health or safety is in danger.

Regulations respecting workers’ right to a safe and healthy workplace address only certain workplace hazards. Not all workplace hazards are regulated, and in the various jurisdictions, hazards are regulated differently

When an employer doesn’t set the workplace’s health and safety standards as high as the standards found in regulations, then the regulations need to be properly enforced. Government inspectors play an important role in the enforcement of regulations by ensuring that employers are meeting the legal standards.