Chapter 9: Safety and Health at Work
Training for Safety during the Pandemic
You have recently been hired as the new Safety and Training Coordinator for a multinational pharmaceutical company. You are aware of the general Occupational Health and Safety Practices that you need to follow and spend the first few weeks in your new role ensuring all employees receive a refresher training on the Material Data Safety Sheets and the Chemical Hazards in the Workplace principles.
The third week on the job, you receive a call from your director and she says that she is very disappointed with the number of medical leaves that have increased since you started. You are confused as you did what you normally do when you work in this domain based on your previous roles and ten years plus experience in Occupational Health and Safety. Perplexed by the results, you ask to see the report of health and safety absences. You notice that most employees lost more than one day of work due to Covid-19 symptoms and the remainder are due to mental issues related to anxiety felt in this global context.
Your director asks you what went wrong?
You take a moment and you realize that although you did standard Occupational Health and Safety training, you omitted a crucial part of safety training in this new global context. You assure your director you are on top of the situation and start your remediation plan.
First on your to do list: you consult the CNESST site that encompasses all of the employers obligations related to the pandemic.
https://www.cnesst.gouv.qc.ca/salle-de-presse/covid-19-info-en/Pages/toolkit.aspx
To ensure this does not occur in the future, you devise a clear plan on safety training in a global pandemic.
As seen in this aforementioned example, safety training is at the forefront of everyone’s mind these days. The global pandemic has shifted the way we work. Companies must adapt to the new security measures that are ever changing and ensure that the health of their employees is protected. The organization has the overall responsibility to ensure that their workers have the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and that they are aware of the safety norms. Training is paramount. There needs to be clear metrics to ensure that the rules are being followed and that the issues of non-compliance are being tracked.
