Category Archives: Human Resources

Province to observe annual Respectful Workplace Week

FREDERICTON, N.B. – The Government of New Brunswick has declared Sept. 4 to 8 to be this year’s Respectful Workplace Week, an annual event in which the province promotes gender equality while recognizing the issues of workplace bullying and discrimination. The N.B. Ministry of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour announced in a Sept. 1 news release that the week would include a series of free joint educational lectures by the Workplace Violence and Abuse Research Team of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research and the Women’s Equality Branch, at the Fredericton Public Library on Sept. 8. “All workers deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Respectful and positive behaviour in the workplace contributes to individual, organizational and societal well-being and prevents unnecessary suffering,” said Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Donald Arseneault in a press statement. “It is the employer’s responsibility to prevent and eliminate harassment.” Arseneault added that his government was committed to ensuring healthy workplaces that value all employees.

Pilot associations, unions demand stronger regulations on fatigue

Transport Canada (TC) has proposed updates to its fatigue-management regulations for flight crews, but stakeholder unions are saying that the changes are not enough – that they do not comply with established science on pilot fatigue.

Safer Skies, a coalition that includes the Air Canada Pilots Association (ACPA), Unifor, Teamsters Canada and other groups, ran an online petition to Transport Minister Marc Garneau from April to August. Sponsored by John Brassard, the Conservative MP for Barrie-Innisfil, Ont., the petition demanded the following:

  • the same protective fatigue limits for pilots of all sizes of aircraft;
  • a limitation of ten hours, or 8.5 hours of flight time, on pilot duty periods that begin after 5 p.m.; and
  • reliance of fatigue-risk management systems on science-based prescriptive limits.

The petition had collected 9,104 signatures nationwide at the time of its close on Aug. 26.

The ACPA did not respond to COHSN’s request for comment, but an Aug. 22 media release quoted CEO Milt Isaacs as saying that Canada’s aviation regulations were “out of step” with what scientific research recommends.

“Canada has an opportunity to ensure safer skies – but risks squandering it by disregarding sleep science and international standards,” said Isaacs. “Canadian pilots are asking for help – on behalf of their passengers and crew – to ensure that Canada is a leader and not a laggard in aviation-fatigue science.”

Captain Dan Adamus, the president of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l Canada, said in a press statement that Canadian pilots get less time to recover from long hours of flight time than pilots have in any other country.

“Even the updated regulations do not go far enough,” said Captain Adamus.

In an e-mailed response, TC media-relations representative Pierre Manoni told COHSN that the regulation amendments, first proposed in July, include the following: prohibition of flight-crew members from working within 12 hours of drinking alcohol, an increase from eight hours; new, science-based rules on fatigue management regarding flight-time and work-hour limitations; flight-duty period limitations based on time of day, rest duration and time off; and requirements for a fatigue risk-management system.

“The new rules aim to reduce flight-crew member fatigue and align with today’s scientific data, international standards and best practices,” wrote Manoni. “[TC] is always looking for ways to increase aviation safety and harmonize its regulations with other countries.”

He added that the regulation changes were based on three years of consultations with stakeholders, including industry associations and labour organizations. “Unions and the National Airlines Council of Canada were generally supportive,” said Manoni.

But the ACPA release maintained that Canada needs to make further changes urgently, before a tragedy occurs. The association cited the Colgan Air accident in Buffalo in 2009, after which the United States Federal Aviation Administration revised its regulations; as a result, pilot augmentation is now mandatory after eight hours of flight time for departures after 8 p.m. in the U.S.

“Unlike a tired driver, a pilot can’t pull over to the side of the road,” the release stated. “NASA research recommends a maximum flight time at night of 8.5 hours, as alertness, response time and cognitive performance is degraded.

“Fatigue is especially prevalent on long-haul overnight flights, but it can be mitigated with… adequate rest, sufficient recovery time after crossing time zones and ensuring additional pilots are on board to take over the controls.”

Manoni said that once the proposed changes go into effect, airline operators will have a year to comply with them, while air-taxi and commuter operators will have four years.

