Workers Health & Safety Centre

Deadline for new WHMIS obligations fast approaching

Worker working with hazardous chemicals
Ontario employers must comply with new training and other obligations relating to Canada’s altered workplace hazardous materials information system (WHMIS) by December 1, 2018.
 
To assist employers seeking to meet this deadline, the Workers Health & Safety Centre (WHSC) has scheduled Globally-Harmonized WHMIS training in communities across Ontario for Friday, September 7. Be sure to register soon as classes fill up fast.

New employer obligations

The Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System, commonly known as WHMIS, is designed to provide workers, supervisors and employers with health and safety information about hazardous products used, stored, handled or disposed of in the workplace.
 
Changes to federal WHMIS-related law, and supporting provincial and territorial regulation, has changed this workplace hazardous product communication system aligning it with a globally-harmonized and recognized system.

Employers must complete transition from original WHMIS to globally-harmonized (GHS) WHMIS by December 1, 2018. To achieve this, they must adopt the new standards for classifying hazardous products and revise workplace inventories using new classification criteria. To this end, they must ensure:
  • each hazardous product has a label meeting new criteria
  • each hazardous product has a safety data sheet (replacing MSDSs) meeting new criteria
  • each worker who is exposed or likely to be exposed to a hazardous product receives general and workplace-specific GHS-WHMIS training [s. 42(1), Occupational Health and Safety Act and s. 6, WHMIS Reg.], and
  • each worker understands the new communication system and can apply it at work.

WHSC supports compliance

WHSC’s Globally-Harmonized WHMIS Training is a comprehensive, cost-effective option for employers seeking to meet the general training obligation.

Like all WHSC programs, this program applies adult learning principles to ensure learning is achieved. And this is important for employers as Ontario law requires that WHMIS training results in workers being able to use the information to protect their health and safety [s. 7(3), WHMIS Reg.].
 
Further still, the WHMIS Regulation also requires employers to provide workplace-specific training to workers, including product-specific procedures for the safe use, storage, handling and disposal along with directives in case of an emergency situation. WHSC can help with this too.
 
To learn more about WHMIS training obligations or want further clarification about the transition to GHS WHMIS:

Visit:   www.whsc.on.ca/Resources/Publications/WHMIS-Resources
Call:    1-888-869-7950 and ask to speak to a training service representative
Email: contactus@whsc.on.ca