New & Young Worker Safety Orientation Requirements

For more information on this topic, see “TRAINING: Answers to 5 FAQs about Safety Orientations for New & Young Workers”

The OHS laws in each jurisdiction specifically require employers to provide a general safety orientation to the following:
FED The OHS laws don’t require general safety orientations for new or young workers
AB The OHS laws don’t require general safety orientations for new or young workers
BC 1. “New” workers, defined as any worker who’s:

a. new to the workplace;

b. returning to a workplace where the hazards in that workplace have changed during the worker’s absence;

c. affected by a change in the hazards of a workplace; or

d. relocated to a new workplace if the hazards in that workplace are different from the hazards in the worker’s previous workplace [Sec. 3.22 and 3.23(1) of the OHS Regulation]

2. “Young” workers, defined as any worker who’s under 25 years of age [Sec. 3.22 and 3.23(1)]
MB 1. “New” workers defined as a worker who’s:

a. new to the workplace;

b. moved from one area of a workplace to another area of the workplace that has different processes or hazards;

c. relocated to a different workplace that has different processes or hazards; or

d. returning to the same workplace but the processes or hazards in the workplace changed while the worker was away [Sec. 2.2.1(1) and (2) of the Workplace Safety and Health Regulation]
NB 1. “New employees” defined as an employee who’s:

a. new to a position or place of employment;

b. returning to a position or place of employment in which the hazards have changed during the employee’s absence;

c. under 25 years of age and returning to a position or place of employment after an absence of more than six months; or

d. affected by a change in the hazards of a position or place of employment [Sec. 8.2(1) and (2) of the OHS Act]
NL The OHS laws don’t require general safety orientations for new or young workers
NS The OHS laws don’t require general safety orientations for new or young workers
NT 1. A worker when the worker:

a. begins work at the work site; and

b. is moved from one work activity or work site to another that differs from the old work site with respect to hazards, equipment, facilities or procedures [Sec. 18(1) of the OHS Regulations]
NU The OHS laws don’t require general safety orientations for new or young workers. But the OHS regulations that took effect in NWT on June 1, 2015 are expected to take effect eventually in NU.
ON The OHS laws don’t require general safety orientations for new or young workers
PE The OHS laws don’t require general safety orientations for new or young workers
QC The OHS laws don’t require general safety orientations for new or young workers
SK 1. A worker when the worker:

a. begins work at a place of employment; or

b. is moved from one work activity or worksite to another that differs with respect to hazards, facilities or procedures [Sec. 19(1) of the OHS Regulations]
YT 1. “Young workers”, which is defined as any worker under age 19 [Definitions, Code of Practice 2009/01, New and Young Workers]

2. “New workers”, which is defined as any worker who’s:

a. new to the workplace;

b. returning to the workplace where the hazards in that workplace have changed during the worker’s absence; or

c. relocated to a new workplace where the hazards in that workplace are different from the hazards in the worker’s previous workplace [Definitions]