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Labour, OH&S

WorkSafeBC strikes balance between religious freedoms and safety with new hard hat rule

Grant Cameron
WorkSafeBC strikes balance between religious freedoms and safety with new hard hat rule
FILE PHOTO — Last year, the Council of 鶹ýion Associations released a video highlighting the importance of wearing hard hats onsite while showing that religious beliefs can still be accommodated among Sikhs who wish to wear a turban. The association is now applauding recent regulatory changes that state starting Sept. 1 employers will be required to review each area of a jobsite when determining if a person must wear safety headgear, such as a hard hat, in that area.

鶹ýion employers are commendingWorkSafeBCand the provincefor walking a tightrope and coming up with regulatory changes that protect religious freedoms while ensuring worksites remain safe.

“鶹ýion sectors across this country are no stranger to policy and regulations and legislation thatoftengoes against the grain or somehow doesn’t make sense,” Council of 鶹ýion Associations(COCA)president DaveBaspalytoldtheJournal of Commerce in an interview.“Thissituationcould have gone that way,but this was actually planned out reasonably and we can work with it.”

LabourMinister Harry Bains had askedWorkSafeBCto consider changes to B.C.’s Occupational Health and Safety Regulation(OHSR)on safety headgear.Under the regulation, safety headgear must be worn by a worker in any work area where there is a danger of head injury from falling, flying or thrown objects.

TheSikhcommunity maintainedemployerswereeffectively applyingthe regulationas a blanket requirement, resulting in turban-wearing workers not being able to fully participate in the workforce.

However, Bains announced recently thatnew hard hat rules will soon make workplaces in B.C. more inclusive for people who wearreligious head coverings without compromising workplace safety.

Starting Sept. 1,employers will be required to review each area of a jobsite when determining if a person must wear safety headgear, such as a hard hat, in that area. Employers will determine, through a risk assessment, what safety precautions could be taken to prevent head injuries and whether a hard hat is necessary.

“Creating more inclusive workplaces is a priority for our government, and we have been advocating for a change to the safety headgear regulations for a long time,” Bainssaid in a statement.“We are building an economy that benefits everyone, which includes ensuring safe workplaces are inclusive to people regardless of their faith.”

Employers in B.C. are legally obligated to ensure the health and safety of their workers as well as accommodate a worker’s religious practice under the B.C. Human Rights Code.

In B.C.,theground rules around workplace safety are laid out in the OHSR.

For many years, the Sikh community has raised concerns about not being able to fully participate in the workforce because of some employers’ approach to the safety headgear requirement.

According to the government, theregulatory change provides more opportunities for employers to safely accommodate workers who wear head coverings, such as a turban, as a religious practice.

BaltejDhillon,aretired RCMP officer andWorkSafeBCboard member, said thechange will allow members of the Sikh community who wear a turban to engage in dialogue with their employers to address workplace risks, which can, in turn, eliminate the need for a hard hat in certain scenarios.

“This change supports worker safety and will allow more Sikhs to come to work without having to compromise their religious beliefs.”

Last August, when changes were proposed to the hard hat regulations, the COCA andVancouver Regional 鶹ýion Association arguedthe idea was not safe nor practical for the industry.

However,Baspalysaidthe regulation strikes a balance because employers will stillhave the right to determine via ariskassessment if hard hats must be worn in areas where risks are high,but it allows them leeway to relax the requirements in zones where risk of injury is low, such as around washroom or administrations areas, and make accommodations or use engineering controls to mitigate risks.

“There’s going to have to be a document risk assessment where it says, ‘This is an area that’s particularly problematic, this is an area that’s not,’ and to work with the(Sikh)community to do that,” he said. “So, we look forward to that opportunity to see what we can do in that space across the sector.”

A concern of construction employers–and alsothe Sikh community –had been thatWorkSafeBCwas put in a position of choosing either workplace safety or granting religious freedom, saidBaspaly, but from an industry perspective allowingarisk assessment isacompromise between the two extremes.

“This stuff could have been a gut-wrench, sort of, ‘We’re going to go this way, we’re going to give everyone a blanket exemptiontype of thing,’” he said. “But fortunately,we really took the time to do the process properly and came out with this sort of, I would call it a comprise,without sacrificing any religious freedom or safety issue. We’ve come out of it with a way through that is reasonable.”

Baspalyemphasized that employers believe in religious freedoms andappreciate the work done by Sikhs in theconstructionindustry.

“One of the most valuable contributors is the Sikh community. They work across the province. They work in all facets of construction.”

He believes through ongoing dialogue with the Sikh community, safety and religious freedom can co-exist because risk assessments are not foreign to the construction industry.

“We’ve been doing it since time immemorial and most of the big primes do it fluidly on their sites.”

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