Guidelines For Investigating Workplace Accidents, Hazards And Complaints

Being in constant communication with your staff and with health and safety representatives, as it relates to safety within the workplace can have a profound positive effect on the business. There are a number of things you need to do in order to effectively confront workplace safety issues such as accidents, hazards and complaints.

You must first decide on your system for informing the representative if an incidents occur and ensure they show you where the weaknesses are. That way you’ll be able to work your way towards stopping such incident from occurring by bettering your methods of handling them and reducing the risks and dangers surrounding them.

As employers, you must ensure that:

• You must inform the representatives, with a written report as to what had happened if steps need to be taken to safeguard against these incidents.
• You should also ensure that the representatives observe and obtain health and safety documents which have been kept for inspection and examination of reportable incidents at the workplace.

For your health and safety representative, you must ensure that:

• They don’t interfere with any machinery, equipment, plant or substance in the workplace which relates to the incident. That way they won’t disturb any evidence or destroy any factual evidence before the incident’s investigation.
• They are understanding, as it relates to the reasonable time and circumstances that employers need to produce the documents.

It’s a good practice to involve the representative in the investigation of the incident in order to give employees more encouragement to co-operate. If you have an individual who had agreed to disclose their information to the representative, you can disclose their name, the date/time/place of the incident and the nature of the incident.

A safe work place is crucial and ensuring that you have the right safety procedures and policies for things such as working at heights, first aid CPR, confined space entry, as well as things like WHMIS-GHS can create a great work environment that is safe and productive. Since Advanced Consulting and Training Ltd.’s founding, their diverse team of certified health and safety professionals have taken great pride in their ability to deliver prompt, cost-effective and relevant workplace health and safety solutions. As a CPO approved, TSSA accredited, and WSIB approved provider, we look forward to discussing how ACT can help with your company’s safety requirements. Contact us today.