Legal Liability of Physicians
Physicians are frequently asked to provide medical
certificates for a patient's employer. These certificates are
needed to meet requirements of the employer's disability
insurer.
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REGIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY Sick Buildings (formerly entitled Our Little House of Horrors)
Bill C-45 - Due Diligence PREVENTING HARM IN THE WORKPLACE Article 3 of Bill C-45 provides that: Every one who undertakes, or has the authority, to direct how another person does work or performs a task is under a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to that person, or any other person, arising from that work or task. Simply stated, Bill C-45 requires that employers take steps to provide a safe workplace for their workers. Employers who fail to do so may face charges of criminal negligence under the amended Code. Criminal negligence occurs when an act or omission of an accused party shows wanton or reckless disregard for the safety of others where the accused is under a legal duty to act. This requirement under Bill C-45 is similar to the obligations already imposed on employers under occupational health and safety ("OHS") legislation across Canada. For example, the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act requires employers in Ontario to take "every precaution reasonable" to protect the health and safety of workers. (More - pdf)
Guidelines for fitness-to-work examinationsJ. W. Cowell Fitness-to-work examinations require an objective assessment of the physical and mental health of employees in relation to the requirements and working conditions of specific jobs, to ensure that the workers will not be a hazard to themselves or others. Whether conducted by specialists in occupational medicine or other physicians, the proper performance of these examinations requires a clear understanding of the types of examinations and their purposes and how to serve and protect the interests of all three parties: employee, employer and physician. The circumstances in which fitness-to-work examinations are required are listed, and a method to help physicians in judging fitness to work is described. This method balances the rights and obligations of both employee and employer without compromising the physician's need to practise medicine skilfully and ethically.
What is meant by "fit to work"? "Fit to work" or "fitness to work" is a medical assessment done when an employer wishes to be sure an employee can safely do a specific job or task. The purpose is to determine if medically the employee can perform the job or task under the working conditions. Fit to work assessments are most often done to determine medical fitness after an illness or injury, but are sometimes done after employment has been offered, as requested by the employer, or as a condition of a job transfer. (More)
Medical Certificates
Legal Liability of Physicians
Physicians are frequently asked to provide medical certificates for a patient's employer. These certificates are needed to meet requirements of the employer's disability insurer.
The following information may be requested:
Regional Occupational Safety and Health Report for April, 2004 by Joy Hennen web page (here) or pdf (here) (Posted Saturday, 17 April, 2004) Avian Flu Update (Posted March 23, 2004) Click here for pdf
Health and Safety Bulletin “Westray Bill” is now Law (Posted January 05, 2004) "Bill C-45, the “Westray Bill”, was finally passed Nov 7, 2003. The bill amends the Criminal Code of Canada to hold corporations, their directors and executives accountable for their criminally negligent acts in the workplace. Almost 10,000 workers in Canada die every year from illnesses and injuries sustained in the workplace. Three workers are injured every day on the job site. Corporate negligence is responsible for at least some of those fatalities and injuries...(More) Related: (From Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada) What is Bill C-45? Officially known as “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (criminal liability of organizations),” Bill C-45 is informally known as the “Westray Bill,” because it is a legislative response to the Westray Mine disaster. Twenty-six miners lost their lives when the Westray, Nova Scotia coal mine blew up in 1992. Occupational Health and Safety laws did not prevent the tragedy, or punish the guilty. The public inquiry that followed the disaster laid blame for the disaster squarely at the feet of the mine’s owners and managers. Despite this, no one ever paid any fines or served any time in jail for the death of these 26 men. Bill C-45 received Royal Assent on November 7, 2003. This new law: • Establishes a duty in criminal law to protect the health and safety of everyone in the workplace. • Proposes severe penalties of imprisonment if failure to protect worker health and safety results in bodily harm (maximum penalty – 10 years in prison) or death (maximum penalty – life imprisonment). • Broadens the scope of who is responsible for worker health and safety to all levels of management and everyone else who can “direct how another person does work or performs a task.” • Makes it possible to charge organizations, including government departments, agencies and corporations, with criminal negligence if bodily harm results from their failure to protect workplace health and safety. • Puts the duty for ensuring workplace health and safety on an equal footing for everyone in Canada. This duty is important and serious and is now clearly described in a single statute – the Criminal Code of Canada. Notwithstanding this, jurisdiction for occupational health and safety remains divided among 14 jurisdictions (the federal government, 10 provinces, 3 territories). (More)
Health and Safety Training The minutes from the last Regional Health and Safety Committee Meeting for HRDC should be posted on the Regional site shortly. I will be forwarding the minutes directly to the Co Chairs of the Committees in the Region. I am waiting for feedback from the rest of the Union Representatives on the Committee before this. As you are aware there was a contract made with Consultants and Audit Canada for an “audit” of the safety program in the Region. The consultant will also develop and deliver a training session for Management on Health and Safety. I don’t have many details on the audit or the training but have expressed the hope that the consultant will contact the Union Co Chair of each Committee he/she is looking at for input. The audit will only cover 5 or 6 locations in the Region. For your information though, the PSAC has developed an excellent two day course for Health and Safety Committee members and it is designed to be delivered jointly for both Union and Management members. I received a very informative e mail from Denis St-Jean, the National Health and Safety Officer for PSAC in Ottawa. I have excerpted