Health and Safety Consulting Services
Compliance Audits
An audit allows your organization to see how it is performing against relevant standards and regulations, identify shortfalls in the current system and implement corrective actions.
Without audits your organization will struggle to ascertain the effectiveness of its Health and Safety Management System and may leave areas of risk unattended.
EHS Zone offers a comprehensive review of your existing Health and Safety Management System. In addition a full compliance assessment to applicable Health and Safety regulations will be undertaken.
An audit report with a detailed summary of findings, recommended solutions and action plans as applicable will be issued within three working days following the assessment. Serious problems will be notified immediately to our major contact on site.
The audits happen in 2 or 3 days, depending on the size and complexity of the facility. The audit includes site inspections, documentation review, signage review, worker tasks observations, and worker interviews. Our auditors look for evidences of existing H&S systems and controls as required by the following regulations: Reg. 851 Industrial Establishments, Reg. 490 Designated Substances, Reg. 833 Control of exposure to biological or chemical agents, Reg. 860 Workplace Hazardous Materials Information Systems (WHMIS), Reg. 297/13 Occupational Health and Safety Awareness and Training, Reg. 385 Joint Health and Safety Committees – Exemption from requirements.
WSIB Workwell Program
Customers which are in a greater risk of experiencing workplace incidents might be required to go through the WSIB Workwell Program.
An unsuccessful program results to a substantial jump in the works compensation insurance premiums. We can assist companies to successfully pass the audit by reviewing the WSIB pre audit report or by conducting our own pre site audit which includes site inspection, documents review and worker interviews following the WSIB Workwell Core Health and Safety Audit check list.
With the results of the pre audit, an audit report with a detailed summary of findings, recommended solutions and action plans as applicable is issued within three working days following the assessment. Serious problems will be notified immediately to our major contact on site. With the final report on hand, customers can decide if support is required on the achievement of the 75% mark as required by the WSIB Workwell Program. It is important to remember that WSIB will come back to do the final audit within 6 months from the first assessment.
Health and Safety Policies and Procedures
Based on the customer’s needs or based on the results of Health and Safety compliance audits and workplace inspections, EHS Zone can help clients with any Health and Safety documents elaboration, review / update and implementation.
Risk Assessments, Ergonomics, JSA’s
Risk assessments are done through site inspections, tasks / operations observations, employee interviews and documents review using Job Safety Analysis (JSA) tool; a list of all routine and non routine activities and tasks are then developed for the site and JSA’s forms created per each task, operation or equipment. The assessment will focus on whatever is relevant to the workplace, which can include, but are not limited by:
Electrical Safety, Fire Safety, Harmful Substances, Machinery and Equipment Safety, Ergonomics, Material Handling, Noise, PPE, Radiations, Housekeeping, Slips, Trips and Falls, Confined Spaces, Working at Heights, etc.
Accident Investigations
Accident investigation is a useful aid to prevention and may even help to save you money in the long term. It’s good business practice to have an investigation and reporting procedure of all accidents to actively control them and prevent recurrence.
If a person, whether a worker or not, has been critically injured or killed at the workplace, the employer must immediately notify the Ministry of Labour, the joint
health and safety committee (or health and safety representative) and the union, if there is one. This notice must be by telephone or other direct means. [section 51(1)].
If an accident, explosion or fire occurs, or if there is an incident of workplace violence, and a worker is disabled or requires medical attention, the employer must notify the joint health and safety committee (or health and safety representative) and the union, if any, within four days of the incident. This notice must be in writing and must contain any prescribed information [section 52(1)]. If required by an inspector, this notice must also be given to a director of the Ministry of Labour.
EHS Zone provides an impartial and thorough accident investigation service. We will assist you with the reporting of health and safety incidents relating to your organization. When investigating an accident it is not our intention to allocate blame, but to thoroughly examine the direct and indirect causes of the accident with a view to avoiding a recurrence.
The investigation includes area inspection, interviews with the injured person (if possible), witnesses and supervisors and task / operation observations. At the end of the evaluation a final report containing the root cause analysis and recommendations to avoid future occurrences is submitted.
Customers also receive as of the EHS Zone Safety Policy system, an incident report blank form to be used if wished in future occurrences. Customer can also request accident investigation training for area supervisors and joint health and safety committee.
Workplace Inspections
Workplace inspections are required by law and the Ontario Health and Safety at Work initiative.
They can be done by local inspectors, such as the Joint Health and Safety Committee or health and safety representatives and they can be done with the support of a third party consultant such as EHS Zone which can assist you with your inspections program implementation, including elaboration of check lists specific / area with different hazards. We can also help customers on scheduling the inspections and with the hazard recognition’s training for internal inspectors.
JHSC Roles and Responsibilities Support
Businesses which employ over 20 employees are required to have a Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) which has certain duties and obligations as part of the OH&S Act.
The JHSC is an advisory body, such as an internal Safety Consultant that helps to stimulate or raise awareness of health and safety issues in the workplace, recognizes and identifies workplace risks and develops recommendations for the employees to address these risks. To achieve its goal, the committee holds regular meetings and conducts regular workplace inspections focused on risk assessments and makes written recommendations to the employer for the improvement of the health and safety of workers.
We provide support to the committee helping them to full fill their tasks and obligations as per the health and safety requirements. We can also run the company’s JHSC; which includes being an active advisor in the team, attending monthly meetings, helping out with the agenda, action plans and the committee roles in general.
Assessing Of Health and Safety Training Needs
Businesses are required to provide training to their staff in order to full fill their commitment with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations. We provide support in identifying all the health and safety training needs based on the local legislations. The evaluation includes the type of training, frequency, who should attend, all based on the existing hazards in the workplace.
Health and Safety Management System Implementation
Businesses with Occupational Health and Safety corporate requirements or superior Occupational Health and Safety goals, which go beyond the legislation might need support to implement their Health and Safety Management System.
The 12+ years of experience with the GE Global Star system, which is based on the OSHAs 18001 standards, empower EHS Zone with a significant knowledge to implement more complex Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems.