Hiring Service Contractors
External contractors may be retained by university employees to conduct work or provide services on or within the spaces the university owns or occupies. To ensure that the health and safety of the university community, visitors and the contractors are protected and fulfill regulatory requirements, Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) has created a (google doc) health and safety checklist (external link) to help guide employees who plan for and oversee work performed by contractors.
This guide applies to contracts with service providers that do not provide construction services. Examples of non-construction service providers include:
- technicians and trades who repair and maintain equipment or systems
- on-site professional consultation
- training or inspection
- moving and transportation
- vendors
Facilities Management and Development (“Facilities”) oversees all construction, renovation and alteration work for Toronto Metropolitan University. The university’s portfolio is complex and has inherent challenges of aging infrastructure, interconnected building systems and connections to public utilities. It is essential for the university’s infrastructure security and its community health and safety that construction-related work is to be completed only under Facilities’ oversight.
Construction contractors must be hired with the involvement of TMU’s Facilities Management and Development – Project Management Office.
This checklist is intended as a resource for TMU staff to use as a quick reference guide when hiring non-construction contractors, to assist staff in ensuring the
Health and Safety Compliance
The TMU employee who is acting as the project manager/coordinator and is overseeing the work and coordinating with the Service Contractor must ensure the university is meeting its obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), sec.25, 26 (external link) and any other applicable sections of the OHSA or regulations, as the employer of contract workers.
Toronto Metropolitan University must also ensure that the Service Contractor has adequate policies, procedures, training, and supervision to carry out the work safely, to comply with all applicable regulations and TMU’s environmental health and safety (EHS) policy.
The project manager must review all health and safety documentation provided by the contractor and file copies within the department. Prior to the start work work, the TMU project manager must provide safety orientation to the contractor’s site supervisor to be passed along with any training information to all site personnel, per the steps outlined in the TMU Health and Safety Checklist for Hiring Non-Construction Contractors available from the links below.
For any questions on this checklist, please contact your EHS representative.