WHAT IS THE ONTARIO OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT (OHSA)?
The Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act was first enacted on October 1, 1979. The Act was established with the objective of protecting workers against workplace health and safety hazards. The Act outlines the rights and responsibilities of all persons in the workplace, as well as procedures on how to deal with workplace hazards. Workplace health and safety was deemed the responsibility of the employer and workers had very little say under the provisions of the Act. However, labour groups and other interest groups lobbied the government for changes in order to enable worker input in workplace health and safety issues, afterall workers were the ones being exposed to hazards and worker’s health was being jeopardized. Compromises were made by the government at the time to ‘give’ workers three particular rights[1] , which were incorporated in the amended Act in 1990. These rights are: the right to refuse dangerous or unsafe work if the employee believes that a situation constitutes a
