OSHA/OHS laws require safety training but generally don’t specify the training methods. But regardless of the methods used, companies have a clear obligation to ensure that all workers are trained by qualified and competent trainers; companies must also verify that workers understand  their training and are able to apply it to their jobs. A recent case from my native Alberta reaffirms this important lesson.

Failure to Verify Adequacy of Safety Training Costs Company $70,000

Debris gets stuck to the back roller of a mill used to prepare rubber to retread industrial tires.  The worker goes to the back of the mill to fix it.  He climbs over a guardrail, loses his balance and falls onto a roller, catching his hands in a pinch point.  His right arm is badly injured and several fingers on his left hand have to be amputated.

The company had an experienced mill operator train the worker when he started. But it never instructed the operator on how to train the new worker; nor did it verify that the training he provided was adequate. The company just assumed that assigning the worker an experienced mentor would be enough. So the court fined the company $70,000 for violating the Alberta OHS laws.

How to Comply with Safety Training Requirements

Training methods can include computers, classrooms, one-on-ones, role playing exercises, show-and-tell, etc. Personnel that have the competence to provide safety training can include outside consultants or in-house staffers like supervisors, managers, health and safety committee members and experienced co-workers.

Whichever methods and personnel you use, it’s essential for the company to take charge of the details. You need to know what the training consists of and ensure that it addresses all of the things the worker needs to know to do the job safely. In other words, you must provide deliberate and detailed instructions to your trainers. Simply assuming that pairing the worker with an experienced mill operator would be enough to provide adequate training was precisely what got the Alberta company into trouble.

You also need to monitor the training and make sure the lessons are sinking in. For one thing, you must ensure that the person you select to train is capable of providing training. Knowing how to work safely isn’t necessarily the same thing as being able to train a worker to do the same.

Verification of training may involve testing the worker for competency and having someone other than the trainer sign off on the completeness of the training process.

Conclusion

You can’t comply with safety training requirements in OSHA/OHS laws by going through the motions. Holding tool box talks, handing out safety manuals and using other methods to communicate safety information is only the beginning of the process, not the end. Your responsibility as employers is to ensure that the:

• Information provided is adequate to address the hazards of the job;
• Person or method used to deliver the information does so effectively; and
• The trainee understands the training he receives and actually applies what he learns from the lesson to work more safely after the training ends.

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