Responsibility

Safety is the responsibility of all employees, and subcontractors of Quinn Contracting Ltd. Each employee must assume the responsibility to take reasonable care in protecting the health and safety of themselves and other workers. They shall cooperate with their employer for the purpose of protecting the health and safety of themselves and other workers. Quinn Contracting Ltd will provide a leadership role in the promotion of Safety Awareness and Safe Work Practices for all employees and subcontractors.

Priority

All activities will be conducted on the basis that safety of all personnel is of vital importance, whether those personnel are employees or subcontractors.

Recognition

Recognition and support of good safety performance will be provided to all Quinn Contracting Ltd employees. As well, the process of selecting employees and subcontractors for work will include recognition of good safety performance.

Improvement

Quinn Contracting Ltd, with the cooperation and involvement of its employees and subcontractors, will promote and develop methods and procedures that will both identify and eliminate hazards, thereby improving safety performance.

Responsibility to Refuse Unsafe Work

According to the Alberta OH&S Act, unsafe work is work that involves an "imminent danger". An imminent danger can be

  1. a danger that's not normal for that type of work, or
  2. a danger under which a worker in that type of work would not normally do the work.

A worker must refuse work which she or he believes, if reasonable or probable that:

  1. it puts her or himself in imminent danger, or
  2. puts another worker at the workplace in imminent danger, or
  3. operation of any tool, equipment, or appliance will cause an imminent danger to themselves or another worker at the worksite.

Reporting and Remaining on Site for the Supervisor's Investigation

The worker's priority is reporting immediately to both the supervisor and the worker health and safety representative, if there is one, the refusal to work and the related safety concern. Remaining on site for the shift, while taking every measure to report the refusal, minimizes complications down the road.

After being told about the refusal, the supervisor must investigate the work, fix it, if necessary, and give a report to the worker detailing what was found, and the repairs that were made.

Health and Safety Officer's Investigation

After receiving the supervisor's report, a worker who believes the work is still unsafe can file a complaint with Workplace Health and Safety. The phone number is 1-866-415-8690. Workers who are deaf or have a hearing impairment can call 427-9999 in Edmonton, or 1-800-232-7215, free of charge, from elsewhere in the province.

The worker health and safety representative should be told about the disagreement, too.

An occupational health and safety officer from Workplace Health and Safety will investigate the work and make a decision, giving the decision in writing to the worker and the supervisor. It's expected that the supervisor has the work fixed if the offi cer's decision requires it, and the worker returns to work if the officer decides that the work is not unsafe.