When Is It Really Work-Related? Health and Safety Lessons for Ontario Employers
Work-related health and safety issues are not always limited to regular working hours, the physical workplace, or assigned job duties.
Ontario employers often think of workplace health and safety as something that applies during regular working hours, inside the physical workplace, while workers are performing assigned duties.
In practice, workplace health and safety risk can be broader.
Questionable employee conduct after hours, off-site events, social and team-building activities, work-related driving, and misconduct may all create employer health and safety responsibilities and workers’ compensation involvement when there is a connection to the workplace.
This was the focus of WorkBright’s recent webinar with Angela Powell, Partner at Sherrard Kuzz LLP. The discussion looked at real Ontario workplace scenarios involving workplace harassment, incidents at employer-supported activities, and employee misconduct that led to injury on the job.
The broader lesson for employers is clear: health and safety programs must work in practice, not only on paper.
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What Does Work-Related Health and Safety Mean?
A work-related issue is not always limited to an incident that happens inside the workplace. An issue may be connected to work if it involves workers, affects the workplace environment, occurs during an employer-supported activity, or relates to duties, training, supervision, or work practices. For employers, this matters because workplace health and safety responsibilities need to be understood by everyone in the company. A message that appears personal, informal, or was sent after hours may still require employer attention if it is harassment and affects the workplace. An injury that occurs while a worker is participating in a company event, or an event tied to the employer, may be considered work-related and can affect workers’ compensation if not managed properly.Common Work-Related Health and Safety Situations Employers Should Review
Employers should consider whether their health and safety program addresses situations such as:
- supervisor response to informal concerns about harassment
- off-duty conduct that affects the workplace
- risks at employer-supported social events such as holiday parties and team-building activities
- work-related driving or travel
- unsafe work practices after training has been provided
These situations are often overlooked because they do not always look like traditional workplace hazards.
OHS Lesson 2: Workplace Events Need Risk Planning
Employer-supported events can create health and safety risk. This includes holiday parties, social events, wellness activities, recreational events, off-site meetings, and events involving alcohol or transportation. Before holding a workplace event, employers should consider what could reasonably go wrong, whether the activity is higher risk, whether attendance is encouraged, and whether expectations for conduct have been clearly communicated. The goal is not to eliminate workplace events. The goal is to plan them properly.OHS Lesson 3: Training and Policies Must Be Supported by Supervision
In the third case, a worker was injured while driving a company vehicle after the workday. The worker was impaired by alcohol, lost control of the vehicle, and sustained a serious injury.
Many employers would assume this type of misconduct would remove the connection to work.
However, the case was more complex. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal found that the driving activity was connected to employment, even though the worker had clearly breached the employer’s alcohol and drug policy.
The lesson is that policies and training need to be supported by active supervision, monitoring, and enforcement, especially where the work involves higher-risk activities.
- This applies to situations such as:
work-related driving - company vehicle use
- transportation of workers
- mobile equipment operation
- field work and remote work
- alcohol and drug policy enforcement
- supervisor and management oversight of workers
Where the risk is serious, employers should not rely only on signed policies or completed training records. They should be able to demonstrate that reasonable steps were taken to supervise the work, enforce expectations, and respond when rules were not followed.
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WorkBright Can Help
WorkBright helps Ontario employers strengthen health and safety programs, manage compliance risks, and improve training documentation.
- Our services include:
occupational hygiene assessments - Ministry of Labour compliance support
- health and safety consulting
- COR® consulting support
- online health and safety training management for employers
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