Temporary structures governed by patchwork of OHS legislation
When a stage set up for a concert by rock band Radiohead collapsed and killed a crewmember in Toronto last June, it brought the safety of temporary structures to the forefront.
Constructing a stage can involve many different parties. There can be a crew for the actual structure, a crew for the roof and another for the lighting. Everyone may be subject to different laws under seemingly unrelated legislation, but there isn’t any overarching legislation governing everyone involved — and there may never be.
“My personal view is that regulations specific to the entertainment industry will never be written. And that’s not uncommon,” says Janet Sellery, safety consultant with Sellery Health and Safety in London, Ont. “Most legislation is hazard-based, not industry-based. We’ve certainly hoped there would be something more specific because it would be a whole lot easier for people to work with.”
Sellery is part of the Ontario Ministry of Labour’s live performance advisory committee, which is made up of live performance professionals who provide expertise to the government. While there isn’t any specific legislation for temporary stage construction, professionals can look to rules outlined for construction projects in Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act for guidance, she says.
“The construction regulations apply to shows when you’re doing the load in, the set up and the strike,” she says, noting this is important for trade show professionals, as well. “Once your lighting hang is complete… once you move into your rehearsal and performance phase, you’re industrial. Once a show is done and you start to take it all apart again, you’re construction. It’s a bit of a confusing thing.”
The act outlines the main obligations for employers, supervisors and workers, says Christina Hall, a lawyer at Heenan Blaikie in Toronto and member of its national occupational health and safety and workers’ compensation practice group.
“The duties on those parties are geared towards making sure that compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act regulations is achieved, that individuals are making use of the proper protective equipment and devices, that workers are properly acquainted with the hazards of their jobs and that simple precautions are taken to protect the health and safety of workers,” she says.
While there may not be specific legislation governing temporary structure construction, Sellery says workers can use other resources.
Using guidelines
“The closest we can get is guidelines,” she says. “They’re not legislation, but they at least help to interpret the entertainment industry for the inspectors and the legislation for the entertainment industry.”
Ontario developed Safety Guidelines for the Live Performance Industry in Ontario to recommend safeguards and procedures to educate and protect workers in the live performance industry. The guide includes recommendations for topics ranging from sound levels and electrical safety to pyrotechnics and rigging systems.
One of the most prominent issues involving temporary structures is not only the length of time an individual works on a project, but the amount of time he works overall, says Sellery.
“For our industry, things move very quickly,” she says. “When you work in arts and entertainment, many people freelance. You could have a day here, a day there, a week here, a month there. It’s a highly mobile workforce.”
This makes things like training difficult, but not impossible, Sellery says.
“It’s about risk assessment. It’s really about being really specific, looking at what the hazards are and looking at the likelihood and severity (of potential accidents),” she says. “You know, it’s not glamorous. But that’s the process that needs to happen and the bigger that these structures are the more you need to be looking at engineering. And when you’ve got a lot of companies working on an event, you need to be able to co-ordinate and supervise all of those different companies.”
Hall offers three basic ideas for those involved in constructing a temporary structure:
- comply with manufacturers’ guidelines
- train workers on proper assembly
- obtain relevant engineering sign off.
“It’s important that if there are any changes being made — for example, a company shows up with different equipment than it originally had intended — that you get the appropriate sign off to any of the ad hoc changes,” she says.
When things go wrong
When the Ontario Ministry of Labour is called in to do an investigation, it can be a lengthy process, says Ministry of Labour spokesperson Matt Blajer. The investigation into the Radiohead stage collapse involves determining which government body is responsible for looking into what, he says.
“We’re specialists in one area, we’re not generalists. So when we go to a stage, we’re not looking at how it’s being put together, but how it’s being constructed. Are the construction regulations being followed?” Blajer says. “In terms of structure, that comes under building code in a lot of cases, which is a different discipline.”
The ministry has one year to complete its investigation. It is unknown whether charges or fines will be laid, he says.
Charges in other cases
On June 20, 1999, an underage worker was helping dismantle a ride at a travelling carnival in Niagara Falls, Ont., when the ride's hydraulic system failed, causing a car to collapse and partially paralyze the worker. A Ministry of Labour investigation found the ride was being dismantled in a manner contrary to the manufacturer's instruction and the worker had not received training on how to safely dismantle the ride. The company was fined $75,000 and an employee of the company was jailed for 45 days.
“That’s fairly rare for Occupational Health and Safety that there’s a jail term,” Hall says, noting this is the closest charge she could find related to a temporary structure collapse. “But I think in this case, certainly the severity of an injury to someone so young who shouldn’t have been doing that work in the first place was a factor in trying to determine a penalty that would create the appropriate deterrence.”
