PURPOSE
WSHMS-05-017
To define the River East Transcona School Division (RETSD) process for conducting safety inspections of facilities.
The division must establish a system to inspect worksites at RETSD. This requirement is defined in Element 5 – Inspection Schedule.
The division must establish a system to evaluate, revise and continually improve the safety and health program at RETSD. This requirement is defined in Element 11 – Evaluate, revise, and continually improve program.
SCOPE
This safe operating procedure and associated documents establishes a standard, procedure and program framework for all facilities and stakeholder groups for safety inspections of facilities and audits of safety program implementation in RETSD.
The best practices apply to all RETSD worksites.
RESPONSIBILITY
By Facility or Department
This safe operating procedure shall be implemented and applies to all RETSD facilities. The Site safety Team or Committee are responsible to ensure that regular periodic inspections of the facility are being performed and recorded in the facility Safety Audit and Action plan for the facility. (See Safety Program Review and Audits for more details).
The Site Safety Teams have the responsibility to engage workers at their respective facilities to participate in facility inspections based on expertise or other factors that fit the inspection criteria.
Divisional Workplace Safety and Health Committee
The committee will oversee the audit processes, and therefore the inspection program contained therein, for the division and individual workplaces, as required.
DEFINITIONS
Divisional Safety Program Audits
Divisional safety program audits are a systematic evaluation and measurement of the development, implementation and continual improvement of the divisional workplace safety and health management system across the entire division.
Worksite Safety Program Audits
Worksite safety program audits are a systematic evaluation and measurement of the development, implementation and continual improvement of the divisional workplace safety and health management system in specified workplaces and worksites.
Regulator Safety Inspections
These are formal inspections conducted by workplace safety and health division and other regulatory bodies at RETSD workplaces or work sites. Examples include all municipal inspectors, fire, health, etc.
Work Site Safety Inspections
These are internal formal or informal inspections conducted by RETSD workers at RETSD workplaces or work sites. These inspections are accounted for and recorded as part of the audit process for each facility or department.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH DIVISION REGULATOR SAFETY INSPECTION PROCEDURE
Workplace Safety and Health Division and Other Regulators
Inspector Mandate
An inspector, in the performance of their duty, may, at any hour of the day or night, enter a place where work activities are carried on as defined in the Act and the Regulations.
Chapter W210 10/02 The Workplace Safety and Health Act
Manitoba Regulation 217/2006 Workplace Safety and Health Regulation
Inspector visits can be a routine inspection or for "cause." Visits for "cause" can include, but are not limited to, an accident investigation, anonymous phone call, work refusal, presentation of new programs, etc.
Planned Inspection Preparation
Identify a management representative who will be the contact and the liaison during the visit. This, in most cases, should be the administrator of the facility. If the administrator is not able to attend, have the next highest ranking official at the site perform these duties.
Identify a worker representative who will be the contact and the liaison during the visit. This person, in most cases, will be the site safety representative. If reasonable and practicable to do so, have the head custodian or other custodial staff available to accompany the management and worker representative during the inspection.
Call the safety and health officer to inform of the inspection. Generally, the safety and health officer will make every effort to attend the inspection to help with the process to gain firsthand knowledge of issues identified in the inspection. This will help in the corrective action implementation and report on compliance processes that generally result from an inspection.
Ensure all applicable safety management system documentation (i.e., SOP, forms, records, etc.) are available for review or examination by the inspector.
During the Inspection
The site safety team should accompany the inspector during the investigation and record the inspector's observations, comments, tests, measurements, sketches, and photographs. Note all activities of the inspector.
Following the Inspection:
Ensure all notes, tickets, orders, police reports are forwarded to the administrator, and then to the safety and health officer.
Administrators, along with the site safety team, should promptly develop an action and corrective action plan to address issues documented in the inspection. The safety and health officer must be involved in this process.
Complete and implement all corrective action plans in a timely manner, through to compliance issued by the workplace safety and health division.
Always be truthful. Never attempt to obstruct or mislead an inspector.
WORK SITE SAFETY INSPECTIONS PROCEDURES (SEMI ANNUAL)
See this page / document and associated links for worksite safety inspection instructions and forms.
Responsibilities
All stakeholders have the responsibility to report unsafe conditions while attending RETSD facilities.
