Health & Safety Violations: Criminal Offences
In the year 2008, companies across our Nation were fined for Health & Safety Violations. These are now considered criminal offences. Fines in some provinces topped $5 Million dollars, with individual companies paying out up to $500,000 in fines. Did we grab your attention?
The Criminal Code now states that "Everyone who undertakes, or has authority, to direct how another person does work or performs a task, is under a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to that person, or any other person, arising from that work or task."
Did you know that each year in Canada, 800 000 people are injured or killed on the job? This is a staggering fact, and each of these tragedies was preventable.
April 28 is observed across Canada as the ‘Day of Mourning’ for workers killed or injured on the job. This date was chosen because on April 28, 1914, the Workmen’s Compensation Act was given third reading in the Ontario legislature. The ‘Day of Mourning’ was officially recognized by the federal government in 1991, eight years after the day of remembrance was launched by the Canadian Labour Congress. It has since spread to about 80 countries around the world.
Despite these horrific numbers, many organizations still choose to NOT train their staff. The excuses most commonly heard are; “It’s just too expensive”, or “I don’t have time to coordinate a training class”, or “We’re just too busy and cannot afford the production line downtime”.
There are options though. Many organizations have started using online training, to replace the traditional classroom style training methods. There are numerous benefits to doing this; lower cost to the company, less downtime because employees can take the training individually, no group classes to coordinate, no papers to mark, and no certificates to issue.
Classroom training generally runs for 4-8 hours, and some courses are even multi-day. This is not necessarily because of the amount of material that must be covered though… One of the biggest drawbacks to classroom style training is that the class moves along at the pace of the slowest participant.
Knowledge is power, and educating employees on safe practices is the law. Employers must be dedicated to doing whatever is necessary, so that their employees can go to work every day, and return home safely.
Contact us today to discuss your online training needs.
www.safeandcertified.com
Toll-Free at 1-877-425-5820
Email at info@safeandcertified.com
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