The government of British Columbia has amended the Workers Compensation Act to strengthen WorkSafeBC’s ability to promote and enforce occupational health and safety compliance in provincial workplaces.
Introduced on Feb. 11, the amendments change policy in four areas: providing a range of new safety enforcement tools; shortening the process for finalizing financial penalties, to improve their effectiveness as an enforcement tool; ensuring timely employer investigations of workplace incidents and reports; and enhancing workplace safety expertise on the WorkSafeBC board of directors, by adding two new members who have backgrounds in oh&s, law or law enforcement.
“These changes complement other operational improvements taking place at WorkSafeBC to implement a world-class inspection and investigation regime, in the wake of the tragic sawmill incidents that occurred in 2012 in Burns Lake and Prince George,” B.C.’s Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training said in a press release.
In particular, the new safety enforcement tools include a new compliance agreement for employers who voluntarily agree to improve the safety of their workplaces in response to inspections by WorkSafeBC, as well as “on-the-spot” fines (citations) for less serious contraventions, said a backgrounder from the ministry. The tools also include WorkSafeBC’s ability to stop work at sites where unsafe conditions present a high risk to workers, as well as expanding courts’ authority to bar the worst offenders from operating in an industry.
The backgrounder said that the changes would also require employers to “conduct a preliminary investigation within 48 hours of a significant incident and to take necessary actions to prevent a similar incident from occurring while a full investigation is being conducted.” The employer’s full investigation must also be completed within 30 days, unless WorkSafeBC grants an extension for exceptional or complex cases.
Irene Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour (BCFL), said that she believed that increased enforcement and prosecution of negligent employers was key. She also said that while the reforms were a step in the right direction, more could be done to make the amendments stronger. For example, Lanzinger noted that the BCFL has been calling for a dedicated Crown prosecutor and a Crown charge assessment policy specific to workplace fatalities. In addition, the federation wants education for prosecutors, police services and workers’ compensation board investigative officers around criminal negligence from an oh&s perspective.
More information is available at http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2015/02/new-legislation-improves-worker-safety.html.