CANADIAN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Health and Safety in the

12
Workplace

Chapter
Twelve

Krista Uggerslev, NAIT

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Learning Objectives
1. Describe the major Canadian laws relating to occupational health
and safety.
2. Assess the traditional thinking with respect to occupational health and
safety issues.
3. Explain the new thinking with respect to employee rights relating to
occupational health and safety issues.
4. Outline the safety and health responsibilities of employers and
employees.
5. Discuss the impact of stress on employees and the workplace.
6. Summarize the relationship between health and safety issues and human
resource management.

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Assumption of Risk
• Was a legal expression used by the courts
• Obsolete attitude toward accident prevention
where the worker accepted all the customary risks
and unsafe practices of the occupation

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Safety in the Workplace Models

Careless Worker
Early approach to safety in the
workplace which assumed
accidents were due to workers’
carelessness
A newer approach to workplace safety
that relies on the cooperation of the
employer and employees
Shared Responsibility

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Workplace Injuries and Health Hazards

• Workplace accidents and occupation-related
illnesses:
– $8B annually in direct compensation
– More than $19B including indirect expenses
• Direct cost of injuries:
– Lost wages, medical treatment, rehabilitation, etc.
• Indirect costs:
– Lost production, recruiting, training, etc.

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Health Hazards

Physical Biological Ergonomic

Agents Agents Related

Caused by
Exposure to Exposure to
the work
physical natural
environment
elements organisms
(e.g., repetitive
(e.g., Noise) (e.g., Viruses)
strain)

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Younger Workers
• Growing emphasis on the health and safety of
young workers
• 1 in 7 young workers is injured on the job
• One-fourth of all workplace injuries involve workers
aged 15 – 29 years
• Most common types of injuries are electrocution
and machine injuries

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LO1
Federal and Provincial
Safety Regulations
• Each province and federal jurisdiction have detailed
legislation addressing health and safety
• 3 Fundamental Employee Rights
– The right to know about hazards in the workplace
– The right to participate in correcting hazards
– The right to refuse dangerous work

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Federal and Provincial
Safety Regulations
• Workplace Health and Safety Committee
• Hazardous Products Act
– Protects consumers by regulating the sale of dangerous
products
• Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act

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Federal and Provincial
Safety Regulations
• Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
Act
• Workplace Hazardous Material Information System
(WHMIS)
– Requires that employers provide training to enable
employees to understand and recognize hazards
– Now includes Hazardous Products Act

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LO2 Responsibility for Health and Safety
• Legal requirements – should be seen as the
minimum requirements for employers
• Canada’s top 100 employers in 2015 place
considerable attention on safety
• Responsibility for health and safety is shifting from
employers to employees (joint committees)
• A focus on educating young employees about
workplace safety

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LO3
Responsibility for Health and Safety

Top
Management

Responsibility
for Health and
Safety
Employees Supervisors

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LO4
Implications for HRM
• Ensure consistent enforcement
• Best defence to a health and safety offence is “due
diligence”
• Health and safety audit
• Safety climate
• Downsizing and safety

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LO5
Workplace Stress
• Workplace Stress
– Harmful physical and emotional responses
• Stress Management
– Now part of manager/employee vocabulary
– Ways of dealing with the problem of stress

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Symptoms of Workplace Stress

• Symptoms of stress can harm employee
performance and lead to:
– Nervousness; chronic worry; easily provoked
– Unable to relax
– Stress-related physical ailments (e.g., stomach)
upsets, cardiovascular disease
– Musculoskeletal disorders (e.g., back injuries)
– Psychological disorders (e.g., depression)

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Causes of Workplace Stress

Factors unique • Workload/pace, autonomy shift work,
to the job physical environment, isolation

Role in the • Role conflict/role ambiguity, level of

organization responsibility

Career • Includes under- or over-promotion,

development job security, overall job satisfaction

more
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Causes of Workplace Stress cont’d

• Includes supervisors/co-
Relationships at
workers/subordinates, threat of
work violence or harassment

• Participation (or not) in decision-

Organizational
making, management style,
climate
communication patterns

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Burnout
• Condition of mental, emotional, and sometimes
physical exhaustion that results from substantial and
prolonged stress
• Presenteeism
• HR department needs to be proactive (e.g., train
supervisors, provide counselling)
• Stress and Job Performance
– Can be helpful or harmful depending on amount of stress
experienced
– When there is no stress, job challenges are absent and
performance tends to be low

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Stress Management
• Curative methods
– Try to correct the outcomes of stress (e.g., availability of
exercise, counselling services)
• Preventive measures
– Attempt to change the cause of stress (e.g., stress
management training)
• Stress Audit
– Identifies the causes of stress

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HR Actions to Reduce Stress

Compatible
Establish
workload Job
policy
design

Provide Define
HR Actions to
training roles
Reduce Stress

Work Participate
schedules Social in decisions
interaction

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Mental Health
• Mental health costs the Canadian economy about $50 billion
a year and $6 billion annually for lost productivity resulting
from mental health absenteeism
• Approximately 6.7 million Canadians have a mental health
problem or illness
• About half a million Canadians are absent in any given week
as a result of mental health issues
• Around 30% of disability claims and 70% of disability costs
are attributable to mental illness

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Fitness & Employee Wellness Program

• Improve employee health

• Decrease health care costs
• Improve employee
satisfaction
• Decrease absenteeism and
turnover
• Improve corporate image
• Reduce disability claims

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Other Contemporary Safety Issues

• Workplace Security
• Sick Building Syndrome (SBS)
• Workplace Violence
• Ergonomics
• AIDS

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LO6
Occupational Health and Safety
Strategy
• Top management’s involvement in setting health
and safety policies is essential
• Clearly assign responsibilities for plant safety and
health programs to ensure that the company’s
policies are carried out
• An occupational health and safety committee with
enforcement authority is very helpful

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Ensuring Health and Safety at the
12 Workplace Summary
After mastering this chapter content, you should be able to:
1. Describe the major Canadian laws relating to occupational health
and safety.
2. Assess the traditional thinking with respect to occupational health and
safety issues.
3. Explain the new thinking with respect to employee rights relating to
occupational health and safety issues.
4. Outline the safety and health responsibilities of employers and employees.
5. Discuss the impact of stress on employees and the workplace.
6. Summarize the relationship between health and safety issues and human
resource management.

© 2019 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Education Limited Schwind 12th Edition 12-25