“Transport Canada recognizes that fatigue management is a complex issue,” he wrote. “Canadians and industry members are encouraged to provide feedback on the draft regulations.”

Government releases guide to supporting trans employees

FEDERAL – A new online guide from Public Services and Procurement Canada provides an outline for employers on how to support trans workers. The guide, Support for Trans Employees: A Guide for Employees and Managers, was developed in consultation with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and other unions and groups, according to a news release that the Alliance sent out on Aug. 25. The document, the first of its kind published by the federal government, consists of best practices for helping workers who have transitioned to another gender or are in the process of transition. Its other objectives are to define norms of appropriate conduct and offer resources, according to the PSAC. “It’s a very important document to help change the overall workplace culture,” Kate Hart, a trans activist and PSAC member who helped develop the guide, said in a press statement. Lori Walton, another trans PSAC representative involved with the guide, said she was “proud to have been part of this process” and hoped that it would “ultimately… lay the groundwork for all public-service workers.” Support for Trans Employees is accessible online at http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/apropos-about/guide-et-te-eng.html.

Worker injury caused by contracting of jobs, says TTC union

The main union for Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) workers is blaming the employer’s practice of contracting out safety-sensitive jobs for a recent incident in which an employee was hit by a bus.

According to an Aug. 24 news release from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 (ATU 113), the worker was seriously injured at the Wilson Bus Garage in north Toronto on Aug. 16. The driver of the bus, a contract employee, was exceeding the garage’s speed limit of seven kilometres per hour at the time, as confirmed by video footage and a GPS system.

“The TTC routinely hires unqualified contract workers in the maintenance department,” the release stated. “These workers receive less training and often operate transit buses without a valid bus driver’s license. The lack of training and qualifications has jeopardized our safety.”

The release was accompanied by two photos of the victim, who sported a black eye, bruises, scrapes and a heavily bandaged right hand. Local media reports have identified the worker as Neil Cooper, a TTC bus driver for the past 30 years.

A press statement from the TTC denied that its contract workers are insufficiently trained, saying that service line cleaners require valid Class A, B or C licences, as do bus drivers.

“This was an unfortunate incident that resulted in injuries to the operator,” the TTC said. “Safety is the cornerstone of all TTC operations, and we take incidents like this seriously.

“We continue to review this particular incident with the Ministry of Labour and our contractor.”

ATU 113 claimed that the TTC had failed to notify the union about the accident, saying that union representatives had found out about it only after receiving messages from the victim himself, several hours after the incident. The union called the employer’s lack of notification a breach of “agreed-upon health and safety procedures.”

The TTC also neglected to test the contract worker for alcohol and drugs after the accident, according to the union, which criticized the employer for subjecting non-contract employees to random testing while exempting contract employees, even those in safety-sensitive positions. “The TTC has created a two-tier system that punishes our members,” the release read, accusing the Commission of practising a double standard.

The release cited a previous incident from 2014, when a contract worker crashed a bus at the same garage and damaged two other vehicles. In this case, the union claimed, the worker was not licenced to operate any kind of vehicle, let alone a bus.

“To save a few bucks, the TTC seems happy to lower its safety standards by having unqualified contractors operating buses for maintenance,” ATU 113 secretary-treasurer Kevin Morton said in a separate press release on Aug. 24.

“How many more injuries and incidents will it take before the TTC realizes that contracting out safety critical positions poses unnecessary risk to all workers?”

Staff shortage could risk RCMP officer safety, says police federation

A shortage of RCMP personnel across the country could create both long-term and short-term safety risks for members, according to the national federation for RCMP officers.

An Aug. 14 story on the CTV News website cited the RCMP’s own statistics on its vacancy rates for this year and 2018. More than 12 per cent of officer positions are unfilled across Canada – a figure that jumps up to nearly 17 per cent for the Ottawa region and almost 14 per cent for the national division. About 5.5 per cent of members are on either sick leave or parental leave.

Brian Sauvé, the interim executive co-chair of the National Police Federation (NPF) and an RCMP sergeant currently on leave, told COHSN that the force has been short of personnel for years. As far back as 2012, the RCMP concluded that it was 5,000 members short, he said.