HAZARD RECOGNITION AND CONTROL
All stakeholders have the responsibility to recognize, identify and health control hazards in the workplace.
S - Guidelines for spotting a hazard (hazard awareness and recognition)
If you experience an unexpected outcome or negative side effect while performing a job task, don't just automatically attribute it to a rare, maybe one off, uncontrollable, freak accident or occurrence. Think critically about the situation, discuss it with co-workers doing the same work, and report the incident or concern to your supervisor or person in charge.
A - Guidelines for assessing risk (i.e. hazard assessment)
Ask yourself, as far as reasonable and practicable, "If nothing were changed in the condition of activity, is there anything bad that could happen like a person getting hurt in any way or significant damage to property?" This is determining if a risk exists.
If a risk exists, ask yourself, as far as reasonable and practicable, "If something bad were to happen, how serious would the injuries and loss be? This is determining the potential severity of an identified risk.
If a risk exists, ask yourself, as far as reasonable and practicable, "If no action were to be taken given the way things are now, how likely would it be for a bad thing to happen? Is it pretty much guaranteed to happen, or is it a stretch to think it could ever really happen? What are the chances of it happening today, this week, next month, or within the next 20 years? This is determining the probability of an incident occurring or re-occurring.
F - Guidelines for finding a safer way (i.e. hazard control)
Ask yourself, as far as reasonable and practicable, "Does this task absolutely need to be done using the current procedure, equipment, and materials or can the work results be accomplished in another way using other safer tools, equipment or methods?" This is called task or hazard elimination through avoidance or substitution. Material substitution is substituting a less hazardous material in place of a more hazardous material, thereby reducing or eliminating risk.
Ask yourself, as far as reasonable and practicable, "If the task is valid and needs to be done in this way as there is no other way to do it, is there a way that we can make changes to equipment or facility to reduce or eliminate the hazard? This is called implementing engineering controls. Engineering controls are generally the best strategy for hazard elimination and control (prevention at the source and along the path to the worker), but are sometimes impractical solutions due to overall cost, poor cost benefit returns if there are other options available, and unfavorable time to implement or responsiveness factors.
If engineering controls are not reasonable or practicable at the present time or ever under the circumstances, ask yourself, "If engineering controls are not an option at the present time, is there a way that we can adjust the way we do the work or safe work procedure to eliminate or reduce the hazard? This is called implementing procedural controls. Procedural controls are only effective to the degree that a worker is trained to perform them, and the human factor limitations around following and consistently executing safe work procedures. Always discuss procedural control changes with your supervisor or person in charge and ensure that job hazard analysis and safe work instructions are revised to reflect the changes made.
If engineering controls are not reasonable or practicable at the present time, and procedural controls do not effectively control or sufficiently address the hazard, ask yourself, "Is it reasonable, practicable, and necessary to provide the worker personal protective equipment to reduce and eliminate the hazard?" This is called implementing personal protective equipment (PPE) controls (at the worker). PPE programs should be set as required by occupational task and as a last resort after first considering task elimination, engineering controls and procedural controls.
E - Guidelines for continuously improving workplace safety (i.e. every day)
www.safemanitoba.com
Corrective Action and Closure
Supervisors or persons in charge at RETSD facilities should receive reports and ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, the reports are processed, investigated and corrective actions implemented.
HIGH RISK WORKSPACE SAFETY INSPECTIONS PROCEDURES (MONTHLY DURING SCHOOL YEAR)
See this page / document and associated links for instructions and forms.
SAFETY INSPECTIONS SCHEDULE
See Divisional Committee Exemption - Inspections document for details and current schedule.
COMMUNICATION
A combination of hard-copy postings, distributions and electronic posting will be used to communicate safety and health program information within RETSD.
TRAINING
All stakeholders shall be trained to their required level of involvement in the WSHMS to become familiar with its structure, organization, and how to look up and access information both electronically and in hard copy form through:
ENFORCEMENT
Ultimately, the superintendent shall be responsible for the sustainability of the WSHMS, and shall enforce compliance to standards at a divisional level.
Workplace safety and health management system compliance shall be managed through the application of performance management and progressive discipline policies and procedures.
Worker failure to comply with provisions of the RETSD safety program may lead to discipline, up to and including discharge from employment and / or other remedies available at law.
