​WSHMS-09-SOP-021-02

PURPOSE

To define the River East Transcona School Division (RETSD) process for all safety incident reporting, investigation and corrective action activities.

SCOPE

This safe operating procedure and associated documents establish a standard, procedure and program framework for all facilities and stakeholder groups for reporting, response, investigating and corrective measure implementation for safety concerns and incidents at RETSD.

All workers have a responsibility to participate in incident reporting, response, investigation and corrective action as applicable and within their training and expertise.

Management workers must work in consultation with non-management workers in incident reporting, response, investigation and corrective action activities.

DEFINITIONS

Safety Concern

A safety concern is a potential or emergent safety issue that has not yet caused injury, illness, facility, or equipment damage, but if left unaddressed, could cause injury, illness, facility, or equipment damage.

Dangerous Occurrence Incident

A dangerous occurrence incident is a safety-related incident that occurred without resulting in injury, illness, facility, or equipment damage but under different circumstances may have caused injury, illness, facility or equipment damage. A dangerous occurrence incident is also known as a near miss incident.

Medical Emergency Incident

A medical emergency incident is a health incident that may or may not be work related but occurs in the workplace or facility that may require the engagement of emergency medical services (e.g., heart attack, stroke)

Workplace Injury Incident

A workplace injury incident is a safety incident occurring at a workplace that causes injury or illness to a worker.

The subcategories for workplace injury types include:

Serious Injury

A serious injury is one in which a worker is killed or suffers:

·         An injury resulting from electrical contact.

 

·         Unconsciousness as the result of a concussion.

 

·         A fracture of his or her skull, spine, pelvis, arm, leg, hand or foot.

 

·         Amputation of an arm, leg, hand, foot, finger or toe.

 

·         Third degree burns.

 

·         Permanent or temporary loss of sight.

 

·         A cut or laceration that requires medical treatment at a hospital as defined in The Health Services Insurance Act.

 

·         Asphyxiation or poisoning.

Medical Aid Injury

A medical aid incident is one in which a worker suffers an injury severe enough to require medical aid, but does not qualify as a serious injury incident.

First Aid Injury

A first aid injury is one in which a worker requires the services of a first aider and/or self- aids with first aid supplies to treat an injury.

Minor Injury

A minor injury is one in which a worker does not require or does not seek medical aid or first aid for an injury.

Facility Serious Incident

A facility serious incident involves a failure or an uncontrolled situation that does not necessarily involve injury to persons but is serious enough to require reporting to the Workplace Safety and Health Division.

A facility serious incident includes or involves:

• The collapse or structural failure of a building, structure, crane, hoist, lift, temporary support system or excavation.

• An explosion, fire or flood.

• An uncontrolled spill or escape of a hazardous substance.

• The failure of an atmosphere-supplying respirator.

Employee Abuse Incident

Employee abuse incidents are generally classified as physical or emotional violence perpetrated by students against staff.

Workplace Violence or Harassment Incident

Workplace violence or harassment incidents are generally classified as physical or emotional violence perpetrated by a stakeholder against another stakeholder. Perpetrators can come from all stakeholder groups.

The only exception is when students harass staff or perpetrate violence against staff.  This is covered under employee abuse. See Workplace Violence Prevention Program and the Divisional Respectful Workplace Policy for further information.     

Site Safety Incident Response Team

A worksite level safety incident response and investigative team, which at a minimum must have the following stakeholders participating:

·         The school administrator as chief supervisor and person in charge acting on behalf of management

 

·         The head custodian or other custodial staff present in the facility, acting as a worker representative

 

·         The elected site safety representative acting as a worker representative

Divisional Safety Incident Response Team

A divisional level safety incident response and investigative team, which at a minimum must have the following stakeholders participating:

1. The co-chairpersons of the divisional workplace safety and health committee at the workplace or their designates

2. The site safety team of a facility or department, as applicable.

3. The administrator or director of a facility, in the presence of a worker employed at the workplace that is not associated with the management of the workplace in the absence or unavailability of worker site team members.

SERIOUS INJURY RESPONSE PROCEDURE

1.      Summon first aid responders.

 

2.      Ensure that the scene is safe to administer first aid.

 

3.      Follow the direction of the first aider.

 

4.      Summon the applicable supervisor or person in charge, if they are not already on scene, and summon members of site safety incident response team.

 

5.      Call 911 to summon Emergency Services (EMS). The decision to call EMS is to be made ideally by the first aider or by any person responding in the absence or if time is a factor in making the call. Give the street address of the facility and location of the front entrance doors.

 

6.      Ensure a responsible person is dispatched to meet the EMS and lead them to the scene, if called. Generally, EMS will enter a facility at the main front doors corresponding to the location of a fire or alarm panel.

 

7.      Control people traffic at the scene, and dispatch resources to obtain the Safety Incident Response and Investigation Kit that may be required to secure and preserve the scene (tape, barriers, cameras, etc.). First aiders and site safety team members should know the storage location of the kit on site.

 

8.      Follow the directions of EMS once they arrive on scene. EMS controls the scene when they arrive, taking over from the first aider.

