Le saviez-vous?
Saviez-vous que, conformément à la loi sur la santé et la sécurité au travail (Occupational Health and Safety Act), chaque personne présente sur un lieu de travail est responsable de sa santé et de sa sécurité et de celles des autres personnes présentes sur le lieu de travail?
Résumé
Le Système de responsabilité interne (SRI) est le fondement de la législation de la Nouvelle-Écosse en matière de santé et de sécurité au travail. Le message central du SRI est que toute personne présente sur un lieu de travail – y compris les employeurs, les membres du personnel, les entrepreneurs, les personnes chargées de la construction, les propriétaires et les prestataires – partage la responsabilité première de la santé et de la sécurité des personnes sur le lieu de travail. Le niveau de responsabilité est basé sur l’autorité et la capacité de chaque personne.
Le SRI est basé sur quelques principes clés :
- La responsabilité de la détermination et de la prise en compte des dangers sur le lieu de travail incombe aux personnes qui y travaillent (membres du personnel, responsables de la supervision, gestionnaires, propriétaires, entrepreneurs, personnes chargées de la construction, prestataires et prestataires de services).
- La plus grande responsabilité dans la création et le maintien d’un lieu de travail sûr et sain est partagée par tous ces groupes, dans la mesure de leur autorité et de leurs capacités.
- Le SRI comprend un plan de participation aux questions de sécurité et à la circulation de l’information sur la sécurité, de même que le droit de refuser un travail dangereux.
- La Division de la santé et de la sécurité au travail du gouvernement de la Nouvelle-Écosse joue un rôle de soutien. Elle établit et clarifie les rôles et les responsabilités de toutes les parties du lieu de travail, aide à l’accomplissement de ces responsabilités et intervient lorsque les responsabilités ne sont pas respectées.
La Nouvelle-Écosse est la seule province canadienne à avoir inclus le SRI dans sa loi sur la santé et la sécurité au travail (Occupational Health and Safety Act), ce qui lui confère un solide soutien législatif.
Dans l’ensemble, le SRI aide à faire ce qui suit sur les lieux de travail :
- Mettre en place un système de partage des responsabilités.
- Promouvoir une culture de la sécurité.
- Promouvoir des pratiques exemplaires.
- Aider à renforcer l’autonomie.
- Assurer la conformité.
La loi sur la santé et la sécurité au travail (Occupational Health and Safety Act) décrit le SRI comme suit :
- Il repose sur le principe selon lequel la responsabilité de la santé et de la sécurité des personnes sur le lieu de travail est partagée par les employeurs, les entrepreneurs, les personnes chargées de la construction, les membres du personnel et les personnes travaillant à leur compte sur un lieu de travail, de même que par le propriétaire d’un lieu de travail, le prestataire de biens ou le prestataire d’un service de santé ou de sécurité au travail sur un lieu de travail, ou encore l’architecte ou l’ingénieure professionnelle et l’ingénieur professionnel, qui peuvent toutes et tous avoir une incidence sur la santé et la sécurité des personnes sur le lieu de travail. [S.N.S. 1996, c. 7, s. 2(a)]
- Il suppose que la responsabilité première de la création et du maintien d’un lieu de travail sûr et sain incombe à chacune des parties, dans la mesure de son autorité et de sa capacité à le faire. [S.N.S. 1996, c. 7, s. 2(b)]
- Il comprend un cadre pour la participation, le transfert de renseignements et le refus d’un travail dangereux, qui sont tous nécessaires pour que les parties s’acquittent de leurs responsabilités aux termes de la loi et du règlement. [S.N.S. 1996, c. 7, s. 2(c)]
- Il est complété par le rôle de la Division de la santé et de la sécurité au travail du gouvernement de la Nouvelle-Écosse, qui n’est pas d’assumer la responsabilité de créer et de maintenir des lieux de travail sûrs et sains, mais d’établir et de clarifier les responsabilités des parties aux termes de la loi, de les soutenir dans l’exercice de leurs responsabilités et d’intervenir de manière appropriée lorsque ces responsabilités ne sont pas assumées. [S.N.S. 1996, c. 7, s. 2(d)]
