Alert First Aid

Alberta Legislation

Alberta Workplace Violence & Harassment

This is not an official source of information. It has been assembled as a

convenience to students for reference and further study. Some extracts from

official sources such as Regulations are provided. These are not guaranteed to

completely cover all the material available in the Regulations. URL’s of those

official sources are provided to allow the full text to be consulted.

For further information on this topic for Alberta, see:

Preventing workplace violence - WCB-Alberta

http://www.wcb.ab.ca/public/preventing_violence.asp

Alberta summary for “Violence in the Workplace”

Violence, whether at a work site or work related, means the threatened,

attempted or actual conduct of a person that causes or is likely to cause physical

injury.

A hazard assessment is required before work begins at a work site and this

assessment must include the possibility of injury to a worker from physical

violence as a potential hazard. The hazard assessment must be repeated at

reasonably practicable intervals to prevent the development of unsafe working

conditions.

An employer must develop a policy and procedures respecting potential

workplace violence. These procedures must be in writing and made available to

the workers affected.

If a risk of workplace violence is identified during a hazard assessment, the

employer must take measures to eliminate, or if this is not reasonably

practicable, to control the hazard through the use of engineering or administrative

controls, or personal protective equipment or a combination of these.

An employer must ensure that workers are instructed in the following: how to

recognize workplace violence; the policy, procedures and workplace

arrangements that effectively minimize or eliminate workplace violence; the

appropriate response to workplace violence, including how to obtain assistance;

and procedures for reporting, investigating and documenting incidents of

workplace violence.

An employer must investigate incidents of workplace violence, prepare a report

outlining the circumstances of each incident, that includes any corrective action

taken to prevent a recurrence, and have the report readily available for inspection

by an occupational health and safety officer who may carry out his/her own

investigation. The employer’s report must be in writing and available to workers

affected by it. In addition, an employer must ensure that a worker is advised to

consult a health professional of his/her choice for treatment or referral if the

worker reports an injury or adverse symptom resulting from workplace violence,

or is exposed to workplace violence.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE 2009

Part 27 Violence

Hazard assessment

389 Workplace violence is considered a hazard for the purposes of Part 2.

Policy and procedures

390 An employer must develop a policy and procedures respecting potential

workplace violence.

Instruction of workers

391 An employer must ensure that workers are instructed in

(a) how to recognize workplace violence,

(b) the policy, procedures and workplace arrangements that effectively

minimize or eliminate workplace violence,

obtain assistance, and

(d) procedures for reporting, investigating and documenting incidents of

workplace violence.

Response to incidents

392(1) Sections 18(3) to (6) and 19 of the Act apply to an incident of workplace

violence.

392(2) An employer must ensure that a worker is advised to consult a health

professional of the worker’s choice for treatment or referral if the worker

(a) reports an injury or adverse symptom resulting from workplace

violence, or

(b) is exposed to workplace violence