“If you’re in, for example, Burnaby, B.C., where a general-duty or a patrol unit has 20 police officers on it,” said Sauvé, “if you lose one or two to sickness or a broken bone or an injury or even a family-related leave, such as maternity or paternity, that’s not such a big deal. You can probably make that up from the other 200 or 300 that are in that detachment.”

But in a rural area, the percentage of lost human resources in the same situation is greater. “The workload is no different between Burnaby and smaller spots,” he said. “You end up with higher percentages of vacancies, which puts the added stress on those who are showing up to work and still healthy, to make up the shortfall.” As a result, these officers are more likely to experience exhaustion, operational stress injuries and reduced resilience to trauma.

“You’ll see higher incidences of police-officer suicides; you’ll see higher incidences of divorce, alcoholism,” said Sauvé, “because the resilience has been killed by overworking.”

In the prairies and New Brunswick, he added, it is not unusual for one officer to cover a patrol diameter of several hundred kilometres. “There’s the danger to the employee, the member, of going somewhere alone and not having backup for an hour or an hour and a half.” And fatigue is another considerable issue in these cases. “Is that police officer well-rested enough, and in the right mind, to make the proper decisions responding to and at that particular call?”

The RCMP headquarters in Ottawa did not respond to COHSN’s request for comment before press time.

Sauvé suggested more aggressive recruiting strategies and reduction of individual officers’ duties as ways to deal with the staffing issues. “The biggest one I think I hear from the membership is, perhaps we should scale back a little bit on what we, as a force, agree to do,” he explained. “Instead of being everything to everybody, maybe we should be a little less willing to take on all of the broad mandate that we have, and that’s temporarily.”

In addition, the RCMP could try to persuade retiring members to go back on the job on an as-needed basis and even to recruit internationally. “Vancouver, for example, tries to attract a lot of the U.K. police officers into their ranks.”

Sauvé cited a 2010 position paper by six senators, Toward a Red Serge Revival, which recommended that the federal government provide funding to hire 5,000 more members over the following decade, to fill persistent and widespread vacancies.

“We recommend that the RCMP expand recruitment, increase personnel in the smaller detachments and generally develop initiatives to allow officers adequate downtime and a more balanced life, in order to enhance their performance on the frontlines,” the paper read.

“There’s no overnight fix,” said Sauvé.

Nurse stabbing nets $75,000 fine for healthcare group; unions not satisfied

A patient’s violent attack on a nurse in Brockville, Ont. in 2014 has resulted in a $75,000 fine for the organization that runs the facility where the incident occurred – but two unions that represent the province’s healthcare workers feel that the verdict is not harsh enough.

On Oct. 10, 2014 at the Brockville Mental Health Centre (BMHC), registered nurse Debbie Vallentgoed escorted Marlene Carter, a female patient with a violent background, to the washroom, where Carter apparently concealed a pen on her person. After exiting the washroom, she stabbed Vallentgoed in the neck and head repeatedly with the pen (COHSN, June 7, 2016). The nurse required emergency treatment.

According to a court bulletin from the Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL), Carter had already assaulted other nurses at the BMHC since being transferred to the unit in Aug. 2014. A trial at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brockville later deemed that the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, which runs the hospital, had failed to reassess the risk of workplace violence following Carter’s previous attacks.

On Aug. 16 of this year, Brockville judge Richard T. Knott sentenced Royal Ottawa to pay the fine, plus a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge, after finding the employer guilty of violating Section 32.0.3(4) of the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Earlier this year, Justice Knott had acquitted Royal Ottawa on four other occupational health and safety charges related to the same incident (COHSN, May 2).

In an Aug. 17 media release, the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) charged that the province’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care needed to start investing in higher staffing levels, training healthcare managers on their safety obligations and sending a message that healthcare employers will be held responsible for their workers’ safety.

“While the $75,000 fine is substantial, it will not change this employer’s behaviour,” ONA Region 2 vice president Cathryn Hoy said in a press statement about the sentence. “Let’s stop wasting taxpayers’ money in legal fees and fines where employers such as this one fail in their duties.”