Les responsabilités et les obligations comprennent ce qui suit :
L’employeur doit prendre toutes les précautions raisonnables, compte tenu des circonstances, pour assurer la santé et la sécurité des personnes sur le lieu de travail ou à proximité. [S.N.S 1996, c. 7, s. 13(1)(a)]
L’entrepreneur doit prendre toutes les précautions raisonnables, compte tenu des circonstances, pour assurer la santé et la sécurité des personnes sur le lieu de travail ou à proximité. [S.N.S. 1996, c. 7, s. 14(a)]
La personne chargée de la construction doit prendre toutes les précautions raisonnables, compte tenu des circonstances, pour assurer la santé et la sécurité des personnes présentes sur le projet ou à proximité. [S.N.S. 1996, c. 7, s. 15(a)]
Le membre du personnel est tenu de faire ce qui suit :
- Pendant qu’il est au travail, prendre toutes les précautions raisonnables, compte tenu des circonstances, pour protéger sa propre santé et sa propre sécurité ainsi que celles des autres personnes présentes sur le lieu de travail ou à proximité. [S.N.S. 1996, c. 7, s. 17(1)(a)]
- Lorsqu’il estime qu’une circonstance, un dispositif, un équipement, une machine, un matériau, un élément ou un aspect du lieu de travail est ou peut être dangereux pour sa santé ou sa sécurité ou celle de toute autre personne sur le lieu de travail, il doit :
- le signaler immédiatement à un responsable de la supervision;
- le signaler au Comité mixte de santé et de sécurité au travail (CMSST) ou au porte-parole de la santé et de la sécurité, si la question n’est pas résolue à la satisfaction du membre du personnel;
- le signaler à la Division, si le problème n’est pas résolu à la satisfaction du membre du personnel après avoir été signalé à un responsable de la supervision et au CMSST ou au porte-parole de la santé et de la sécurité. [S.N.S 1996, c. 7, s. 17(2)]
La personne travaillant à son compte est tenue de faire ce qui suit :
- Prendre toutes les précautions raisonnables, compte tenu des circonstances, pour protéger sa propre santé et sa propre sécurité ainsi que celles des autres personnes qui peuvent être touchées par ses activités. [S.N.S. 1996, c. 7, s. 18(a)]
Le propriétaire est tenu de faire ce qui suit :
- Prendre toutes les précautions raisonnables, compte tenu des circonstances, pour fournir et entretenir son terrain ou ses locaux utilisés ou devant être utilisés comme lieu de travail, de manière à garantir la santé et la sécurité des personnes sur le lieu de travail ou à proximité. [S.N.S. 1996, c. 7, s. 19(a)(i)]
Législation
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT
S.N.S. 1996, c. 7
Section 2
2. The foundation of this Act is the Internal Responsibility System which
(a) is based on the principle that
(i) employers, contractors, constructors, employees and self- employed persons at a workplace, and
(ii) the owner of a workplace, a supplier of goods or provider of an occupational health or safety service to a workplace or an architect or professional engineer, all of whom can affect the health and safety of persons at the workplace,
share the responsibility for the health and safety of persons at the workplace;
(b) assumes that the primary responsibility for creating and maintaining a safe and healthy workplace should be that of each of these parties, to the extent of each party's authority and ability to do so;
(c) includes a framework for participation, transfer of information and refusal of unsafe work, all of which are necessary for the parties to carry out their responsibilities pursuant to this Act and the regulations; and
(d) is supplemented by the role of the Occupational Health and Safety Division of the Department of Labour and Advanced Education, which is not to assume responsibility for creating and maintaining safe and healthy workplaces, but to establish and clarify the responsibilities of the parties under the law, to support them in carrying out their responsibilities and to intervene appropriately when those responsibilities are not carried out.
