Every employer in the City of Kawartha Lakes has a duty to take all reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of employees, pursuant to Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.
According to Inspectors from the Ministry of Labour currently, generally in terms of COVID-19, this means:
- maintaining physical distancing all times in the workplace;
- ensuring adequate sanitation and hand-washing facilities;
- performing adequate cleaning and disinfecting throughout the workplace;
- practicing all other federally, provincially and municipally ordered and recommended health advisory containment steps and precautions;
- respecting the privacy of employees as much as possible in the circumstances, particularly if seeking information or conducting any screening; and
- using reasonable and best efforts to refuse entry into your workplace of anyone who:
- is identified as a person diagnosed with COVID-19;
- has the signs and symptoms of COVID-19, has been tested for COVID-19 and is awaiting the results of their test;
- for whom your employer has reasonable grounds to believe that person has symptoms of COVID-19; and/or
- has close contact with another person identified in the above points,
These relate to COVID-19, but there may be other health and safety obligations for employers, depending on the nature of the workplace and the operations.
For more information from us about monitoring and screening COVID-19 in the workplace, go here: https://wardlegal.ca/31586368607052
For additional information, contact the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development here: https://www.ontario.ca/page/ministry-labour-training-skills-development