the following for you: “I wanted to provide some input on this issue to all of you based on what I know and a few facts on Treasury Board's role. I first heard of this Computer Based Training (CBT) package a couple of years ago. This idea originated from Correctional Services Canada (CSC) & Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS). They were hoping to promote this training across the federal public service. When Correctional Services Canada presented this training package at their joint committee, the Component representatives (USGE) strongly objected. The employer decided to go ahead anyway since the committee still only makes recommendations to the employer. TBS decided to further promote this package at a national level. Since the National Joint Council Service-Wide Policy Committee was rendered inoperative by TBS, a new Departmental consultative body was established by TBS to somehow get some departmental consultation on H&S issues WITHOUT the PSAC involvement, consultation and certainly no participation. This ''OHS COORDINATORS' FORUM'' was created and used to promote this CBT. Some departments and agencies thought this CBT was an excellent idea. The problem was that the Code required union participation in all health and safety training initiatives. A decision was made to make this training package available on the TBS Web Site. This is how HRDC probably got a copy of this CBT package. There is no such thing as a TBS endorsement of any training package out there. All TBS is saying is that the package is available and the technical content is accurate. It is not a statement that delivery of this training package meets the Canada Labour Code Part II requirements. TBS cannot formally endorse or impose training packages on any Departments/Agencies. In fact, when I raised this with them recently, all they said was that they provided the software and told Departments they could propose this package at their joint H&S committees for consideration. I shared my concerns with them on the usefulness of CBT. Some of the comments I made included: • There is no way of knowing if the information is well understood by all participants. • It should not replace ''classroom'' style sessions. • It does not offer the opportunity to exchange information and experiences between participants. • It does not offer the advantages of team building and networking essential in building and promoting internally the departmental H&S program. • It isolates H&S within the Departments making H&S a hidden program; assuming OHS managers and workers want to equally promote H&S within their own departments, this is the wrong way to do it. • It does not provide individual accommodation for members with disabilities including learning disabilities (not exactly a good reflection on the employer's will to meet his ''Duty to Accommodate'' obligation). • The unilateral decision made by some employers on this, is a clear violation of the Code. The Canada Labour Code is very clear on training. The committee participates on all the decision-making process until a final recommendation is made to the employer. The union should strongly voice their opposition to this type of training. Ensure it is recorded in the minutes and remind the employer that, should a major accident happen, this information will be used to show lack of due diligence on behalf of this employer. Since TBS has not endorsed this CBT, it was never tabled at any National Committee that I know of. We can voice our opposition to this at a National level, but the decision on selecting H&S training packages will be done by the Departments and Agencies with the participation of the Policy and Workplace Health and Safety Committees. We will likely be more successful at that level rather than the TBS level. I believe this situation is a good example of why we need to train all our PSAC representatives on joint H&S committees ASAP. I still believe joint training is no substitute for extensive union training. This issue has been discussed by the National & Regional H&S Staff during teleconference calls and meetings. Recommendations on this issue are expected very shortly and an overall education strategy will likely be part of these recommendations.” So, as you can see there seems to be some major resistance in getting training off the ground that meets the needs of our Committees. Bringing up training can also be done through each Health and Safety Committee. The cost of the PSAC course is not prohibitive and would not be a major expenditure for most of our offices. The estimate I’ve been given is $700.00 for the two day course plus approximately $25.00 per participant for materials. If you need further information contact either me or Jack Rudd at the PSAC Union office. I have also completed a review of the minutes of the meetings over the last three meetings for the Committees in the Region. I am working on a report for general information and will be contacting the Co Chairs directly with specific comments and/or suggestions. If your Committee has done or is working on something that you think is quite innovative for your members please let me know so I can get the word out. I wish each of you a Happy Holiday and a safe and healthy New Year! Joy Hennen Health and Safety Co Chair BC/YT Region
PRE READING PSAC JOINT COURSE "The following document will be presented at the next Regional Joint Health and Safety Committee for HRDC on November 26, 2003. Hopefully the Committee will react favourably so that we can get going on Local Committee training as soon as possible. Part of the Regional Committee's responsibilities is to review the local office minutes and it has become very clear that Local Committee training has been identified as an urgent need either by the Committees themselves or as a result of the minutes review. While it would be ideal if this training was launched as a Regional initiative there is nothing stopping local committees to start the process on their own. RHQ has decided to go ahead and hire a consultant to do an audit of the Health and Safety program in this region. The consultant will also develop and deliver a training session for Directors and SDMs. This has been done outside of the Regional Health and Safety Committee. I have requested a copy of the contract but as yet have not received it. Should you have any questions or concerns don't hesitate to contact me." -Joy Hennen Click here to read the document.
Safe
Workplace Practices for Handling Asbestos Posted November 24th, 2003
Trust can ease the stress Healthy workplaces start with healthy work relationships GRAHAM LOWE Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - Posted October 25, 2003
'Role overload' makes workers sick Increasing demands from employers, kids and parents, is squeezing us, finds WALLACE IMMEN Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - Posted October 25, 2003
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