Health and Safety Worker Orientation: A Legal Requirement
As an employer, Northwest Community College is responsible for ensuring that workers are prepared to work safely before they start working. Safety training must be specific to the workplace and should be an ongoing process. Providing an effective safety orientation and training is the best way to prevent accidents.
More than half of workplace accidents involving new workers occur during their first six months on the job. Even an experienced worker will require a new orientation if circumstances change or new hazards develop. For example, there may be a new work process or new equipment or the employee may be assigned work at a different campus, or assigned to a different task.
This Health and Safety orientation checklist must be completed whenever an employee is:
•New to the workplace;
•Facing hazards that have changed or developed while they were at work or absent from work;
•In a new workplace or location that has different hazards than the previous one.
The completion of this checklist for every new process/piece of equipment/new employee is now a legal requirement under PartIII of BC’s Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Regulations.[1] Fortunately, if an employee is in a remote location, works unusual hours, etc., we are encouraged to use alternate methods to ensure we meet this regulation. For example, email, fax and/or satellite phones could be used to cover all the points on the checklist and then transmit the form back to Human Resources. Once completed the form is signed off and initialled as appropriate, and forwarded to Human Resources (Terrace) for inclusion in the employee’s personnel file.
The WorkSafeBC publication3 Steps to Effective Worker Education and Trainingis the short companion guide to the new checklist.
Online training modules are booked through Tim Thomas, Learning and Development Officer, Human Resources.
In some sections of the checklist, we refer to the guidelines and rules of working in the employee’s specific “local work area.” Local work area guidelines would explain the rules for the specific job area, whether they were stationary or mobile. For example, a CCP instructor needs to know about violence in the classroom, how NWCC handles inappropriate students, etc. versus a yard worker needs to know how to operate the chainsaws and how to dig in flowerbeds without back strain.
Finally, this form and the WorkSafeBC publication3 Steps to Effective Worker Education and Trainingpublication are on the shared document site. We have made the form available in electronic form so that it can be adapted (within reason) to make the process a little easier.
Employee Name: ______
Position Title: ______Department Name: ______
Date Hired: ______Date of Orientation: ______
Supervisor: ______Telephone: ______
Trainer providing orientation, if not Supervisor: ______Position ______
Orientation Topics
Topic / Documents/Instructions / Comments / Initials (trainer) / Initials (worker)- Internal Responsibility
Internal Responsibility / Courses-Required:
- Internal Responsibility (45 min)
- The Right to Refuse Work (25 min)
Rights and responsibilities
General duties of employers, workers, supervisors / Pages 9-10 of 3 Steps to Effective Worker Education and Training
Right to refuse unsafe work
Responsibility to report hazards
- Health and Safety Rules
Pages 13-16 of 3 Steps to Effective Worker Education and Training
Course-Optional:
- WorkSafeBC Audio SlideShows
- Known Hazards and How to Deal with Them
Workplace Hazards / Local Guidelines for work area
Course-Required:
- Workplace Hazards (25 min)
- Forklift Safety (40 min)
- WorkSafeBCAudio Slide Shows
- Safe Work Procedures for Carrying out Tasks
- Procedures for Working Alone or in Isolation
- Measures to Reduce the Risk of Violence in the Workplace
Workplace Violence & Harassment / Course-Required:
- NEW:Respect in the Workplace –Choose either the Manager or Employee course as appropriate
Course-Optional:
- Creating a Respectful Workplace (15 min)
- Workplace Violence & Harassment (45 min)
- Respect in the Workplace (35 min)
- Workplace Violence & Harassment Short Review (15 min)
- What your department does to prevent andminimize workplace bullying and harassment;
- Explain procedures for reporting incidents or complaints of bullying and harassment in your department.
Explain how, when and to whom a worker should report a incidents if the alleged bully is a manager. - Explain how NWCC managers and administration will deal with incidents and complaints of bullying and harassment including the roles and responsibilities of VP- People and Planning, managers, workers and others;
- Inform workers of NWCC three related policies:
2) Harassment and Discrimination
3) Violence in the Workplace
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Personal Protective Equipment / Course-Required:
- Personal Protective Equipment (15 minutes)
- First Aid
Guidelines for contacting #4444
CAT Memo on Reporting Injury (find in Policy page on NWCC website)
- Emergency Procedures
Emergency Procedures / Course-Required:
- Evacuation Plans and Procedures (15 min)
- Fire Safety (15 min)
- Using a Fire Extinguisher (15 min)
- Basic Contents of the Occupational Health and Safety Program(Where Applicable)
- Hazardous Materials and WHMIS
Hazardous Materials / Course-Optional:
- WHMIS Refresher (15 min)
- WHMIS (60 min)
- Contact Information for the Occupational Health and Safety Committee or the Worker Health and Safety Representative
Prince Rupert:
Terrace: Kerry Clarke, Lynne Nordstrom, Don Hill, Kari Eisner, Keisha Reichert, Maggie Ballash, Tim Thomas
These topics have been discussed and explained.
Supervisor (or Trainer)Trainee
C:\Documents and Settings\TimThomas\Desktop\DO NOT USE YET-- Worker Orientation Checklist with New Bullying.docx
[1] These requirements are also part of the OH&S Regulations in each Collective Agreement:BCGEU Supports.25.1; BCGEU Facultys.21.1; FPSE CUPE: s.12.7.1.