2026-09-18 from thesafetymag.com
When healthcare staff walk off the job, your focus lands on patient safety and coverage. However, your occupational health and safety (OHS) obligations for the workers who stay and those who step in do not pause during a labour dispute. Fatigue, unfamiliar units and heightened tension on the picket line all raise real risk. Here is what stays on your plate once the strike begins.
A strike changes your staffing plan, not your legal footing. Under the Canada Labour Code and most provincial OHS Acts, an employer’s general duty clause requires you to protect every worker on-site, regardless of how long they’ve been working there. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) clarifies that the duty extends to every worker on the premises, whether they have been there a decade or a single shift. That duty holds through a labour dispute and a staffing gap.
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