High school students seeking a Workers Health and Safety Centre (WHSC) 2015 post-secondary scholarship have just a few weeks left to apply.
 
Applicants are asked to write an essay, design a poster or produce a video that will best explain why Ontario employers have the greatest responsibility for ensuring work is safe and healthy.
 
Dave Killham, executive director of the WHSC, says scholarship candidates will want to begin by looking at the Occupational Health and Safety Act (the Act) and regulations. “Although joint health and safety committees, representatives and workers have specific responsibilities in terms of workplace health and safety, employers and supervisors have the most significant legal obligations to protect workers.”
 
Though recently published Ministry of Labour (MOL) enforcement blitz results suggest employers have a ways to go to comply with even minimum mandatory safety requirements. 
 
Between May and August 2014 MOL inspectors visited more than 2,500 workplaces that commonly employ new and young workers. Almost 8,000 compliance orders were issued to employers who were found to be violating safety obligations. These inspectors also wrote 156 stop work orders where the risk to the health or safety of workers was so high work needed to be stopped immediately.  
 
According to the MOL, “The blitz results indicate new and young workers continue to be exposed to many of the same hazards in the industrial sector workplaces, regardless of the size or nature of the business. Continued enforcement is needed to improve the health and safety of these workers.”
 
“Enforcement is important,” says Killham. “Though, we also need to move the discussion and actions towards prevention. For the WHSC, our partners and many progressive employers, preparing for prevention begins with quality training — not just meeting minimum training obligations.”
 
The WHSC has been helping workplaces with training and other resources needed to support their prevention efforts for more than 30 years. In fact, the WHSC is legally designated in Ontario as a training centre specializing in occupational health and safety.
 
The WHSC Student Scholarship Initiative is open to any student residing in Ontario and beginning their first year of full or part-time studies leading to a degree, diploma or certificate from a publicly-funded Ontario College or University. Entrants must not have graduated high school prior to summer of 2014. 
 
Up to six candidates will be selected and will be eligible to receive a $1,200 scholarship.
 
The submission deadline for the 15^th Annual WHSC Student Scholarship Initiative is Friday, June 12, 2015.
 
Winners will be announced in fall 2015.
 
Want to know more about the 2015 WHSC Student Scholarship Initiative?
 
Want to access the many WHSC Young Worker resources?

For additional information about the WHSC student scholarship initiative or any other workplace health and safety-related question:
Call:      1-888-869-7950 and ask to speak to a training service representative
Email:    contactus@whsc.on.ca
Online:   www.whsc.on.ca
 
Want to know more about the MOL new and young worker enforcement blitz?