Claims decision could negatively impact businesses
The Tourism Industry Association of Ontario (TIAO) has been granted intervener status in the case Blue Mountain Resorts Limited v. Ontario (the Ministry of Labour and the Ontario Labour Relations Board).
This case arose in December 2007 when a guest at Blue Mountain Resorts in Collingwood, Ont., drowned in an unsupervised swimming pool on the resort’s grounds. In 2011, the Ontario Labour Relations Board upheld a decision that determined that all fatal and critical injuries occurring at a workplace, not just those involving workers but guests as well, should be reported to the Ministry of Labour.
This decision was later upheld by the Ontario Divisional Court.
“TIAO will make a strong case of how treating premises that are traditionally used by guests as a ‘workplace’ would negatively impact businesses that operate tourist resorts, hotels and facilities,” said Beth Potter, president of TIAO. “We will also be arguing that the OHSA was intended to ensure worker safety issues.”
In its 2011 decision, the Ontario Divisional Court said the obligation to report the death was not unreasonable.
“Workers and guests are vulnerable to the same hazards. The purposes and intents of the legislation would be undermined if a physical hazard with potential to harm workers and non-workers alike was not subject to reporting and oversight.”
The obligation to report a death or injury is driven by result rather than cause, it said, so “any event resulting in death or critical injury, even if occurring in circumstances having no potential nexus with worker safety, is reportable so long as they occur in a workplace.”
An employer is required to notify the ministry if a non-worker is critically injured or killed at a workplace if the hazard that caused the incident also presents a risk to the health and safety of workers at that workplace, said Matt Blajer, spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Labour.
“This is a reasonable expectation and should not be burdensome for employers.”
