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Duty. It's a word we don't use that often in the context of workers' compensation and occupational health and safety. When we do use it, we tend to gloss over it and may miss its real meaning and importance.
Employers have a “General Duty” to protect workers in the work place. Every occupational safety and health regulation has a General Duty Clause. The US OSH Act specifies it this way (in part):
SEC. 5. Duties(a) Each employer --
(1) shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees…
WorkSafeBC's governing legislation uses similar terms and stated (in part) in section 115 of the Workers Compensation Act:
(1) Every employer must (a) ensure the health and safety of
(i) all workers working for that employer, and
(ii) any other workers present at a workplace at which that employer's work is being carried out
Employers also have a “Duty to Accommodate”. This duty may emanate from Human Rights legislation but may also be reflected in workers' compensation legislation (often in the form of a Mandatory Reinstatement provision). Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 states both an “obligation” and a “Duty”
Obligation to re-employ41. (1) The employer of a worker who has been unable to work as a result of an injury and who, on the date of the injury, had been employed continuously for at least one year by the employer shall offer to re-employ the worker in accordance with this section.
Duty to accommodate(6) The employer shall accommodate the work or the workplace for the worker to the extent that the accommodation does not cause the employer undue hardship.
The Victorian WorkCover Authority (and others) use the term “duty-holder” – a term that is useful in conceptualizing that a duty has substance. It also implies that someone, some individual or group is “carrying the ball” and that its possession may be “shared with” or “passed to” someone else but not dropped or abandoned.
In common usage, “duty” has a stronger connotation than “responsibility” or even “obligation”. We often read or hear that someone “ignored” or “shirked” a responsibility or “walked away” from an obligation but we speak of “dereliction” or “failure” when referring to a duty unfulfilled.
This sense of a duty being a mandatory obligation or moral requirement reinforces the importance of the General Duty, the Duty to Accommodate and other duties in workers' compensation and OH&S; the specificity of the term “duty-holder” helps underscore the persistence of that obligation and the potential consequences that may flow from abandoning or consciously neglecting to act.
There are other “duties” in workers' compensation, OH&S, and our broader community. Some are specified in legislation but others are part of the moral framework of our society. Healthcare workers have a “duty of care”, injured workers have a “duty to mitigate loss”, all of us have a “duty to provide the necessities of life” to children and others.
A duty imposes a moral obligation on the duty-holder to act. Recognizing this relationship may help employers, workers and others in the workplace ensure every duty and duty-holder understands what is required and acts accordingly.
About Terry Bogyo:
Terry is an active researcher, speaker and commentator on workers compensation issues. Now retired, he was the Director of Corporate Planning and Development for WorkSafeBC. His responsibilities included environmental scanning, strategic planning and inter-jurisdictional comparisons.
Terry says of himself: I am a student of workers' compensation systems. Many years ago I discovered two things about this area. First, workers' comp and OH&S are of vital importance to people. Protecting, caring for and providing compensation to workers are important, noble and morally responsible endeavors. The second thing I learned was that no matter how much I knew about workers' comp/OH&S, there was always so much more to learn. This is an endlessly challenging area of study. My purpose, therefore, is not to lecture, but to reflect on the ideas and issues that are topical in this area... and to invite others to share in a learning experience. By adding your knowledge and insights, others with similar interests can participate in the discovery and study of this important domain.
His blog is "Workers' Compensation Perspectives".
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