wellspring/15-torts-and-coordination/15-04-workplace-health-and-safety.md

# Wellspring: Workplace Health and Safety:

## Making employers publish the known risks for a given position, and keep those published risks up to date:

Employers shall publish, as part of the job description for any job, a list of the hazards which arise from carrying out the job within the particular work environment provided by that employer. The list is only required to cover the hazards which may arise as a result of the nature/configuration of the particular work environment, and the nature of the equipment/tools/supplies provided by the employer for the carrying out of the job. The list is not required to cover hazards which arise from misuse, by the employees, of the environment/equipment/tools/supplies in the nature/configuration provided by the employer.

When the nature/configuration of the environment/equipment/tools/supplies provided by the employer change, the employer may update the hazard list and republish it to each employee whose job has been affected by the updated environment/equipment/tools/supplies.

Employees may bring actions before the courts in the form of "Undisclosed Workplace Hazard" complaints based on this published list of hazards.

### Cause of action: "Undisclosed workplace hazard":

When employees identify an alleged hazard which arises from carrying out their job as a result of the nature/configuration of the particular work environment/equipment/tools/supplies which has not been documented by the employer in the job description, any and all of the employees (whether or not their particular job description incurs the alleged hazard) shall have standing to file suit against the employer under the cause of action, "Undisclosed workplace hazard".

#### Burden of proof:

The burden of proof shall lie with the plaintiffs to prove that the harm complained of does in fact constitute a harm.

Upon judgment proceeding for the employees:
- They shall have redress in the form of declaratory relief, that the alleged hazard is in fact a hazard.
- They shall have redress in the form of an injunction against the employer to add the hazard to the list in the job description.
- They shall have good claim to a cause of action known as the "Unameliorated Workplace Hazard" claim.

## Making employers provide safe work environments:

Employers are expected to provide work places which demonstrate a **good faith** effort to ensure that any hazards which may reasonably arise from the nature/configuration of the particular environment/equipment/tools/supplies provided by the employer are ameliorated.

For any hazard occasioned by the particular nature/configuration of the environment/equipment/tools/supplies provided by the employer, a good faith method of ameliorating said hazard is one which:

- When diligently followed/deployed by the employees ameliorates the hazard.
- Where the method is already deployed:
  - Is resourced by the employer sufficiently so as to make it practical for the employees to follow/deploy.
  - Can readily be demonstrated by the employer to be maintained in an operational state or on standby, ready to be deployed in a timely manner, depending on the type of hazard under consideration.

Should any of the published hazards for a job description not have a good faith method provided by the employer, any and all of the employees (whether or not their particular job description incurs the alleged hazard) shall have standing to file suit against the employer under the cause of action, "Unameliorated Workplace Hazard".

## Cause of action: "Unameliorated Workplace Hazard":

The plaintiffs shall nominate at least one good faith method to ameliorate the hazard, and source relevant costs for procuring and deploying it at the workplace. The plaintiffs implicitly agree to a renegotiation of the employees' terms of employment, in line with the requirements to effectuate the method, including changes to duties, hours, compensation, etc.

### Burden of proof:

The burden of proof shall lie with the employer to show that they have in fact provided a good faith method of ameliorating the hazard.

### Finding options and settling the dispute:

Upon judgment proceeding for the plaintiff(s), the defendant may also source and nominate their own options for ameliorating the hazard and these options shall also be subjected to the good faith criteria. Should the litigants be unable to come to a settlement over which method(s) should be deployed, a legislatively defined procedure shall be used to settle the dispute and guide the jury to arrive at the final decision on behalf of the litigants.

The plaintiffs implicitly agree to a renegotiation of the employees' terms of employment, in line with the requirements to effectuate the finally decided method, including changes to duties, hours, compensation, etc, as decided by the jury through the legislatively defined dispute settlement procedure.