Health and safety training

New arrivals in Canada face additional vulnerabilities on the job, according to studies by Institute for Work and Health (IWH) in Toronto, writes Ian Harvey.

Published: Daily Commercial News, January 2018

Organizations working with recent immigrants are incorporating parts of the Institute's toolkit for teaching newcomers about workplace health and safety into their programming. Organizations in Ontario, Alberta, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and even as far away as Australia, say the resource is just what they were looking for.

Published: December 2017

“Working at heights is one of the most dangerous types of work in the construction sector,” says Dr. Cameron Mustard, president and senior scientist, Institute for Work & Health, in an article on Ontario's plans to review working-at-heights training standards. “By working with stakeholders to evaluate the WAH standards, we will help ensure construction workers are protected on the job and will return home safely at the end of each workday.”

Published: Equipment Journal, December 2017

Can an occupational health and safety (OHS) training program be improved by modifying it to address gaps in essential skills? In a recent study, a research team led by Dr. Ron Saunders modified a hoisting and rigging training program offered by the LIUNA Local 506 training centre. The changes were made to address trainees’ skills gaps in numeracy and document use that were related to the job. In this plenary, the team share findings regarding the effect of modifying the curriculum on trainee learning and discuss suggestions for improving training efforts within the construction sector.

Published: November 2017

On July 1, 2014, a new occupational health and safety requirement took effect in Ontario. An IWH research team conducted a study on differences in OHS awareness before and after the requirement took effect. Read about the findings.

Published: November 2017

When immigrants and refugees come to Canada, they are handed a 140-page document that contains only one small paragraph about employee rights. Unfortunately, this might be the only OHS exposure these workers receive, writes Amanda Silliker, reporting on an Institute for Work & Health research project.

Published: Canadian Occupational Safety, November 2017

In this presentation, Dr. Peter Smith shares the results of a study that examined differences in the level of self-reported occupational health and safety (OHS) awareness and empowerment among employed workers in Ontario before and after the introduction of the mandatory OHS training. He also discusses the implications of the results for future province-wide initiatives focusing on the primary prevention of work-related injuries and illnesses.

Published: April 2017

This project looked at the needs of recent immigrants and refugees to Ontario to help ensure they can safely integrate into the Canadian labour market.

Status: Completed 2017

Can we improve occupational health and safety (OHS) outcomes by embedding literacy and numeracy into OHS training? IWH researchers aimed to find out, by assessing a hoisting and rigging program that embeds these essential skills into the training.

Status: Completed 2017

IWH researchers are examining the effectiveness of Ontario’s mandatory working-at-heights training standard and what is being learned about its implementation in construction workplaces.

Status: Completed