The curious thing about fall protection used by most construction companies today is that a great while a great many of us know that it is currently workplace law in the province of Saskatchewan to wear a full-body harness when working at heights, we fail to realize that there is often more to consider.

We might also know that the soles of our feet need to be over the 3m/10’ threshold before it becomes law to use fall protection on non-permanent work areas, but what many of us do not realize is that the law also states that a fall protection plan is in place under these very same circumstances.

Furthermore, the law sets out what this fall protection program has to cover:

• The fall hazards at the work site
• The fall protection system to be used at the worksite
• The procedures used to assemble, maintain, inspect, use and disassemble the fall protection system
• AND, the rescue procedures to be used if a worker falls, is suspended by a personal fall arrest system or safety net and needs to be rescued.

A copy of this written documents must be readily available before work begins at a worksite where a risk of falling exists and the employer is responsible to ensure that all workers are trained in the fall protection plan and safe use of the fall protection system before allowing the worker to work in an area where a fall protection system must be used.

All of this information can be found in section 116.1 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, 1996 and if you happen to find yourself working at heights without an adequate fall protection or rescue plan you should also look at section 3-31 of the Saskatchewan Employment Act which states:

“A worker may refuse to perform any particular act or series of acts at a place of employment if the worker has reasonable grounds to believe that the act or series of acts is unusually dangerous to the worker’s health or safety or the health or safety of any other person at the place of employment…”

If you need help writing up a fall protection program for your construction company, contact us. Our head trainer will help get you pointed in the right direction and can provide fall protection plan templates on request.