Occupational Health and Safety

Does Alberta have laws about occupational health and safety?

Yes. The laws in Alberta are:

1. Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHS Act)

This law sets out responsibilities for all work site parties (including employers, supervisors, workers, contractors, owners, prime contractors, suppliers, service providers, self-employed persons, and temporary staffing agencies). It also sets out reporting and investigation requirements, offences, penalties, and available remedies.

2. Occupational Health and Safety Regulation (OHS Regulation)

These regulations are made under the OHS Act and set out administrative processes and requirements, such as permits and certificates for certain industries, requirements for competent workers, and safety training.

3. Occupational Health and Safety Code (OHS Code)

The OHS Code is made under the OHS Act. It sets out technical details, such as health and safety requirements for all industries and other requirements for specific industries.

Last Reviewed: December 2021

Why do we need occupational health and safety laws?

The purpose of these laws is to protect the health and safety of workers in Alberta.

More specifically, OHS laws:

• promote and maintain the highest level of physical, psychological and social well-being of workers
• prevent work site accidents, injuries, illnesses and diseases
• protect workers from conditions that negatively affect their health and safety
• ensure that workers have certain rights

The laws also set out:

• responsibilities for different work site parties
• minimum standards for work sites
• how the laws are to be enforced (investigations, etc.)
• penalties (fines) for work site parties who do not follow the laws

Last Reviewed: December 2021

Do Alberta’s occupational health and safety laws apply to everyone in Alberta?

No. Alberta’s occupational and health safety laws generally apply to all work sites but there are a few exceptions.

Alberta’s occupational health and safety laws do not apply to:

• Workplaces under federal jurisdiction. Federal workplaces include airports and airlines, banks, shipping and shipping services, highway transport, pipelines, many First Nations activities, radio and television broadcasting and cable systems, railways, telephone and telegraph systems, uranium mining and processing. These workplaces are covered under Part II of the Canada Labour Code.
• Work in or around a private home done by the occupant or owner. OHS rules still apply if the work is done in a private home and the employer does not live in the home. OHS rules also apply if the work is done by someone who lives in the home and is employed by or behalf of the owner of the home (who also lives in the home). An example would be a homeowner hiring their basement tenant to do renovations on the home.
• Students in learning activities conducted by or within an educational institution and where the student is not paid.
• Workers or family members employed on a farm or ranch who are not paid wages.

The OHS Code does not apply to domestic workers. Domestic workers include childcare workers, maids, housekeepers, personal care workers and gardeners who are hired directly by the owner or occupant of the house and who do not work for a company or agency. The OHS Act and the OHS Regulation still apply to domestic workers and their employers though.

Last Reviewed: December 2021

Do Alberta’s occupational health and safety laws apply to farmers and ranchers?

Yes, but with some exceptions.

As of January 1, 2018, occupational health and safety laws also apply to farms and ranches ONLY IF the farm or ranch has at least one worker who is paid wages and is not a family member. If this is the case, the farm or ranch has to follow OHS rules and the rules only apply to that non-family, waged individual.

For example, if a family owns and runs a farm and only the family works on the farm and is not paid wages, then OHS rules do not apply to the farm. However, if the farm hires someone (who is not family) to help out on the farm and pays that person wages, then the farm must follow OHS rules with respect to that employee.

For more information, see the Government of Alberta’s webpage called Occupational health and safety: Farm and ranch.

Last Reviewed: December 2021

What is a “work site”?

A work site is defined in the OHS Act as “a location where a worker is, or is likely to be, engaged in any occupation and includes any vehicle or mobile equipment used by a worker in an occupation.”

Last Reviewed: December 2021

Who is an “employer”? What are their responsibilities?

An employer is:

• a person who is self-employed
• a person who employs one or more workers (including from a temporary staffing agency)
• a person chosen by the employer to act as the employer’s representative (e.g. managers and supervisors), or
• a director or officer of a corporation who oversees the occupational health and safety of the workers.

An employer’s responsibilities include, as far as is reasonably practicable:

• Ensuring the health and safety and welfare of workers and other people on the work site.
• Ensuring their workers are aware of their rights under OHS laws.
• Ensuring that no workers are subject to or participating in harassment or violence at the work site.
• Ensuring workers are supervised by someone who is competent and knows OHS rules.
• Ensuring the joint health and safety committee (if one) or the health and safety representative (if one) complies with all requirement imposed on them.
• Ensuring that concerns raised by workers, supervisors and the joint health and safety committee or health and safety representatives are resolved quickly.

An employer must also make sure that all workers are properly trained to protect their health and safety.

Last Reviewed: December 2021

What does “reasonably practicable” mean?

This term is not defined in the OHS laws. Whether or not something is, or is not, reasonably practicable depends on the facts of the situation. In general:

• reasonable means that a person must consider: risks to workers, nature of the hazard, length of exposure, number of workers exposed, and severity of risk, and
• practicable means that a person must consider what is: possible, capable of being done, capable of being used, technologically feasible.

In other words, the degree of risk in a particular situation must be balanced against the time, trouble, cost and physical difficulty of taking measures to avoid the risk.

In the end, only a court (or other authority specified in the OHS laws) can decide whether something was, or was not, reasonably practicable.

Last Reviewed: December 2021

Who is a “worker”? What are their responsibilities?

A worker is a person working in an occupation and includes a self-employed person. A worker does not include:

• students in learning activities conducted by or within an educational institution where the student is not paid, or
• workers or family members employed on a farm or ranch who are not paid wages.

