This is actually a legal question.
The law in Ontario requires that employers and supervisors “take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances” to protect workers under their employment. Taking “every precaution reasonable“ is also understood as Technical Due diligence.
To understand the legal requirements associated with the achievement of Technical Due Diligence, one must ask the following questions:
- What does taking “every precaution reasonable” mean?
- Reasonable to whom?
These questions can be answered in Ontario’s Legislative Technical Standards.
If your workplace implements the proper technical safety standards, you will have satisfied the due diligence requirements. Compliance with these standards represents the best engineering practice.
Technical Due Diligence should be exercised when purchasing new equipment, plant relocates and or consolidates. Many of our clients are exercising this due diligence through a compliance audit by trusted safety consultant engineers during the Merger and Acquisition process.
To ensure compliance with new equipment, one needs to understand various code requirements. Understanding multi-disciplinary issues is not an easy task. Therefore a trusted, fully insured, multidiscipline Safety Consultant Engineering group familiar with PHSR/PSR (Pre-Start Health and Safety Review) should be consulted before a purchase decision for machinery or equipment is made. The OEM and the trusted Engineering group can be contractually obligated to work together to ensure that the machine is designed and built to be compliant. This is in the purchaser’s best interests! The responsibility for compliance lies with the owner of the equipment — and not the supplier. The expression, ‘buyer beware,’ is very much applicable to this situation.
This is surprisingly easy to do. When purchasing documents are prepared, it is easy to specify that it is the supplier’s responsibility (not the future owner’s) to provide PHSR/PSR (Pre-Start Health and Safety Review) documents with the machine. A number of companies have successfully used this approach to work with a Safety Consultant Engineering Group. They specify that the service is conducted by their trusted safety Consultant Engineering Group.
Machine Safety and Electrical Hazards
It is vitally important to check the qualification of the safety consultant engineer. Ensure the safety consultant engineer has both General and Professional Liability Insurance. One must ensure that they have dedicated engineering expertise in the required engineering disciplines. Do they have Machine Guarding expertise? Do they understand the Safety Electrical Hazards process? If need be, can they build solutions?
Switch to a Trusted Source for Regular Safety Inspections
Work with a Toronto Safety Consultant to ensure that your machine is running safely. SAFE Engineering Inc. has some of the leading safety consultant engineers in the country. We are committed to providing secure, and operationally efficient safety solutions for your business. We will ensure that your facility complies with Ontario’s safety codes. For more information on how we can keep your company safe, contact us today.
