When you’re starting to drown between employee concerns, payroll duties and helping your CEO -- HR Insider is there to help get the logistical work out of the way.
Need a policy because of a recent regulatory change? We’ve got it for you. Need some quick training on a specific HR topic? We’ve got it for you. HR Insider provides the resources you need to craft, implement and monitor policies with confidence. Our team of experts (which includes lawyers, analysts and HR professionals) keep track of complex legislation, pending changes, new interpretations and evolving case law to provide you with the policies and procedures to keep you ahead of problems. FIND OUT MORE...
Employer Used Due Diligence to Prevent Worker’s Fatal H2S Gas Exposure

While working alone inside an oilfield facility building, a sales rep drawing a liquid product sample is killed by a lethal release of Hydrogen Sulphide gas. The Crown charges the employer with a laundry list of OHS violations but the only one that sticks is failure to furnish the victim an atmosphere supplying respirator. And even that charge fails because the court says the employer showed due diligence. While ‘imaginable,’ the incident wasn’t reasonably foreseeable given that the victim had performed the operation thousands of times without incident. Moreover, the employer took reasonable steps to protect workers from exposure to harmful chemicals including implementing a formal Health and Safety Management System subject to regular audit and review and ‘never hesitating’ to buy safety equipment for workers when needed or requested [R v Nalco Champion, 2018 SKPC 61 (CanLII), Nov. 2, 2018].

Editor’s Note: Although not necessarily wrong, this ruling is somewhat surprising, especially since it involved a fatality. Bet your bottom dollar that the Crown will appeal.