Recorded: Wednesday April 12, 2017
Slides: Click Here
Title: Meeting Obligations Under the OHSA When Hiring Contractors
Speaker: Frank Portman, Associate

Employers both in and out of construction require other companies to work on their premises. Whether it’s in a traditional subcontracting relationship on a construction site or there are employees on site performing repair, delivery or other work in an industrial or commercial facility, the modern workplace is frequently, if not inevitably, a multi-employer site.

This economically necessary model presents safety challenges to owners and primary employers in control of premises. From an organizational risk perspective, it’s critical to assess and contain the workplace safety risk, both posed by the work performed by contractors as well as the risk to those contractors from existing workplace hazards. Of course, the nature of contracting means that direct control of the risk is difficult, if not impossible. Consequently, employers and owners have to rely on contracts to ensure that the necessary safeguards are in place. The structuring of that relationship is a necessary part of any organization’s health and safety framework.

This seminar will touch on:

• Best practices for retaining contractors
• Using contracts to define the relationship with contractors in health and safety matters
• The important difference between construction and non-construction projects in Ontario
• The critical importance of monitoring contractors
• Maintaining an ongoing health and safety dialogue with contractors
• Ensuring that responsibilities for health and safety in the workplace are appropriately divided between the workplace parties.