Safety Reporter
Canadian
www.safety-reporter.com
May 2017
INJURED EMPLOYEE'S DISMISSAL
NOT DISCRIMINATORY: TRIBUNAL
Small employer didn't have modified work
available and sincerely believed worker
submitted false medical note pg. 5
FAILURE TO INVESTIGATE WORK
REFUSAL UNREASONABLE BUT
UNDERSTANDABLE pg. 3
Employer should have investigated
employee's health concerns but it was
preoccupied with many work refusals
SHORTCUT AFTER CHANGE OF
PLANS ON ELECTRICAL REPAIR
JOB LEADS TO TRAGEDY
SaskPower supervisor violated safety
procedure and legislation by not redoing
formal risk assessment
pg. 6
INSIDE
OHS contraventions can trigger
accusation of manslaughter
Quebec court found reasonable person would have foreseen risk
BY NORM KEITH
THE QUEBEC Superior Court
has recently made a decision
that will have broad implica-
tions for individuals and corpo-
rations in high-risk workplaces
across Canada. Justice Louise
Villemure dismissed a judicial
review from the committal trial
of Sylvain Fournier for a charge
of manslaughter, arising from a
workplace fatality. Justice Vill-
emure held that a contravention
of a duty on employers under
the Quebec Safety Code may be
an appropriate basis for a crimi-
nal charge of manslaughter.
Fournier's trial is scheduled for
Nov. 27.
Misconduct, not work
refusal, reason for dismissal
Employee had scent sensitivity,
but also several instances of discipline
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
THE DISMISSAL of a Nova Scotia employee with a scent sensitiv-
ity was because of a pattern of bad behaviour, not a refusal to work
where he thought he would be in danger, the Nova Scotia Labour
Board has ruled.
Keith Gillis was an office service co-ordinator with the human
resources unit of the Public Service Commission of Nova Scotia
(PSC) in Halifax. He was essentially a personal assistant to the di-
rector of the human resources division and the job required "a high
NEWS BRIEF
CONFINED SPACE RISK
ANALYSIS DEVELOPED
The Quebec-based Robert-Sauvé
Research Institute for Occupation-
al Health and Safety has published
a research report designed to con-
tribute to confined space accident
prevention by helping companies
apply existing regulations. Re-
searchers wanted to gain a better
understanding of confined space
risk management and identify
issues based on the literature and
field observations, and develop a
confined space risk analysis and
work categorization tool that meets
the needs defined in the first stage
of the project.
The most common confined
spaces in industry are tanks, res-
ervoirs, silos, vats, manholes, pits,
sewers, pipes and tank cars or
trucks that have certain charac-
teristics defined in the regulations.
The risks run by workers who enter
these confined spaces are poten-
tially high because of the confine-
ment, inadequate natural ventila-
tion, isolation, and access, rescue
and communication problems.
Moreover, accidents are common .
A five-step risk assessment
tool was developed for confined
spaces. The report can be found at
http://www.irsst.qc.ca/en/.
Contravention > pg. 4
Credit:
Shutterstock/hans
engbers
Employer > pg. 2
PM
#40065782
