Case Study: Occupational Health and Safety: Course: Human Resource Management Professor: Nicole Bonenfant
Case Study: Occupational Health and Safety: Course: Human Resource Management Professor: Nicole Bonenfant
Case Study: Occupational Health and Safety: Course: Human Resource Management Professor: Nicole Bonenfant
CASE STUDY:
AAKHIL MATTA
VENKATA KONDAPALLI
INDER SINGH
GURPREET SINGH
CASE ABSTRACT
Jennifer and Pierre graduated from the university as business majors in June 2015 and got the
idea for setting up LearnInMotion.com while they worked together on a project in their
entrepreneurship class. Their idea was to provide business courses in form of textbook-based,
web-based or CD-ROM-based for working people who wanted to take a course at the comfort
of their homes. They got incorporated and set up their business in an unused loft space
provided by Jennifer’s father with an accumulated savings of $45000. They started with
hiring a programmer, web designer and a content creator to run the website and deliver their
various capital venture firms and being rejected they finally got in terms with one firm and
received a funding of nearly $1 million and spent around $75000 in legal fees. Although there
is no risk of moving machinery, high power lines or cutting equipment at the workplace there
are various health and safety problems. One of the major problems at LearnInMotion.com is
having lots of cables and wires laying around on the office floor from desk to desk and under
doorways. Several employees have tried to hold the wires in place by placing chair pads over
them to avoid tripping while walking around. The firm’s programmer once tried to repair the
server while the unit is electrically alive using a screwdriver and ended getting an electric
shock which blew him across the room. Every employee spends hours together at their
computers which causes carpel tunnel syndrome, eye-strains and strained backs, till date
Pierre and Jennifer have not received any claims regarding this issue. The employers are not
just worried about the physical conditions but are also concerned about issues like burnout
and job stress. The job is relatively stressful in terms of the demands it makes and in terms of
the hours and deadlines. The employees work around five to six days a week sometimes even
all seven days with their work timings starting from 8 in the morning up until midnight. Fine-
tuning the company calendar required some of the employees to work up to 70 hours a week
If LearnInMotion.com happened to receive a visit from the Ministry of Labour, what specific
Answer 1:
There are various issues that would be ordered to change if the Ministry of Labour visits
1. Cables and wires snaking all over the office floor. This is a potential accident causing
source. The workplace is filled with several cables and they are not put in place but
are left unattended, also on multiple occasions the cables have been covered with
plastic chair caps and stickers by the employees. This makes the workplace unsafe
2. Occupational Health and Safety Act, posters and policy. According to the
Occupational Health and Safety Act all the workplaces covered under the OHSA must
put up a health and safety poster, a copy of the Occupational Health and Safety Act
[under OHSA sec 25(2)(i)] and a health and safety policy [under OHSA sec 25(2)(k)].
This is mandatory under the law and its compliance is required by the employers.
3. Health and safety representative. The employer has to ensure that a there is a one
person from among the workers who will be selected to be the Health and Safety
Representative and such person is not holding any managerial position [under OHSA
sec 8(1) and sec 8(5)]. Such person appointed as the representative will conduct
inspections of the workplace and make recommendations to the employer to make any
changes if any.
4. Determination of health and safety hazards at the work place. The employer must
determine the different kinds of hazards at the workplace that might affect the safety
of the employers and make them aware of such hazards [under OHSA sec32.0.3 and
sec 25(2) (d)]. The employer must take into consideration the circumstances that
would be common to any workplace and also specific to their workplace and assess
the various risks involved. The employer must also take measures and procedures to
5. Maintain a record of all the incidents that took place in the workplace. The employer
is responsible for maintaining a record of all the incidents that took place not limiting
to accidents but also including violence, illness, injuries, death and sexual harassment.
Such records are to be maintained for a period of three years as it will help providing
a broad spectrum of information about the circumstances in which the incident took
Question 2:
ensuring their employees’ health and safety is maintained and for having a health and safety
Answer 2:
Based on the principle of “Due Diligence” both Jennifer and Pierre should take every
reasonable precaution to ensure the health and safety of their workers. This principle can be
broadly understood as the level of care and judgement that the employer is expected to do to
in the workplace to avoid causing any incidents and injuries to the employees. The
precautions and measures that the employer is taking must not only address the possible
problems but should also be reasonable and practical in nature. It is significant as it would
help the employer defend himself if charged under the provisions of the Occupational Health
and Safety Act if he or she can prove that measures have been taken to protect the safety and
health of workers.
