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Manufacturing and warehousingCompliance for Ontario manufacturers and warehouses
Factories and warehouses are industrial establishments under Ontario law, with a regulation of their own on top of the general rules. Here’s what applies, and how Prodigy Suite keeps the records.
How Prodigy Suite handles it
Committee records
Members, certified members, meetings and minutes for each workplace.
Monthly inspections
A ready-made warehouse checklist, or upload your own from Excel or CSV. Problems become tracked actions.
Safety data sheets
An SDS register workers can open from their phone.
Equipment training
Your own courses with video for forklifts, lockout and machines, and outside certificates tracked to expiry.
Incidents
Logged with Ontario’s reporting steps: the Ministry, WSIB Form 7, and committee notices within 4 days.
Every site
A safety lead for each site, with its own committee, inspections and incidents.
- Committee: 20 or more workers at a workplace need a joint health and safety committee, with at least one certified member for the workers and one for management. It meets at least every three months.
- Inspections: a committee member or the representative inspects the workplace at least once a month (or all of it yearly, part each month, where monthly isn’t practical).
- Machines: Regulation 851 requires guards on exposed moving parts, lockout before starting a machine could endanger a worker, and pre-start health and safety reviews in some cases.
- Chemicals: WHMIS training, reviewed every year, and safety data sheets for every hazardous product.
Regulation 851, industrial establishments
- Guarding: a machine with an exposed moving part that may endanger a worker must have a guard or other device that prevents access to it (s. 24).
- Lockout: machines are cleaned, adjusted or repaired only when stopped and blocked (s. 75); where starting one may endanger a worker, its controls are locked out and other precautions taken (s. 76).
- Pre-start health and safety reviews: required before some new or modified equipment, structures and processes are used, in the situations listed in the table to s. 7.
Write your lockout and guarding procedures as policies, train workers on them, and inspect against them. Prodigy Suite does each of those; the engineering itself is for your team or a professional engineer.
What every Ontario manufacturer needs as an employer
Health and safety representative or joint committee
A workplace with 6 to 19 workers regularly employed needs a health and safety representative chosen by the workers. At 20 or more, it needs a joint health and safety committee.
OHSA, ss. 8–9 · Official source
WHMIS training and safety data sheets (if workers handle hazardous products)
Any workplace where workers use, handle or are exposed to hazardous products (chemicals, cleaners, fuels and similar).
OHSA, ss. 37–42; R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 860 · Official source
Occupational health and safety policy
Required in writing, and posted, where more than 5 workers regularly work. Recommended below that.
What it must include
- A written statement of the employer's occupational health and safety policy
- A commitment to a program that puts the policy into practice
- A note that the policy is reviewed at least once a year
OHSA, R.S.O. 1990, c. O.1, s. 25(2)(j) and (4) · Official source
Workplace violence policy and program
Every employer needs a workplace violence policy and program. Once more than 5 workers regularly work at a workplace, the policy must be in writing and posted there.
What it must include
- A policy statement on workplace violence
- Measures and procedures to control the risks of violence identified in a risk assessment
- How to summon immediate assistance when violence occurs or is likely to occur
- How workers report incidents or threats of violence to the employer or supervisor
- How the employer will investigate and deal with incidents, complaints and threats of violence
OHSA, ss. 32.0.1–32.0.5 · Official source
Workplace harassment policy and program
Every employer needs a written workplace harassment program. Once more than 5 workers regularly work at a workplace, the policy must also be in writing and posted.
What it must include
- A policy statement on workplace harassment, including workplace sexual harassment
- Coverage of harassment that happens virtually or through technology (email, chat, social media), part of the definition since October 28, 2024
- How workers report incidents to the employer or supervisor, naming who to report to
- Someone else to report to if the employer or supervisor is the alleged harasser
- How incidents and complaints will be investigated and dealt with
- How information will be kept confidential, except where disclosure is needed to investigate, take corrective action or is required by law
- How the worker who complained and the alleged harasser will be told the results of the investigation and any corrective action
OHSA, s. 1(1) "workplace harassment"; ss. 32.0.1, 32.0.6, 32.0.7 · Official source
Basic health and safety awareness training
Every worker and supervisor, as soon as practicable after they start.
O. Reg. 297/13, ss. 1–2 · Official source
First aid: a kit, a trained first aider and the Form 82 poster
Every employer covered by the WSIB: a first aid box, a certified first aider on every shift (Basic up to 5 workers on a shift, Intermediate above that), the Form 82 poster and a record of first aid given. From 200 on one shift, a first aid room.
R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 1101, ss. 1–3, 5, 6 and 8–11 · Official source
Pay equity
Private-sector employers with 10 or more employees must pay female job classes the same as male job classes of equal value.
Pay Equity Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.7, s. 3 · Official source
From the same rules the free audit checks, last reviewed October 13, 2026. See every requirement by size.
Common questions
How many certified members does a joint health and safety committee need in Ontario?
At a workplace with 20 or more workers regularly employed, at least two: one representing workers and one representing the employer. Committees at workplaces with fewer than 20 workers don’t need certified members.
How often must a factory be inspected by the committee?
At least once a month. Where that isn’t practical, the whole workplace at least once a year, with part of it inspected each month on a schedule the committee sets.
Does Ontario require a lockout procedure?
Regulation 851 requires that where starting a machine may endanger a worker, its controls are locked out and other effective precautions are taken (s. 76). A written procedure, with training, is how most employers show they do it.
Sources
- e-Laws: Regulation 851, Industrial Establishments
- Ontario: Guide to health and safety committees and representatives (updated August 17, 2026)
- Ontario: WHMIS
This page summarizes Ontario’s rules as of October 25, 2026 for general information. It isn’t legal advice, and Prodigy Suite isn’t a law firm. Each rule links to the official source; for a specific situation, speak to an Ontario employment lawyer.
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