Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act

Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act came into force in 1979 and emended time to time according to need. In Ontario an estimates as many as 6,000 people die every year due to a combination of occupational diseases and injuries. Such a numbers force changes in legislation to strengthened the requirements for occupational health and safety in Ontario workplaces and have reinforced the Internal Responsibility System (IRS) and the workplace structures, in particular the joint health and safety committees.

Act clearly indicated that it is the employers who have the greatest responsibility to ensure that health and safety are met in the workplace. However all workplace parties including employers, workers and supervisors have a responsibility with respect to health and safety. This is basis in order to have Internal Responsibility System (IRS) at work and roles of all parties are detailed in the act.

This Act provide a legal framework and the tools to make Ontario’s workplaces safe and healthy. It describes the rights and duties of all parties in workplace. It constructs the procedure for dealing with a workplace injuries and enforce law where the workplace parties has been failed to achieve compliance.