Employers sometimes struggle to understand the scope of training required by occupational health and safety legislation. The CSA Group is developing an “Occupational Health and Safety Training” standard for employers, and other workplace parties, to consider using.
A draft of the standard was released for consultation purposes some time ago. It can be viewed at http://redlandsgroup.com/.
The CSA Group expects to publish the new training standard in March 2013.
The CSA Group says, on its website,
“Each year, organizations in Canada are making significant investments in providing safety training to workers. Training is critical to helping ensure the health and safety of employees on the job. To help organizations invest limited training resources appropriately, CSA Group is developing a new standard, Z1001 – Occupational Health and Safety Training, which will provide the essentials of managing a health and safety training program and a way to recognize OHS training practices . . . The Standard . . . will help organizations to evaluate potential training programs and assist with the selection and evaluation of training providers.”
Ontario employers in particular, who will be faced with providing a mandatory safety training program to workers, should consider using the CSA Group standard in developing a comprehensive safety training program. The use of such a standard could help the employer establish the due diligence defence if charged under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
