Your three rights: to know, to participate and to refuse

In his second week, Jordan was asked to help unload a delivery truck of potting mix. The truck had backed up to the warehouse dock, but the dock plate between the truck and the dock was bent, and it rocked when Jordan stepped on it with a loaded hand truck. He stopped. He did not know whether he was allowed to say no, or whether he would get in trouble for holding up the delivery. The driver was already tapping his watch.

Jordan went to find Priya. She came out, looked at the plate, and stepped on it herself. It rocked. 'Good call,' she said. 'We'll use the portable plate from the other door, and I'll get this one tagged out.' Later that day she sat down with him and went through the rights every worker has. 'You did the right thing,' she said. 'But I want you to know you didn't need my permission. The law gives you those rights.'

This lesson explains those rights. Knowing them protects you, and using them protects the people you work with.

The three basic rights

Every province and territory in Canada gives workers three basic rights. They first appeared together in Saskatchewan's 1972 law and are now in every jurisdiction's law, including Part III of The Saskatchewan Employment Act.

• The right to know about the hazards in your work and how to control them, and to get the information, instruction, training and supervision you need to work safely.
• The right to participate in health and safety, for example by serving on the occupational health committee, talking to your committee members or representative, and helping find and fix hazards.
• The right to refuse work you have reasonable grounds to believe is unusually dangerous to you or to others, without being punished for it.

The right to know

You cannot protect yourself from a hazard you do not know about. The right to know means your employer must tell you about the hazards in your job and how they are controlled. It also means you must be trained before you do a task, and supervised by someone who knows the work until you can do it safely.

At Greenway, the right to know showed up in several ways in Jordan's first weeks:

• His first-day orientation covered the main hazards, the emergency plan and how to report problems.
• Before he worked in the chemical room, he was trained on the products stored there, the labels, the safety data sheets and the gloves and goggles to use. Lesson 9 covers this.
• Before he could use the pallet jack, Doug showed him how, watched him do it, and signed off on a training record.
• The hazard assessments for each job were in the binder, and he was told he could read them any time.

Training must be in a form you can understand. If English is not your first language, or you have trouble reading, your employer should give you training you can follow. The point is not to sign a form. The point is that you actually know how to do the job safely.

If you are not sure how to do something safely, the right to know also means you can ask, and keep asking until you understand. A good supervisor would rather explain three times than visit you in hospital.

The right to participate

The people who do the work often know the most about its hazards. The right to participate means you have a voice in how safety is managed. You can report hazards, suggest fixes, take part in inspections and investigations, and join the safety committee.

In Saskatchewan, a workplace with 10 or more workers must have an occupational health committee, or OHC. At least half its members must represent workers who are not managers, and it has a worker co-chair and an employer co-chair. Some workplaces with 5 to 9 workers must have an occupational health and safety representative instead. The committee meets regularly, inspects the workplace, hears concerns, and makes recommendations to the employer. It also plays a part when a worker refuses unsafe work.

Amara is a worker member of Greenway's committee. She told Jordan that most of the committee's best ideas came from workers who were not on it. 'The rope barrier in the yard was somebody's idea. So was the anti-fatigue mat at the tills. People tell us things on their break. We take them to the meeting.'

Participating does not have to mean joining a committee. It can be as simple as filling in a near-miss report, saying something at a team huddle, or telling your supervisor that a new procedure does not work in practice.

The right to refuse

The right to refuse lets you stop work you have reasonable grounds to believe is unusually dangerous to your health or safety, or to someone else's. Saskatchewan's Act sets this out in Division 5 of Part III, starting at section 3-31. 'Unusually dangerous' means a danger that is not a normal part of the job, or a normal danger that has become much worse. A forklift is a normal hazard for a trained operator. A forklift with no brakes is unusually dangerous.

You do not have to be certain. You need reasonable grounds, which means a belief that a reasonable person in your position, with your training and experience, could also hold. You are protected even if, after the facts are checked, the work turns out to be safe, as long as your belief was honest and reasonable.

You may refuse only for yourself. You cannot refuse on behalf of a co-worker, though you can tell them about the danger and they can make their own decision.

How a refusal works in Saskatchewan

The steps of a refusal are set out in the Act. They are designed to get the problem fixed quickly, with the people closest to it involved first.

• Tell your supervisor or employer right away that you are refusing work because of a health or safety concern under section 3-31. Do it in writing if you can. Do not leave the workplace without permission.
• The supervisor looks into it and tries to fix the problem. Many refusals end here, with a repair or a change in how the job is done.
• If it is not resolved, the occupational health committee investigates. The committee must reach a unanimous decision on whether the work is unusually dangerous.
• If it is still not resolved, you or the employer can call the OHS Division. An occupational health officer investigates and gives a written decision.

While the refusal is being dealt with, the employer can give you other work, and you keep your pay. The employer cannot give the refused job to another worker without telling that worker, in writing, about the refusal and the reasons for it.

Jordan's dock plate, again

Looking back, Jordan's situation was handled well, even though he did not know the rules at the time. He stopped. He told his supervisor. The supervisor checked, agreed, and fixed it. It never needed to go further. That is how most safety concerns should go. The formal steps exist for the times when they do not.

Priya told him the one thing she wanted him to remember: 'If you ever do refuse, use the words. Say you're refusing under section 3-31 because you think it's unusually dangerous. That way there's no confusion about what's happening, and you're protected.'

Protection from discriminatory action

Rights are worth little if workers are afraid to use them. That is why the law protects workers from discriminatory action. Under Division 5 of Part III, an employer must not fire, suspend, demote, discipline, cut the pay of, or threaten a worker because the worker raised a safety concern, served on a committee, refused unsafe work in line with the Act, or contacted the OHS Division.

If a worker believes they have faced discriminatory action, they can complain to an occupational health officer. If the officer finds that discriminatory action happened, the employer can be ordered to stop it, to reinstate the worker, and to pay lost wages. The law puts the burden on the employer: if a worker is disciplined after raising a safety issue, it is up to the employer to show the discipline was for another, good reason.

Greenway's policy says the same thing in plain words: nobody will ever be punished for raising a safety concern in good faith, even if it turns out there was no problem.

Rights belong to every worker

Rights do not depend on how long you have worked somewhere, how many hours you work, or what kind of contract you have. A part-time cashier on her first shift has the same rights as a manager with twenty years' service. Seasonal workers, students on a work placement and workers sent by a temporary agency have them too. Temporary agency workers are a special case worth knowing about: both the agency and the business where they are placed have duties to them, and both must make sure they are trained for the actual work they will do on site.

Every spring, Greenway takes on about a dozen seasonal workers through an agency to help with the rush. Priya gives them the same orientation Jordan had, on their first morning, before they lift a single bag. 'The agency trains them on general stuff,' she said. 'But only we can show them our yard, our forklifts and our chemical room.'

Rights in everyday work

Most of the time, using your rights is not dramatic. It looks like asking how to do something before you start, reading a label, mentioning a problem at the morning huddle, or putting a cone around a spill and telling someone. Rights are used best early, before a hazard becomes an emergency.

Jordan wrote three things on the back of his name tag card that week, so he would not forget: Ask first. Say something. Stop if it's wrong. They are a short version of the right to know, the right to participate and the right to refuse.