When Can an Employee Refuse Unsafe Work and Expect to Be Protected from Discipline? Evidence from Canada

This paper examines 272 Canadian arbitration and labor relations board decisions involving employees who, when they refused work on the grounds that the work was unsafe, were disciplined by their employers. The authors' hypothesis is that boards treat the right to refuse unsafe work as secondary to management's right to manage. The results of the study confirm that the right to refuse was very restricted. Employees had to satisfy many rigid conditions to qualify for protection from discipline. These conditions appear to have been based on the notions that health and safety are properly management's prerogative and that obedience to management authority is essential to efficient production.