The Occupational Health and Safety Act, Ontario's law that governs health and safety in the workplace,
sets out legal duties and responsibilities for employers, supervisors and workers to
follow. The duties may not be complicated, but if they are not followed, injuries, illness
or even the death of a worker can result.
| What does internal responsibility mean? |
The legal duties and responsibilities of employers, supervisors and workers overlap
and complement each other. Together, they create what's known as the internal responsibility
system or IRS.
Simply put, the IRS means everyone in the workplace has a role to play and a duty to
actively ensure workers are safe. Every worker who sees a health and safety problem such
as a hazard in the workplace has a duty to report the situation to management. Once a
hazard has been identified, the employer and supervisor have a duty to look at the problem
and eliminate any hazard that could injure workers.
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