[ S.N.S. 2010, c. 66, s. 1; 2011, c. 24, s. 1]
Section 3
3. In this Act,
(a) "aggrieved person" means an employer, constructor, contractor, employee, self-employed person, owner, supplier, provider of an occupational health or safety service, architect, engineer or union at a workplace who is directly affected by an order or decision;
(b) "analyst" means a person appointed as an analyst by the Minister pursuant to this Act;
(c) "Board" means the Labour Board established under the Labour Board Act;
(d) "committee" means a joint occupational health and safety committee established pursuant to this Act;
(e) "compliance notice" means a response, in writing, to an order of an officer, describing the extent to which the person against whom the order was made has complied with each item identified in the order;
(f) "constructor" means a person who contracts for work on a project or who undertakes work on a project himself or herself;
(g) "contractor" means a person who contracts for work to be performed at the premises of the person contracting to have the work performed, but does not include a dependent contractor or a constructor;
(h) "contracts for work" includes contracting to perform work and contracting to have work performed;
(i) "Council" means the Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Council established pursuant to this Act;
(j) "dependent contractor" means a person, whether or not employed under a contract of employment and whether or not furnishing the person's own tools, vehicles, equipment, machinery, material or any other thing, who performs work or services for another on such terms and conditions that the person is
(i) in a position of economic dependence upon the other,
(ii) under an obligation to perform duties mainly for the other, and
(iii) in a relationship with the other more closely resembling that of an employee than an independent contractor;
(k) "Deputy Minister of Labour and Advanced Education" includes a person designated by the Deputy Minister of Labour and Advanced Education to act in the stead of the Deputy Minister;
(l) "Director" means the Executive Director of Occupational Health and Safety or any person designated by the Executive Director pursuant to this Act to act on behalf of the Executive Director;
(m) "Director of Labour Standards" means the Director of Labour Standards under the Labour Standards Code;
(n) "Division" means the Occupational Health and Safety Division of the Department of Labour and Advanced Education;
(o) "employee" means a person who is employed to do work and includes a dependent contractor;
(p) "employer" means a person who employs one or more employees or contracts for the services of one or more employees, and includes a constructor, contractor or subcontractor;
(q) "former Act" means Chapter 320 of the Revised Statutes, 1989, the Occupational Health and Safety Act;
(r) "health and safety" includes both physical and psychological health and safety;
(s) "Minister" means the Minister of Labour and Advanced Education;
(t) "occupation" means any employment, business, calling or pursuit;
(u) "officer" means an occupational health and safety officer appointed pursuant to this Act and includes the Director;
(v) "owner" includes a trustee, receiver, mortgagee in possession, tenant, lessee or occupier of lands or premises used as a workplace and a person who acts for, or on behalf of, an owner as an agent or delegate;
(w) "police officer" means
(i) a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or
(ii) a member or chief officer of a police force appointed pursuant to the Police Act;
(x) "policy" means an occupational health and safety policy made pursuant to this Act;
(y) "practicable" means possible, given current knowledge, technology and invention;
(z) "program" means an occupational health and safety program required pursuant to this Act, unless the context otherwise requires;
(aa) "project" means a construction project, and includes
(i) the construction, erection, excavation, renovation, repair, alteration or demolition of any structure, building, tunnel or work and the preparatory work of land clearing or earth moving, and
(ii) work of any nature or kind designated by the Director as a project;
(ab) "reasonably practicable" means practicable unless the person on whom a duty is placed can show that there is a gross disproportion between the benefit of the duty and the cost, in time, trouble and money, of the measures to secure the duty;
(ac) "regularly employed" includes seasonal employment with a predictably recurring period of employment that exceeds four weeks, unless otherwise established by regulation or ordered by an officer;
(aca) "repeatedly" means occurring more than once within the preceding three year period;
(ad) "representative" means a health and safety representative selected pursuant to this Act;
(ae) "self-employed person" means a person who is engaged in an occupation on that person's own behalf and includes a person or persons operating a sole proprietorship but does not include a dependent contractor;
(aea) "serious injury" means an injury that endangers life or causes permanent injury;
(af) "supplier" means a person who manufactures, supplies, sells, leases, distributes or installs any tool, equipment, machine or device or any biological, chemical or physical agent to be used at or near a workplace;
(ag) "union" includes a trade union as defined in the Trade Union Act that has the status of bargaining agent under that Act in respect of any bargaining unit at a workplace, and includes an organization representing employees where the organization has exclusive bargaining rights under any other Act in respect of the employees;
(ah) "workplace" means any place where an employee or a self-employed person is or is likely to be engaged in any occupation and includes any vehicle or mobile equipment used or likely to be used by an employee or a self-employed person in an occupation.
[S.N.S. 2000, c. 28, s. 86; 2010, c. 66, s. 2; 2010, c. 37, s. 117; 2011, c. 24, s. 2; 2016, c. 14, s. 1; 2024, c. 10, s. 11]
Section 13 DUTIES AND PRECAUTIONS
13. (1) Every employer shall take every precaution that is reasonable in the circumstances to
(a) ensure the health and safety of persons at or near the workplace;
(b) provide and maintain equipment, machines, materials or things that are properly equipped with safety devices;
(c) provide such information, instruction, training, supervision and facilities as are necessary to the health or safety of the employees;
(d) ensure that the employees, and particularly the supervisors and foremen, are made familiar with any health or safety hazards that may be met by them at the workplace;
(e) ensure that the employees are made familiar with the proper use of all devices, equipment and clothing required for their protection; and
(f) conduct the employer's undertaking so that employees are not exposed to health or safety hazards as a result of the undertaking.
