What is the current state of the law on general lack of instruction in the workplace?

The learned trial judge makes no finding of general lack of instruction. He refers to a specific lack—namely, “of instructing the youthful plaintiff that under no circumstances was he to place the meat with his left hand beneath the cutting blade while operating the hydraulic valve with the right hand.” If by this is meant that the respondent should not hold his hand in the path of the blade while it was descending, a specific caution was in my opinion unnecessary. The employer does not have to instruct on that which is obvious or should be obvious to the employee. The respondent surely was aware that if his hand was there when the blade descended he would be hurt. The learned trial judge found that the respondent knew the knife could be dangerous. In Aimer v. Cushing Bros. Ltd., supra, the plaintiff had been injured when operating a shaper. The piece of wood with which he was working was jerked forward and his right hand was brought into contact with the knives. Lamont, J.A. said at p. 1012: “The plaintiff did not require to be told that his hand might be injured if it came in contact with the knives, that he knew; but he did need to be instructed of the likelihood of wood of the kind upon which he was working being jerked out of his hand when struck with the knife, and as to the best way of avoiding the happening of such an event and the minimizing of the danger of injury therefrom.”