Chapter 3: Who is Covered by the Act? | A Guide to the Occupational Health and Safety Act

• ISBN: 978-1-4435-3984-5
• Revised: May 2011
• Content last reviewed: May 2011
• PDF Version [ 362 KB / 92 pages | Download Adobe Reader ]

Almost every worker, supervisor, employer and workplace in Ontario is covered by the Occupational Health and Safety Act and regulations. Also covered are workplace owners, constructors and suppliers of equipment or materials to workplaces that are covered by the Act. Workplaces that are not covered are listed at the end of this chapter.

Definitions

Workplace

Any place in, on or near to where a worker works. A workplace could be a building, a mine, a construction site, an open field, a road, a forest or even a beach. The test is: Is the worker being directed and paid to be there, or to be near there? If the answer is "yes", then it is a workplace.

Worker

A person who is paid to perform work or supply services. This does not include an inmate of a correctional or similar institution working inside the institution on a work project or rehabilitation program.

Employer

A person who employs or contracts for the services of one or more workers. Note that this broad definition means that a person who might not traditionally be considered an employer (because they have hired an independent contractor, for example) will nonetheless have duties as an "employer" under the Act. A contractor or subcontractor who performs work or supplies services for an owner, constructor, contractor or subcontractor is also an employer if he or she in turn employs workers.

Constructor

A person who undertakes a construction project for the owner of a site or building. This also includes the owner who personally undertakes all or part of the project, whether alone or with another employer. The constructor is generally the person who has overall control of a project. ^{[ 1 ]}

Supervisor

A person who has charge of a workplace or authority over any worker.

Owner

The person who owns the lands or premises that are being (or will be) used as a workplace. This includes a tenant, lessee, trustee, receiver, mortgagee in possession or occupier of the lands or premises. It also includes any person who acts as an agent for the owner.

Licensee

A person who holds a logging licence under the Crown Forest Sustainability Act, 1994. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, a licensee is not an employer. However, he or she does have certain duties and must comply with any orders issued by an inspector.

Self-Employed

The Act is limited in its application to self-employed persons, as employers [section 4]. The sections of this guide that explain the duties of the employer indicate which duties apply to the self-employed. An inspector's powers to enforce the law, as well as the penalties for a contravention, also apply–with the necessary modifications–to the self-employed. In addition, the self-employed have the duties of a worker [section 28].

Workplace Harassment

Engaging in a course of vexatious comment or conduct against a worker in a workplace that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome.*^{[ 2 ]}

Workplace Violence

The exercise of physical force by a person against a worker, in a workplace, that causes or could cause physical injury to the worker, or an attempt to exercise physical force against a worker, in a workplace, that could cause physical injury to the worker, or a statement or behaviour that it is reasonable for a worker to interpret as a threat to exercise physical force against the worker, in a workplace, that could cause physical injury to the worker. ^{[ 3 ]}

Work and Workplaces Not Covered

The Act does not apply to:

• work done by the owner or occupant, or a servant, in a private residence or on the connected land [section 3(1)]; and
• workplaces under federal (Government of Canada) jurisdiction, such as:
  • post offices
  • airlines and airports
  • banks
  • some grain elevators
  • telecommunication companies
  • interprovincial trucking, shipping, railway and bus companies.

Federal workplaces are covered under a different law: the Canada Labour Code. However, federal authorities accept that outside contractors and their employees, while in federal workplaces, are under provincial jurisdiction.

If there is any question about whether you or your workplace is covered by the Act contact the Ministry of Labour Health & Safety Contact Centre.

^{[ 1 ]} Throughout this guide, the word "employer" generally includes "constructor". In many cases, "constructor" has been left out to make the guide easier to read. Sections of the Act or regulations that apply only to constructors will be explained as they arise.

^{[ 2 ]} Workplace harassment often involves repeated words or actions, or a pattern of behaviours, against a worker or group of workers in the workplace that are unwelcome, such as bullying; making remarks, jokes or innuendoes that demean, ridicule, intimidate or offend; displaying or circulating offensive pictures or materials in print or electronic form; repeated offensive or intimidating phone calls or e-mails; or inappropriate sexual touching, advances, suggestions or requests.

^{[ 3 ]} This definition of workplace violence is broad enough to include acts that would constitute offences under Canada's Criminal Code.

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