The improvement of health and safety of the workers already started from 1952 under the European Coal and Steel Community. Since then a solid corpus of legislation has been adopted covering the maximum number of risks with the minimum number of regulations.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act gives a worker the right to refuse work that he or she believes may endanger them or another worker. Members of the University community should refer to Section 4 B of Policy 34, UW Health, Safety and Environment.
A worker can refuse to work if the worker has reason to believe one or more of the following:
- any equipment, machine, device or thing the worker is to use or operate is likely to endanger himself, herself or another worker;
- the physical condition of the workplace or the part thereof in which he or she works or is to work is likely to endanger himself or herself; or
- workplace violence is likely to endanger himself or herself; or
- any equipment, machine, device or thing he or she is to use or operate or the physical condition of the workplace or the part thereof in which he or she works or is to work is in contravention of the Act or regulations and such contravention is likely to endanger himself, herself or another worker.