(2) Every employer shall
(a) consult and co-operate with the joint occupational health and safety committee, where such a committee has been established at the workplace, or the health and safety representative, where one has been selected at the workplace;
(b) co-operate with any person performing a duty imposed or exercising a power conferred by this Act or the regulations;
(c) provide such additional training of committee members or the representative as may be prescribed by the regulations;
(d) comply with this Act and the regulations and ensure that employees at the workplace comply with this Act and the regulations; and
(e) where an occupational health and safety policy or occupational health and safety program is required pursuant to this Act or the regulations, establish the policy or program.
(3) The employer at a subsea coal mine shall provide such additional resources or information for the committee as may be prescribed by the regulations.
(4) Every employer shall, in accordance with the regulations, establish and implement a policy respecting the prevention of harassment in the workplace.
[N.S. 2007, c. 14, s. 7; 2010, c. 66, s. 5; 2024, c. 10, s. 13]
Section 14
14. Every contractor shall take every precaution that is reasonable in the circumstances to ensure
(a) the health and safety of persons at or near a workplace;
(b) that the activities of the employers and self-employed persons at the workplace are co-ordinated;
(c) communication between the employers and self-employed persons at the workplace of information necessary to the health and safety of persons at the workplace;
(d) that the measures and procedures prescribed pursuant to this Act and the regulations are carried out at the workplace; and
(e) that every employee, self-employed person and employer performing work at the workplace complies with this Act and the regulations.
Section 15
15. Every constructor shall take every precaution that is reasonable in the circumstances to ensure
(a) the health and safety of persons at or near a project;
(b) that the activities of the employers and self-employed persons at the project are co-ordinated;
(c) communication between the employers and self-employed persons at the project of information necessary to the health and safety of persons at the project, and facilitate communication with any committee or representative required for the project pursuant to this Act or the regulations;
(d) that the measures and procedures prescribed under this Act and the regulations are carried out on the project; and
(e) that every employee, self-employed person and employer performing work in respect of the project complies with this Act and the regulations.
Section 17
17. (1) Every employee, while at work, shall
(a) take every reasonable precaution in the circumstances to protect the employee's own health and safety and that of other persons at or near the workplace;
(b) co-operate with the employer and with the employee's fellow employees to protect the employee's own health and safety and that of other persons at or near the workplace;
(c) take every reasonable precaution in the circumstances to ensure that protective devices, equipment or clothing required by the employer, this Act or the regulations are used or worn;
(d) consult and co-operate with the joint occupational health and safety committee, where such a committee has been established at the workplace, or the health and safety representative, where one has been selected at the workplace;
(e) co-operate with any person performing a duty or exercising a power conferred by this Act or the regulations; and
(f) comply with this Act and the regulations.
(2) Where an employee believes that any condition, device, equipment, machine, material or thing or any aspect of the workplace is or may be dangerous to the employee's health or safety or that of any other person at the workplace, the employee shall
(a) immediately report it to a supervisor;
(b) where the matter is not remedied to the employee's satisfaction, report it to the committee or the representative, if any; and
(c) where the matter is not remedied to the employee's satisfaction after the employee reports in accordance with clauses (a) and (b), report it to the Division.
Section 18
18. Every self-employed person shall
(a) take every reasonable precaution in the circumstances to protect the self-employed person's own health and safety and that of other persons who may be affected by the self-employed person's undertaking;
(b) co-operate with any employer, joint occupational health and safety committee or health and safety representative that may be found at a place at which the self-employed person conducts an undertaking, to protect the self-employed person's own health and safety and that of other persons who may be affected by the undertaking;
(c) co-operate with any person performing a duty or exercising a power conferred by this Act or the regulations; and
(d) comply with this Act and the regulations.
Section 19
19. Every owner shall
(a) take every precaution that is reasonable in the circumstances to provide and maintain the owner's land or premises being or to be used as a workplace
(i) in a manner that ensures the health and safety of persons at or near the workplace, and
(ii) in compliance with this Act and the regulations; and
(b) give to the employer at the workplace the information that is
(i) known to the owner or that the owner could reasonably be expected to know, and
(ii) necessary to identify and eliminate or control hazards to the health or safety of persons at the workplace.