A worker’s responsibilities include:

• Taking reasonable care to protect their own health and safety and the health of safety of other people around them while the worker is working.
• Cooperating with their supervisor or employer on health and safety matters.
• Using devices and personal protective equipment (PPE) meant and provided to protect the worker.
• Not causing or participating in harassment or violence.
• Reporting unsafe or harmful work site acts to the employer or supervisor.
• Participating in training provided by the employer.
• Cooperating with anyone exercising a duty imposed by OHS laws.

Last Reviewed: December 2021

What are worker rights?

Workers have the following rights:

1. The right to be informed of work site hazards and how to remove or control those hazards.
2. The right to participate in health and safety activities about their work and work site, including expressing health and safety concerns.
3. The right to refuse dangerous work.

Employers cannot discriminate against workers who exercise their rights or fulfil their duties under the OHS Act, the OHS Regulation, or the OHS Code. This means that an employer cannot discriminate against a worker because the worker spoke out about a health and safety issue.

Last Reviewed: December 2021

Can a worker refuse dangerous work?

Yes. You have a right to refuse dangerous work. Your employer cannot punish you for exercising this right.

For more information about refusing dangerous work, see the Government of Alberta webpage called Refuse dangerous work.

Last Reviewed: December 2021

What is meant by a “competent worker”?

A competent worker is a worker who is adequately qualified, suitably trained and with enough experience to safely perform work without supervision or with only a small amount of supervision.

Last Reviewed: December 2021

Who is a “supervisor”? What are their responsibilities?

A supervisor is a person who is in charge of a work site or has authority over a worker.

A supervisor’s responsibilities include, as far as is reasonably practicable:

• Taking all steps necessary to protect the health and safety of workers under the supervisor’s supervision.
• Ensuing a worker under their supervision works in a way that follows the procedures and measures set out in OHS laws.
• Ensuring none of the workers under their supervision are subject to or participate in harassment or violence.

A supervisor must also:

• advise workers of health and safety issues that come up on the work site
• report to the employer any concerns about unsafe or harmful conditions on the work site, and
• cooperate with anyone exercising a duty imposed by OHS laws.

Last Reviewed: December 2021

Who is an “owner”? What are their responsibilities?

An owner means the registered owner of a piece of property where work is being done OR the person who enters into an agreement with the owner to be responsible for meeting the owner’s obligations under OHS laws. An owner does NOT include a person who lives on the property unless a business, trade or profession is carried on in that premises.

An owner’s responsibilities include:

• as far as is reasonably practicable, ensuring the land and any buildings on the land under the owner’s control are provided and maintained in a way that does endanger the health and safety of workers or anyone else
• ensuring any hazard they identify is communicated to all workers, employers, contracting employers, prime contractors, suppliers and service providers who are doing work or may do work, and
• cooperating with anyone who exercises a duty under the OHS laws.

Last Reviewed: December 2021

What is a “joint health and safety committee”?

A joint health and safety committee is a group of workers and employer representatives responsible for looking after the health and safety of workers. Their responsibilities include:

• receiving, considering and dealing with complaints about health and safety
• participating in the employer’s hazard assessment
• making recommendations to the employer about the health and safety of workers
• reviewing the employer’s work site inspection documents

An employer must form a committee if the employer regularly employs 20 or more workers in total.

If there are 20 or more regularly employed workers from two or more different employers (including self-employed persons) working on a work site, then a joint health and safety committee must be created. This rule does not apply if there is a prime contractor for the work site.

There are additional rules around who must be on the committee, training requirements, and how often it must meet. For more information, see the Government of Alberta website.

Last Reviewed: December 2021

What is a “health and safety representative”?

A health and safety representative is a worker (who is not associated with the employer’s management) who looks after the health and safety of workers. Working with a representative of the employer, their responsibilities include:

• receiving, considering and dealing with complaints about health and safety
• participating in the employer’s hazard assessment
• making recommendations to the employer about the health and safety of workers
• reviewing the employer’s work site inspection documents

If an employer regularly employs 5 to 19 workers in total, then the employer must choose one worker to be a health and safety representative.

If there are 5 to 19 workers from two or more different employers (including self-employed persons) working on a work site, then an health and safety representative must be named. This rule does not apply if there is a prime contractor for the work site.

An employer required to designate a health and safety representative may create a joint health and safety committee instead.

There are additional rules for health and safety representatives. For more information, see the Government of Alberta website.

Last Reviewed: December 2021

What is considered “harassment and violence”?

Harassment is defined in the OHS Act as “a single incident or repeated incidents of objectionable or unwelcome conduct, comment, bullying or action by a person that the person knows or ought reasonably to know will or would cause offence or humiliation to a worker, or adversely affect the worker’s health and safety”.

Harassment includes:

• conduct, comment, bullying or action because of race, religious beliefs, colour, physical disability, mental disability, age, ancestry, place of origin, marital status, source of income, family status, gender, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation, and
• a sexual solicitation or advance.

Harassment does not include any reasonable conduct of an employer or supervisor that has to do with managing a worker or work site. For example, a supervisor giving feedback to a worker is not considered harassment unless the manner in which the supervisor gives the feedback is not appropriate.

Violence is defined in the OHS Act as “the threatened, attempted or actual conduct of a person that causes or is likely to cause physical or psychological injury or harm, and includes domestic or sexual violence.” Workplace violence includes violence at a work site or violence that is work-related.

For more information about workplace harassment and violence see the Government of Alberta webpage called Workplace harassment and violence.

Last Reviewed: December 2021