“Employers should take positive and not simply reactive steps to evaluate their safety plans on a regular basis, so that they’re responsive not only to concerns raised previously by workers, but also predictive of health and safety concerns that may arise in the future.”
So says Rich Appiah, an employment and labour lawyer at Appiah Law in Toronto, after the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) upheld work refusals by two teachers following a violent incident involving a special-needs student.
“The OLRB also held that an injury doesn’t need to be more probable than not, and a low probability of an injury doesn’t mean that performing the work is a risk that a worker must take,” says Appiah.
