ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – The workers’ compensation board for Newfoundland and Labrador has declared Sept. 24-30 to be Musculoskeletal Injury Prevention Week, during which it is urging workers to lift, push, pull and handle heavy materials more safely. A news release from WorkplaceNL stated that it had launched an awareness campaign to encourage prevention of these injuries with the slogan, “How would YOU handle it?”, offering practical tips such as getting help with big loads and using mechanical aids if possible. WorkplaceNL safety advisors are working with employers to devise practical ways to prevent injuries. “Musculoskeletal injuries can impact the quality of every aspect of a worker’s daily life,” WorkplaceNL CEO Dennis Hogan said in a press statement. “Our goal this week, and throughout the year, is to help employers and workers recognize how musculoskeletal injuries may happen and to provide them with solutions so people do not get hurt.” Nearly 70 per cent of the province’s lost-time injury claims over the past five years have resulted from musculoskeletal injuries, and about 1,600 N.L. healthcare workers are injured while handling patients every year, according to information from WorkplaceNL.
All posts by Jeff Cottrill
Prison goes into lockdown following possible drug exposure
After a recent incident in which a group of correctional officers might have been exposed to fentanyl, the Joyceville Institution near Kingston, Ont. was locked down for a major search from Sept. 13 to 19.
Rob Finucan, Ontario regional president for the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO), said that the alleged drug exposure had occurred while the guards had been searching cells in the federal prison. During the search, the officers suddenly felt as if they were intoxicated, he explained.
“We’re not sure if it was fentanyl,” said Finucan. “The one guy had recently had a surgery, so had pain medication, and he said it almost felt the same way as when he had the pain medication.” Doctors have often legally prescribed fentanyl as a pain reliever.
The officers underwent immediate medical examinations, “and I think their heart rates were elevated a bit, but nothing serious,” added Finucan. “So they went home, and they all said they’d slept for 12, 13 hours. And then the next day, they were fine.”
Following the incident, Joyceville’s assessment unit was locked down at 1 p.m. on Sept. 13, to enable staff to conduct an “exceptional search,” according to a news release from Correctional Service Canada (CSC). The release added that CSC was committed to preventing contraband in federal correctional facilities.
CSC did not indicate whether the lockdown was connected to the incident, but Finucan later confirmed that it had been.
“The union executive there said, ‘Okay, let’s search,’” he said. “They didn’t, and then finally, after a day and a half of arguing, they agreed to lock it down and search the entire institution.”
Joyceville’s assistant warden of management services did not respond to COHSN’s request for comment. But a second CSC release on Sept. 19 announced that the lockdown had ended and that normal operations at the prison had resumed.
“Correctional Service Canada… is strengthening measures to prevent the entry of contraband into its institutions in order to ensure a safe and secure environment,” the latter release stated. “CSC also works in partnership with the police to take action against those who attempt to have contraband brought into correctional institutions.”
Finucan noted that contraband is the most common way that drugs like fentanyl enter prisons and that there had been exposure incidents in the federal system. “They’ve had to use the naloxone on several officers in the prairie region,” he said, adding that fentanyl had been discovered at the Warkworth Institution near Campbellford, Ont. and that incidents had occurred at the Pittsburgh and Collins Bay facilities in the Kingston area.
UCCO has been lobbying to improve staff protections against drug contamination in federal correctional facilities. “What we want to do is make sure that we have a solid national protocol,” said Finucan. “We’d like to make sure that at every site, the officers have the equipment necessary if there is searching” for fentanyl or other drugs, he said. “The gloves, the goggles, the long-sleeved shirts and all that to protect them.”
Another protective measure that UCCO has recommended is that employees wear hoods in the mail rooms and other vulnerable areas. “And that’s probably the main thing,” said Finucan.
Built in 1959, the Joyceville Institution is located about 20 kilometres northeast of Kingston. It has a rated capacity of 752 inmates, according to its profile on the CSC website.
Approach to violence in hospitals causes rift in union negotiations
Contract talks broke down between the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) on Sept. 21, following what the union refers to as the employer’s unwillingness to confront workplace violence.
The OHA has been bargaining for a new collective agreement with the union’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) since June, according to a CUPE news release. But CUPE claimed that the association had refused to address the issue of violence against hospital employees, the level of which has been rising in the province in recent years.
