Workplace Wire

The final version of the National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace has been released by the Canadian Standards Association, the Bureau de normalisation du Québec, and the Mental Health Commission of Canada. The Standard is currently available online free of charge.

The Standard is intended to promote psychological health and safety in the workplace and may require, among other things, employers to implement new policies, procedures, hazard identification, incident investigation and monitoring activities, in addition to all of the existing steps required to develop and manage occupational health and safety (“OHS”) systems.

As we have previously written, the Standard presents challenges for implementation given its complexity; however, it also presents an opportunity for employers to develop policies and procedures beyond existing OHS and human rights requirements. This could assist employers in avoiding or minimizing civil, human rights, OHS and workers’ compensation claims, and grievances arising from psychological injuries or stress suffered in the workplace.

Interested readers are invited to register for our February 21, 2013 seminar on psychological health and safety in the workplace. During the complimentary seminar, part of our Managing the Workplace series, lawyers from our labour and employment law group will discuss the Standard as a part of the growing awareness of psychological health and safety issues in the workplace, and an increasing willingness to compensate workers for workplace psychological injuries.

For more information on the Standard and its implications for your workplace, please contact Shane Todd (stodd@heenan.ca), Cheryl A. Edwards (cedwards@heenan.ca), or Jeremy Warning (jwarning@heenan.ca).