Workers Health & Safety Centre

Workers use health and safety info to learn about rights and duties under the law

FOR WORKERS

You work hard. You also expect to arrive home safe and healthy at the end of your workday. You should. It's your right.

Your employer has the greatest responsibility to provide a safe and healthy workplace, but you also have important rights and duties to help protect yourself and your co-workers on the job.

Your rights

By law, Ontario workers have three basic rights to protect their health and safety at work:

  • the right to know about workplace hazards and necessary control measures;
  • the right to participate in solutions to workplace hazards, best working through the joint health and safety committee (JHSC) in larger workplaces or worker representative in smaller workplaces;
  • the right to refuse unsafe work.

Your duties

By law, Ontario workers also have duties in the workplace. These include the duty to:

  • report hazards/unsafe conditions to a supervisor/employer;
  • report injuries/illnesses to a supervisor/employer/worker representative;
  • report the absence or defect in any equipment or protective device to supervisor/employer;
  • wear and use required safety equipment or device.

It's important to know your rights and duties. It's critical to use them. When your employer provides proper health and safety training, you are better able to contribute to a safe and healthy workplace. Whenever a workplace injury or illness is prevented, employers, workers, and their families all benefit.

Employer duties

By law, employers must take every reasonable precaution necessary to protect you. The best way to meet this duty is to identify, assess and control or better yet eliminate workplace hazards and provide you the training you need.

Under Ontario law, employers have both general and specific legal duties to train worker and workplace representatives. To begin, Ontario law now requires awareness training for workers. To be effective and ensure learning, this training needs to be more than online information. 

  • Certification Part I and II for at least one worker and one employer JHSC  representative
  • WHMIS, plus new GHS rules for chemical classification and labelling.
  • Violence and harassment training for all workplace parties
  • Training for Mobile Equipment Operator Competency
  • Transportation of Dangerous Goods
  • Needlestick and sharps training
  • Confined Space Entry training
  • Working at Heights training
  • Supervisor Competency.

Want to learn more?

Subscribe to WHSC E-news. Check out our website. Be sure to visit our "Frequently Asked Questions" section.

Have an inquiry about how to best deal with a specific workplace hazard? Ask your question by using our online inquiry form.

Don't see what you need, e-mail us at contactus@whsc.on.ca or call us at 1.888.869.7950 and ask to speak to a WHSC training services representative.

To report unsafe working condition/concerns not resolved at work, work refusals or employer reprisals call the Ministry of Labour at 1-877-202-0008.

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TESTIMONIALS


"With our just-in-time production schedules, I often need training coordinated fairly quickly — the WHSC makes this happen. I appreciate this — I have no reason to look elsewhere for training services." Andre Deveau Environmental, Health & Safety Coordinator Ventra Plastics Peterborough
"We have a newly formed joint committee and wanted to get all members on the same page with respect to our roles and duties. WHSC training certainly helped us to achieve this." Wayne Shipley Manager, Training Ministry of Colleges and Universities
"We recognize the important roles our supervisors play with respect to the safety of our employees. The one-day WHSC Supervisor training was exactly what we needed. It is our intention to provide this training to new supervisors in the future." Darlene Belliveau Director of Finance and Administration Alpha Court Thunder Bay

POLL

Does your workplace provide training to new workers or workers new to any job before work begins?