What WorkSafeBC requires for hazard assessments
Under the BC Workers Compensation Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, employers are required to identify and assess workplace hazards before work begins. At the field level, this means every worker on a construction site should be identifying and documenting the hazards relevant to their specific task before starting work.
The Field Level Hazard Assessment is the standard mechanism for meeting this requirement in BC construction. While WorkSafeBC doesn't mandate a specific form, they do expect documented evidence that hazard assessment happened — and that the worker acknowledged the hazards and controls.
When WorkSafeBC investigates a serious incident on a BC construction site, one of the first things they ask for is the FLHA from that morning. Companies that cannot produce it — or produce a blank, unsigned, or generic form — face significantly greater liability than those with complete, timestamped, GPS-verified records.
What makes an FLHA legally defensible in BC
Not all FLHAs are created equal. A paper form filled in at the end of the day, or signed by a supervisor on behalf of workers, provides minimal legal protection. A strong FLHA record includes:
- Individual worker signature — each worker must sign their own assessment
- Timestamp — proving the assessment was completed before work began
- Location verification — proof the worker was on site when they completed the form
- Specific hazards — not a generic checklist, but hazards relevant to that day's tasks
- Controls identified — what was done to manage each hazard
Digital FLHAs with GPS verification and automatic timestamping satisfy all of these requirements in a way that paper forms structurally cannot.
Stop-work orders and missing FLHA records
WorkSafeBC prevention officers have the authority to issue stop-work orders on BC construction sites. While a missing FLHA alone may not trigger a stop-work order, a pattern of incomplete safety documentation can prompt deeper investigation — and stop-work orders can cost $5,000–$25,000 per day in lost productivity and remediation costs.
Having complete, retrievable FLHA records for every worker on every day is your first line of defence in any WorkSafeBC interaction.
How often should FLHAs be completed?
At minimum, one FLHA per worker per day, completed before work begins. If conditions change during the shift — new task, new location, new hazards identified — a new assessment should be completed. Digital tools like TrueCOR Safety make it easy to complete multiple assessments in a day without extra administrative burden.
Record retention requirements in BC
WorkSafeBC requires that safety records, including hazard assessments, be retained for a minimum period after the work is completed. For COR-certified companies, auditors may request records going back 12 months or more. Storing records digitally ensures they are always available, organised, and retrievable — unlike paper forms stored in binders.