The
Occupational Health and Safety Act, (OHSA) is Ontario's cornerstone legislation for workplace health and safety. Other contributing legislation includes the
Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA), Part II of which deals with the prevention of occupational injury and disease and the
Human Rights Code in saved files labour, which often has to be considered in dealing with OHS issues. Both
OHSA and
WSIA are available along with all of Ontario's other Acts and regulations at the e-Laws website.
The main purpose of the Act is to protect workers from health and safety
hazards on the job. It sets out
duties for all workplace parties and rights for workers. It establishes procedures for dealing with workplace hazards and provides for enforcement of the law where compliance has not been achieved voluntarily. Fundamental to the successful working of
OHSA is the workplace
Internal Responsibility System (
IRS).