The Top 5 upcoming OHS regulatory events you need to know about: #1

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Paul Leavoy

It can be hard for businesses to determine which regulatory events will directly affect how they do business. That’s why I’ve put together a list of the Top 5 OHS regulatory events on the immediate horizon business leaders as well as OHS managers and staff need to know about.

Yesterday we talked about the revised hazard communication standard. Here’s the next issue in the Top 5:

1. The Injury and Illness Prevention Program:

OSHA chair Dr. David Michaels indicated in an online chat earlier this year that OSHA’s top priority for 2011 is publishing and enforcing a new, nationwide Injury and Illness Prevention Program (I2P2).

The scope of the planned regulation is sweeping: it will likely affect every employer in every industry, coast-to-coast. Michaels himself has called it the most significant change in workplace safety culture since OSHA’s inception 40 years ago.

OSHA is expected to model the program on California’s own successful, 20-year-old IIPP program.

So, the question is, when will it take effect? Well, the short answer is, we don’t know. Since OSHA has yet to even specify a date for a proposed rulemaking, it could be a ways off.

That said, OSHA has stated it wants to publish the rule by the year’s end. While few details are known on how the standard will take shape, one hint was provided in an OSHA web chat on Monday: OSHA has taken the fact many businesses across all industries have already implemented safety management systems (e.g. guided by frameworks like OHSAS 18001) into consideration and suggested I2P2 could be aligned with existing SMS conventions.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to write me or comment if you have any questions. Next week we’ll be looking at what changes related to the Food Safety Modernization Act will mean to you.

Training and quality: peas in a pod

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Paul Leavoy

According to experts, though the connection can seem distant or indirect, proper training has a clear impact on quality, just as it has a clear impact on every aspect of business.

As business process design and ISO 9001 expert Chris Anderson noted in a blog post on the top ten root causes of business problems, poor training is the number one source of business issues. Two decades of business management led Anderson to place poor training ahead of poor methods, poor employee placement and poor engineering and design on the list.

“People don’t make mistakes,” Anderson insists in the post. “Systems make mistakes.”

And just as product and service quality issues arise from systemic deficiencies, employee performance — and its impact on quality — is correlative to the integrity of training management systems.

Training and quality are best thought of as peas in a pod — inseparable elements that should always be mentioned in the same sentence. Even if an organization feels it is 100 per cent where it needs to be from a quality perspective, training is essentially what got it there.

Best-in-class companies have thorough, streamlined training management programs (most often leveraged by software) that deliver measurable results. For those that overlook thorough training, it might be due to lack of time and other resources. However, such an oversight often leads to harsh ramifications: product recalls, brand damage, injuries, fatalities and bankruptcy.

Prevention, training central to Ontario OHS reforms

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Paul Leavoy

Ontario is poised to dramatically rework how it manages occupational health and safety.

Earlier this month Bill 160 was amended by the province’s standing committee on social policy and is now headed to the provincial legislature for a third reading and vote, meaning it could be law by as early as June. The proposed bill flows from the work of an expert panel formed in the wake of a string of workplace-related deaths across the province.

Focused on training and prevention, some of the bill’s key elements are as follows:

Training standards: The bill would call upon the Minister of Labour to set training program standards and ‘approve’ compliant organizations accordingly.
Training provider: In addition to minimum standards for training programs, those who administer training would also be required to achieve “approved training provider” status, though those certified under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act would be automatically approved.
Prevention: Quite notably, the bill would establish both a Prevention Council and a Chief Prevention Officer (CPO). It would also take the responsibility of workplace safety away from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) and hand it to the newly created CPO, who would report to the Minister of Labour and also be charged with the development of a provincial health and safety strategy. The Prevention Council, composed of provincial health and safety organizations, trade union representatives, employers, and other experts in the field, would provide advice to the CPO as he or she develops an province-wide strategy and prepares an annual report for the Minister.

Additional changes include adjustments to the number of trained health and safety personnel required for small businesses, altering how reprisals are referred to the labour relations board, and more.

According to convention, businesses across Ontario could be given up to 12 months to comply with the new rules, though the Ministry of Labour may ask employers to adhere to the act’s requirements on an expedited basis. Proactive businesses ought to begin determining how they will address the coming changes. For up-to-date news on Bill 160 developments, check out OHS Insider’s excellent blog on Ontario health and safety reform.