With the busy spring and summer construction season upon us, the Workers Health & Safety Centre is adding mandatory working at heights training opportunities across Ontario.

Ontario regulation requires employers to ensure all workers they employ who may use a method of fall protection on a construction project complete a Working at Heights (WAH) training program. This includes projects on construction sites and in other workplaces and public spaces, including manufacturing facilities, hospitals, schools, film sets and warehouses, for instance.

WHSC WAH training. Gain compliance now! https://www.whsc.on.ca/Training/Training-Registration/Working-At-Heights-Training

Training mandatory prior to working at heights

Working at heights training programs and providers must be approved by Ministry of Labour's Chief Prevention Officer (CPO). The training must take place before a worker uses any fall protection equipment including a fall restricting system, fall arrest system, safety net, work belt or safety belt.

Equally critical for safety and continued compliance, employers must ensure workers complete an approved WAH refresher program every three years.

Ontario health and safety law also requires employers ensure life-saving equipment, critical for the safety of those working at heights, is used.

Non-compliance leads to tragic outcomes

When these requirements are not met the outcomes can be deadly for workers and costly for employers. On October 22, 2021, for instance, a worker at a Southern Ontario manufacturing facility was killed as a result of a fall of almost three metres from the top of a machine to the concrete floor below. The employer was just recently convicted in this case for failing to ensure fall protection was used. They were ordered to pay a fine and a victim surcharge totaling in excess of $400,000.

WHSC training—for safer work and compliance

As Ontario’s official occupational health and safety training centre, Workers Health & Safety Centre (WHSC) is a leading provider of WAH training and WAH refresher training. Our programs are CPO-approved, affordably priced, and delivered by experienced instructors who ensure critical learning is achieved, including:

• the hazards of WAH, basic rights and duties of all workplace parties, along with relevant regulations governing fall arrest hazards, fall protection equipment and WAH projects,
• the safe use, inspection, limitations and storage for travel restraint, fall restricting and fall arrest systems,
• the key components of a fall rescue plan and emergency procedures, and
• hands-on experience on fall prevention equipment and systems.

REGISTER NOW

Want to know more about WAH from the WHSC?
Regulated working at heights training works and needed: studies
WHSC working at heights resources

Check out our regularly scheduled WAH training in communities across Ontario!
whsc.on.ca/Training/Training-Registration/Working-At-Heights-Training

Don’t see a date that works for you or wish to discuss onsite WAH training, connect with a training service representative in your area.

Need more information?
Check out all WHSC health and safety training programs
Visit: whsc.on.ca
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