The province has announced it will be conducting an inspection blitz throughout the month of May to ensure safe practices at low-rise residential construction sites.
Enforcement will be increased at home building project sites to ensure employers are complying with the Occupational Health and Safety Act, according to a news release.
Inspectors will be checking that workers are instructed, trained and supervised on jobs; using proper safety measures, equipment and procedures to prevent injuries; and properly protected from any on-site hazards such as trench excavation cave-ins.
The blitz is part of the Safe at Work Ontario strategy, a compliance measure introduced in 2008 as a way to reduce workplace injuries and illness, lessen the burden on the health-care system, avoid costs for employers and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), and provide a level playing field for compliant companies.
The government will simultaneously be conducting a four-month inspection initiative to monitor new and young workers, who the government says are “often vulnerable to hazards on the job.”
Health and safety inspectors will be checking to see that young workers are instructed, trained and supervised on jobs; using proper safety measures, equipment and procedures to prevent injuries; and meeting minimum age requirements for the work they are doing.
“Inspectors will focus on workplaces where many new and young workers are employed, including restaurants, landscaping sites, arenas, mills, nursing homes, low-rise construction projects and farming operations,” notes the release.
This is the fourth year for the initiative focusing on new and young workers in Ontario.
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