“Ontario hospital staff, including those that we represent, are the most productive in Canada. While we have modest economic expectations, we did expect that the hospitals would address the problem of violence in our workplaces,” OCHU president Michael Hurley said in a media statement. “Despite widespread evidence of an epidemic of violent assaults against healthcare staff, Ontario’s hospitals have little interest in bargaining constructive measures to reduce and prevent workplace violence.”
Hurley added that OCHU was proposing solutions that would protect employees and patients in bargaining. “However, the hospitals have refused to engage in meaningful dialogue [on] this very important issue,” he said.
The CUPE release claimed that almost half of direct-care hospital staff report assaults by patients or their relatives every year. In addition, violent incidents are very likely underreported, as employees fear reprisals from management, the union stated.
Among the measures that OCHU has proposed to the OHA to deal with the problem: protection against reprisals; personal alarms for all staff; flagging potentially violent patients in internal systems; increased staffing in emergency departments and psychiatric units; improving reporting systems between the Crown and healthcare institutions; and providing counselling to workers who are assaulted.
“Regrettably this far,” said Hurley, all of these recommendations “have been completely rejected by the hospitals.”
“Many hospital staff have been beaten so badly, they will never work again,” OCHU secretary-treasurer Sharon Richer said in a statement. “We are incredibly disheartened that the hospitals are refusing to address this huge problem in collective bargaining.”
In May, nurses with CUPE and Unifor raised the issue with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and the provincial Liberal government, appealing for assistance.
The Ontario chapter of CUPE represents 27,000 hospital workers at120 hospital sites across the province, including nurses, cleaners and dietary, administrative and trades staff. The vast majority of healthcare workers in the province are women, the union said.
Teen arrested for threatening pair of transit workers
WINNIPEG, Man. – The Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) has charged an 18-year-old man for uttering threats to two Winnipeg Transit employees early in the morning on Sept. 20. According to a WPS news release, the young man was sleeping on a bus, and the bus driver and a transit supervisor were trying to wake him up. The teen awoke and caused a disturbance, becoming aggressive and threatening both workers, police said. General patrol officers with the WPS responded to a call about the incident at about 12:15 a.m. and noted that the man was bound by a recognizance requiring him to leave a bus if ordered. Tyrell Marquel Cornish was arrested and charged with uttering threats and failing to comply with recognizance, police said.
Pilot program to promote women in leadership roles via mentoring
CALGARY, Alta. – A new mentoring program through Alberta Status of Women aims to increase gender equality in the province’s workplaces by expanding leadership opportunities for women. According to a media release from the Alberta government, Status of Women Minister Stephanie McLean launched the six-month program in Calgary on Sept. 20. The initiative will match female workers with leaders in engineering, construction, finance, academia and business development. These mentors will share advice, connections and opportunities with protégés to assist them in their careers, the release added. “All women in Alberta deserve an equal opportunity to succeed, but still face systemic inequalities,” said McLean in a press statement. “Women do double the unpaid care work, get paid less for equal work and are less represented in senior roles. By connecting women with personal champions, we unlock their economic potential and help remove barriers.” Only 39 per cent of senior management positions in Alberta are held by women, the release noted. The government plans to evaluate the mentorship program next spring, before deciding whether to expand it to other sectors and locations.
Calgary officers shoot man threatening them with weapons
Police officers in Calgary shot and seriously injured a man during a domestic-violence call on the evening of Sept. 20, after the man allegedly threatened the officers with undisclosed weapons.
A lengthy press statement from Ray Robitaille, acting chief of the Calgary Police Service (CPS), said that the officers had been called to a residence in the northeast section of the city at about 4:15 p.m. that day, following a report that a man had assaulted several people at the home before fleeing. Police soon located the suspect barricaded in a garage in another neighbourhood, and family and friends deduced from text messages that he was in distress.
“Officers contained the scene and attempted verbal communications with the man for approximately an hour and a half, in an effort to have him surrender peacefully,” Acting Chief Robitaille explained in the statement. “Officers believed the man was armed with a weapon.”
The suspect exited the garage at about 8 p.m. and confronted the officers with “weapons,” Robitaille added. Police deployed a Taser and firearms on the man, who was taken to a hospital in serious condition.
Robitaille said that the suspect is “known to police,” but did not release his name or age. Local media reports have identified him as Damon Parisian, stating that he is believed to be in his 30s.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team is investigating the incident. Robitaille noted that the CPS is cooperating fully with the investigation, which is focusing on three of the officers involved.
