Under the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act, workers and employers share the responsibility for ensuring a healthy and safe workplace. Both employers and workers are responsible for their own safety and for the safety of co-workers. This shared responsibility for health and safety is known as the Internal Responsibility System.
Every worker in PEI has:
- The right to know about information and issues that affect their workplace health and safety.
- The right to participate in your workplace safety by reporting unsafe or unhealthy work conditions or joining their joint occupational health and safety committee.
- The right to refuse work when they believe a task or situation is dangerous to them or others in the workplace.
A worker’s refusal of unsafe work may be a sign that their right to know and right to participate have not been upheld.
Having a clearly defined right to refuse process helps to make sure that health and safety concerns are assessed and corrected when necessary.
The right to refuse process includes steps to escalate concerns to higher levels of authority, when needed, for resolution. Employers and workers must follow the process.
Worker duties
As outlined in the OHS Act, workers must:
- Report any dangerous task or situation to a supervisor immediately and go to a safe place at the workplace.
- Understand that if they are reassigned to do other similar work until the situation is remedied, they must cooperate if the reassignment – as long as it is in line with any applicable collective agreement.
- Understand that if they are not satisfied with the corrective action taken by the employer, they may refer the concern to the joint occupational safety and health (JOHS) committee or representative or, if no JOHS committee or representative is in the workplace, to an occupational health and safety officer.
- Understand that if they are not satisfied with the corrective action taken by the JOHS committee or representative, they may refer the issue to an occupational health and safety officer.
- Return to their work when it is safe and when instructed by the supervisor, employer, JOHS committee or representative, or an occupational health and safety officer.
- Stay in the workplace during normal hours of work while an investigation is in progress.
- Understand that if a work refusal is considered frivolous, they will not receive wages and benefits during the work refusal period.
- Understand that if the employer or union has retaliated, threatened to retaliate, or penalized them because they exercised their rights or followed applicable health and safety laws in the workplace, they may file a complaint with the WCB’s Occupational Health and Safety division, or request arbitration according to their collective agreement if applicable.
Employer duties
As outlined in the OHS Act, employers must:
- Continue to pay a worker who has refused to do unsafe work. They may reassign the worker to do other similar work until the situation is remedied.
- Pay a worker who has refused to do dangerous work, and who has not been reassigned to do other work, if the worker’s refusal is justified.
- Not retaliate, threaten to retaliate, or penalize a worker who follows applicable health and safety laws in the workplace.
- Follow orders given by an OHS Safety Officer.
Learn about the specific role a supervisor plays in the refusal to work process.
Joint occupational safety and health (JOHS) committee or representative duties
As outlined in the OHS Act, the JOHS committee or representative must:
- Promptly investigate any unresolved work refusal situation referred to them by a worker.
- Recommend appropriate corrective action to the employer when they believe the situation is a danger to the worker or others in the workplace.
- Advise the worker to resume doing the work if they believe the work is safe.
Union duties
As outlined in the OHS Act, the union must:
- Not retaliate, threaten to retaliate, or penalize a worker who follows applicable health and safety laws in the workplace.
- Follow any orders from an OHS Safety Officer.