Instructions

With the legalization of cannabis in Canada, helping to ensure your workplace is prepared to maintain the safety of your workers and residents/clients is important.

Physical or mental impairment in the workplace can create a significant risk of injury and death to the impaired worker, co-workers, and the residents and clients they care for.

Both employers and workers have a shared responsibility to ensure the safety of the workplace.

After this huddle, all staff (supervisors and frontline) should understand:

• What physical, psychological and cognitive impairment is
• What their responsibilities are

Notes to the huddle leader

Use this handout and the included resources as a guide to develop or revise your own in-house policy on impairment in the workplace.

Guiding questions

• What are signs and symptoms of impairment and the impact on safety, health, and work performance?
• How can impairment policies be accessed at this workplace?
• What are the policies and procedures for reporting impairment?

Employer responsibilities

As an employer, you must not assign impaired workers to activities where impairment may create an undue risk. You must also not permit workers to remain at any workplace while their ability to work safely is affected by alcohol, a drug, or another substance or condition.

You may also:

• Implement policies and procedures to address impairment in the workplace that includes physical, psychological, and cognitive abilities and limitations.
• Communicate substance use and impairment policies and procedure to all workers (including new workers), review annually, and make easily accessible for workers. annually, and make easily accessible for workers.

Worker responsibilities

Workers must tell their supervisor or employer if their ability to safely perform assigned work is impaired for any reason. If the worker has a physical or mental impairment, they must not do work if the impairment may create a risk to themselves or anyone else.

More information

Read Workplace impairment: A primer on preparing for cannabis legalization to learn more about the regulatory requirements related to impairment and how employers can develop policies and procedures that address workplace impairment.