 

9.      Call the divisional safety incident response team and follow directions. The divisional safety incident response team will likely need to investigate. If in doubt as to how to proceed in a medical emergency situation, seek guidance from the RETSD Safety and Health Officer. (Cell: 204.471.5693, email: mailto:safetyofficer@retsd.mb.ca)

 

10.  Help secure, control and preserve the scene if applicable. Do not disturb the scene unless required to prevent further harm to the injured worker or to prevent injury to other workers.

 

11.  Ensure the injured party is transported to a medical facility by EMS.

 

12.  The divisional safety incident response team or the administrator is to ensure that the affected person's emergency contact is notified of the situation and which medical facility the person has been sent to.

 

13.  On the direction of the divisional safety incident response team, set the scene back to normal as applicable, using approved methods.

REPORTING PROCEDURE

To report a safety concern or incident, follow these steps:

1. Workers are to report a concern or incident to their Supervisor or person in charge verbally, in writing, or both, in a timely manner.

2. Incidents that are not serious in nature are to be responded to, investigated, and corrective action plans set by the site safety team. Written reports of this activity are to be submitted to the Safety and Health Office.

3. Any serious facility incident, dangerous occurrence or an injury that requires RETSD management to send any worker to a medical facility, the calling in of outside emergency services personnel, including health emergencies, that occur at RETSD facilities must be reported immediately, or as soon as reasonably practicable after initial response, by a member of the site safety team (Administrator, Site Safety Representative, or Head Custodian) to the Safety and Health Officer via email or phone.

Safety and Health Officer

Cellular Phone: 204.471.5693

RETSD Email: safetyofficer@retsd.mb.ca

4. The Safety and Health Officer will notify the Divisional Committee Co-Chairperson or designate by phone as soon as reasonably practicable after being notified of a serious incident as defined in 2, to set a course of action and if it is necessary to deploy the Divisional Incident Response Team.

5. If the incident is deemed to be reportable to the Workplace Safety and Health Division, the Safety Officer will make the call, and coordinate all incident investigation teams based on the response from the Workplace Safety and Health Division.

6. All Workplace Safety and Health Division reportable serious incidents are to be investigated by the Divisional Safety Incident response Team in a timely manner.

7. All serious incidents are to be investigated, corrective action plans developed, and reported in writing to the Safety and Health Office.

All acceptable forms for written documentation of workplace safety concerns or incidents are displayed on the the Divisional website, Safety and Health under Quick Links, Report tab. Detailed and specific instructions for managemnent and non-management workers are also displayed.

RIGHT TO REFUSE DANGEROUS WORK

All workers have the right to refuse work that they truly believe to be dangerous to their personal safety and health or the safety and health of any other person.

See Right to Refuse Dangerous Work for detailed instructions on how to deal with a work refusal situation.

INCIDENT INVESTIGATION GUIDELINES

An effective safety incident investigation generally will contain the following elements:

·         A visit to the specific incident scene by the investigators and the stakeholder concerned

·         Interviews of the stakeholders concerned and any witnesses to the incident

 

·         A simulation and chronology of the events leading up to, including and immediately after the incident

 

·         A close inspection of the current physical environment where the incident occurred and notations of any different physical environment factors

 

·         Listening actively, asking probing questions to verify the meaning of responses

 

·         Accurate notes that have been reviewed with interviewed stakeholders for verification to ensure completeness

After an investigation is completed, RETSD in consultation with the co-chairpersons or designates the representative or the worker, as applicable, must prepare a written report that includes the following:

• The name of any person injured or killed.

• The date, time and place of the incident, accident or dangerous occurrence.

• A description of the incident, accident or dangerous occurrence.

• Any graphics, photographs or other evidence that may assist in determining the cause or causes of the incident, accident or dangerous occurrence.

• An explanation of the cause of the incident, accident or dangerous occurrence, including any factors or events that indirectly contributed to it occurring.

• Any immediate corrective action taken.

• Any long-term action that will be taken to prevent the occurrence of a similar incident, accident or dangerous occurrence, or the reasons for no action being taken.

Note: This requirement is covered if the appropriate reporting, investigation, and corrective action forms are used. Always use the RETSD safety forms to record, investigate and implement corrective actions for incidents.

All acceptable forms for written documentation of workplace safety investigation and corrective action are displayed on the Divisional website, Safety and Health under Quick Links, investigate tab. Detailed and specific instructions for management and non-management workers are also displayed.

CORRECTIVE ACTION GUIDELINES

• Assess root cause and indirect causes of the incident.

• Ensure proposed corrective action solutions are identified against all identified causes (root and indirect).

• Ensure proposed corrective action solutions are reasonable and practicable, using combinations of administrative controls, personal protective equipment and engineering controls as reasonable and practicable.

• Engage expertise available internally or externally to define and or implement corrective actions.

• Fully implement corrective actions to close the incident file.

• Monitor effectiveness of solutions following corrective action implementation.

If you have any questions about corrective action implementation, contact the safety and health officer or your human resources department.

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:

• New employee orientation, employee manuals or employment information packages

• Return to work or remedial programs, as required on an individual basis

• Planned ongoing training through team meetings, individual coaching or other methods as developed or adopted

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.