New Alberta OHS Act in effect as of December 1, 2021

A new Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act for Alberta takes effect on Dec. 1, 2021.   

Although the definition of worker will still include “a person who performs or supplies services for no monetary compensation for an organization,”  i.e. a volunteer, the requirements to have health and safety committees and health and safety representatives will provide that only “regularly employed” workers need to be counted when determining these requirements. However, all workers will still be included in the count requirements to have health and safety programs in place.  

Workers retain the same fundamental rights and protections under OHS legislation, which include the right to know of workplace hazards, the right to participate in health and safety matters and the right to refuse dangerous work, and remain protected from disciplinary action (formerly called discriminatory action) for acting in compliance with OHS legislation or an OHS order.

For more information on the new OHS Act see:  https://open.alberta.ca/publications/changes-to-ohs-laws and https://ohs-pubstore.labour.alberta.ca/upcoming-legislation-changes

As a result of these changes, IntegralOrg will be removing from our website the Occupational Health and Safety toolkit on December 1, 2021.