Enforcement Trends – Special Report

Educate your supervisors on how being too lenient hurts the company. Workers who disobey safety rules are a danger to others and to themselves and must be disciplined. But disciplining workers for a safety violation’or any other reason’can be an unpleasant experience, especially if the offender is in a labour union. Consequently, supervisors may be tempted to ‘let the offender off’ with just a warning or not impose any discipline at all, particularly with first offences. But leniency can backfire.

One of your most important responsibilities as a supervisor is to enforce the rules ABC Company has put in place to ensure that work is carried out safely and in accordance with the requirements of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) laws. To meet that responsibility, you must be prepared to discipline workers who violate those safety rules. We recognize that disciplining workers can
be a difficult thing to do. There are all sorts of reasons why it may be tempting to avoid discipline.