In this case, both Jennifer and Pierre overlooked the health and safety standards established
by the Organizational Health and Safety Act and were giving invitation to thousands of
potential problems that will have a negative impact for the company.
Section 25 of Organizational Health and Safety Act has defined some specific
responsibilities for the employers to ensure the safety of employees. Both, Jennifer and Pierre
1. Provide safe working conditions: They are responsible for providing the safe
working place where employees could work without any fear of being injured. As in
this case, there are no heavy machines in their company but still the workplace has
health and safety problems. They have to ensure that all the wires and equipment
should be in the organized manner and placed properly so that any employee would
2. Safety awareness and training programs: They are responsible for providing
awareness to their workers about health and safety hazards at the workplace. Like in
this case, handling and maintaining the server equipment is one of the more obvious
potential accident-causing thing and employees should be aware about the possible
hazards that can emerge if they do not have the proper knowledge. The employees
should be trained to handle electric devices and safety equipment should be provided
3. Maintaining proper work schedule : The employers are also required to ensure that
employees are working for the hours prescribed under the Employment Standards Act
and they have proper office timings. In this case, employees are working from 7 a.m.
to midnight, and sometime for 70 hours a week, which is unacceptable under the law
and can cause burnouts. The employees focus all their energies to pursue the goals of
the company by excluding other activities which leads to both physical and mental
collapse and breakdown. Hectic work schedules lasting for a long duration leads to
loss of enthusiasm, exhaustion and eventually to depression which is not healthy for
the employees. The employers should make work schedules that take into
consideration these aspects and can try to provide sabbatical leaves so that the
employees have time to rejuvenate and pursue their personal goals without having the
health and safety supervisor who will maintain safe working conditions and answer
the queries of employees regarding the safe usage of equipment. The supervisor can
also help in ensuring that employees are not making changes to the workplace that can
hamper the safety of other employees. In this case the employees have been trying to
hold the cables and wires together by taping them or placing chair pads on top of
them.
5. Posting copy of Health and Safety Act: The Occupational Health and Safety Act
mandates that a copy of the Act and pertinent regulations be posted in an accessible
workplace location. It is also mandatory to post the “Prevention Starts Here” poster
and other resource material prepared by the Ministry of labour. It creates awareness
among the employees with respect to having a safe and healthy work environment.
6. Health and Safety policy: Jennifer and Pierre should have a well-defined health and
safety policies in their organization. The health and safety policy should state the
employer’s commitment, support and attitude to the health and safety program for the
protection of workers. They following are some of the things that should be taken into
consideration:
a) They should have the policy of inspecting and analyzing hazards at the workplace
practices which includes the training to workers regarding best use of electrical
the workers understand the safe handling of electrical devices and other
workplace and should prepare the report of all the causalities that had occurred at
the workplace.
d) There should be proper repair and maintenance of equipment to ensure they are
f) The engineering control e.g., ventilation plays a vital role in the providing a
Question 3:
Answer 3:
A detailed study of the above case provides us with various unsafe conditions and acts that
are prevailing in the organization and which need to be addressed by Jennifer and Pierre.
1. Modification of the workstations by the employees by placing chair pads and taping
loose wires and cables to avoid tripping. It is suggestible that the employees bring this
sometime for seven days a week can cause fatigue. This may result in the employees
being unable to be attentive towards their surroundings and might pose a threat to
their safety.
3. Workplace stress is also an issue observed in this case. It is stressful for employees to
meet the goals of the company as fine tuning the new calendar for the company has
deadlines and there is relatively very less workforce resulting in huge work burden for
each individual. This ultimately affects the efficiency and commitment of employees
4. Workers are using unsafe methods to repair the servers while the unit is still
electrically alive which can cause fatal injuries. They must be trained personnel to
5. Working for long duration with Video Display Terminals like computers and laptops
may affect the eye-sight resulting in short-term eye problems like tearing, itching and
burning. This also causes employees to suffer from backaches, neck aches and carpet-
tunnel syndrome as they try to manoeuver into awkward body positons to compensate
Poorly designed work places not only lead to injuries but at the same time have an
effect on the efficiency and productivity of the employees. In this case working from
a loft also has a psychological climate that impacts the mental health of the
employees.