“They… responded to this call in a timely manner, taking all the necessary steps to ensure public safety and the safety of our officers,” he said about the three CPS members. “Their patience and due diligence was exceptional. Significant attempts were made to peacefully resolve the situation, but their duty to protect both the community and their fellow officers led to actions that stopped the threat.”
Charges are pending in the domestic-violence case, which police are investigating.
Robitaille’s statement stressed that the CPS’ priority is to protect both the community and fellow officers. “Every single day, our officers are faced with dynamic situations in which the preservation of life is always paramount,” he said. “Our members do everything possible to resolve a situation before ever drawing and discharging a firearm.”
Out of almost 220,000 service calls so far this year, the CPS has pointed firearms at a citizen in only 15, said Robitaille.
He added that the CPS’ Domestic Conflict Unit had received almost 1,500 calls over domestic incidents over the previous month, nearly 340 of which had involved violence.
Construction-safety expert to speak at IWH event in November
TORONTO, Ont. – The Institute for Work & Health (IWH) in Toronto has invited Dr. Linda M. Goldenhar, the director of research and evaluation at the Center for Construction Research and Training in Silver Spring, Md., to speak at the Institute’s annual Alf Nachemson Memorial Lecture this year. Dr. Goldenhar, an expert in health and safety in the construction sector, will use the Nov. 1 lecture at Toronto’s Design Exchange to share the results of her research, according to an IWH media release. The lecture will also explain tools that are now available to improve safety culture, climate and leadership in the industry. “Targeting high-hazard sectors is one of the strategic workplace health and safety priorities of the Ontario Ministry of Labour,” the release stated, calling Dr. Goldenhar’s upcoming appearance “timely.” Approximately 30 per cent of occupational fatalities in Ontario occur in construction, which represents about seven per cent of employment in the province, according to the IWH.
Vehicle collision, worker injury lead to $75,000 fine for logistics firm
WHITBY, Ont. – Aspect Retail Logistics Inc., an employer based in Pickering, Ont., has been convicted for a permanent injury that an employee suffered in a reach-truck accident last year. According to a court bulletin from the Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL), the worker was driving the reach truck and lost control of the vehicle while trying to make a left turn at the end of an aisle on May 10, 2016. The reach truck collided with a wall, injuring the employee. Evidence suggested that the truck had slipped on water that had remained behind after the floor had been cleaned. In the Ontario Court of Justice in Whitby, Aspect Retail later pleaded guilty to failing to keep a floor clear of obstructions or hazards, a violation of the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act. Justice of the Peace Ronald Prestage sentenced the company to pay a $75,000 fine, plus a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge, on Sept. 21 of this year.
Husky Oil convicted, fined for 2015 truck accident in Saskatchewan
LLOYDMINSTER, Sask. – Husky Oil Operations Limited has been fined $100,000, including a $28,571 surcharge, for its role in an incident in which an employee was seriously injured by a truck on Aug. 24, 2015. A news release from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety stated that the accident had occurred at the Calgary-headquartered corporation’s sand-disposal facility in Lloydminster, Sask., where the worker was hit by a truck that day. In Lloydminster Provincial Court, Husky Oil later pleaded guilty to failing to develop and implement a traffic-control plan to protect workers where there was a traffic hazard other than a public highway, resulting in injury. An additional charge was dropped, and the employer was fined on Sept. 18 of this year. “All workplaces must identify and address potential risks and hazards,” the Ministry stated in the release. “Safety plans must be developed, and all employees must be provided with information and training to work safely.”
WorkSafeBC publishes new safety guide for pipeline construction
RICHMOND, B.C. – A new resource from the occupational health and safety authority for British Columbia aims to teach employers, employees and business owners the basic safety requirements in pipeline construction. Available both as a PDF document and as a pamphlet, the Pipeline Construction Inspection Guide details the obligations of owners, employers, contractors, suppliers and workers under the province’s regulatory jurisdiction over pipelines, according to a press release that WorkSafeBC sent out on Sept. 18. The guide also includes a glossary of terms and outlines relevant sections of B.C. workplace safety legislation, as well as the required personal protective equipment for pipeline construction. It deals with the safety requirements of the pre-construction, construction and post-construction phases of a project, from removal of timber and drilling to cleanup. The Pipeline Construction Inspection Guide is available as an info-flip hard copy for $12 from the WorkSafeBC online store, and the PDF version is available for free at https://www.worksafebc.com/en/resources/health-safety/books-guides/pipeline-construction-inspection-guide?lang=en.