She added that Justice Knott deserved credit for issuing a tougher sentence than usual for such incidents, but that his written court decision implied that nurses were responsible for their own safety.

“Despite specifying that the risk of violence in the unit… ‘is as high [as] or higher than almost anywhere imaginable for nurses,’ the judge cited ‘employee responsibilities to use reasonable precautions… and be vigilant for the potential for violence,’” Hoy said.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) also criticized the MOL’s verdict in an Aug. 18 press release, dismissing the fine as a mere “slap on the wrist.”

“The employer has been fined, but they’re still putting people’s lives at risk,” said OPSEU president Warren “Smokey” Thomas in a statement. “Workers in mental-health facilities deal with complex, high-risk patients, and they need support to provide care and treatment in a safe environment.

“The province must take action before more frontline staff are attacked, stabbed or, worse yet, killed.”

In Ontario, healthcare workers are 68 times more likely to be injured by violent attacks than miners and construction workers are, according to information from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.

Campaign urges open safety discussion with young workers

SAINT JOHN, N.B. – A new campaign by WorkSafeNB, New Brunswick’s workers’ compensation board, is encouraging the province’s employers and workers to discuss safety issues openly with young workers. The campaign, Let’s Talk Safety, aims to make occupational safety a normal part of everyday conversation so that young workers do not feel shy or uncomfortable about raising issues and concerns, according to an Aug. 10 press release from the organization. The release noted that around 1,000 workers between the ages of 15 and 24 are either injured or killed on the job in New Brunswick each year. “By encouraging this daily discussion, we build a culture where young workers feel comfortable asking questions and sharing safety concerns,” Tim Petersen, WorkSafeNB’s acting president and CEO, said in a press statement. “These young workers may need that extra question or instruction to fully understand how to perform job tasks safely.” WorkSafeNB offers resources on its website to help, such as a toolkit for employers with young workers and a script for a safety talk with employees before the summer season.

CP rail collision resulted from missed stop signal, says TSB

A new investigation report from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has concluded that a missed signal led to a collision between two Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) trains, injuring a conductor, nearly a year ago.

The accident occurred at 5:16 a.m. last Aug. 21 in north Toronto, according to the report, which was published on Aug 1. An eastbound CP freight train consisting of two locomotives and 24 loaded cars was travelling through the North Toronto Subdivision at that time and was crossing over from the north track to the south track; meanwhile, a westbound train with two locomotives was moving along the north track and hit the tail end of the eastbound train at the crossover.

Aside from the westbound conductor’s injury, the collision resulted in damage to four cars on the eastbound train, a spill of about 2,500 litres of diesel fuel from the fuel tank of the westbound train’s lead locomotive and several small fires.

The subsequent TSB investigation found that the westbound train had passed a signal that required the crew to stop before the next signal, but had failed to slow down. Because the westbound crew was distracted by train operation, reviewing a timetable and looking for a reported trespasser, the train could not stop in time before the crossover.

“Although both crew members carried a sleep debt and the [westbound] train was being operated during a period of low circadian rhythm, it could not be determined whether fatigue affected the crew members’ performance relating to signal recognition,” the report read.

The TSB noted that the lack of locomotive voice and video recorders on the westbound train had made it difficult for investigators to determine how the crew had interacted with each other at the time of the accident. “Without audio or visual recordings,” wrote the TSB, “it could not be determined with certainty whether the dynamics and interaction between the crew members, including potential distractions, contributed to the crew’s signal-recognition errors.

“If locomotive in-cab voice and video recorders are not installed on lead locomotives, there is a risk that valuable information that can lead to the identification and elimination of safety deficiencies will continue to be unavailable.”

The report also concluded that train-control systems must rely on physical defences as well as administrative defences to operate trains safely; otherwise, “signal-recognition errors may not be adequately mitigated, increasing the risk of train collisions and derailments.”

Re-familiarization with their designated territories is also necessary for employees who return to work after long absences, the TSB added.

Nurses’ union urges members to report violence, harassment

EDMONTON, Alta. – The United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) is encouraging its members to report all workplace abuse, violence or harassment via a toll-free hotline. A news release that the union sent out on July 31 plugged the number of the main UNA headquarters in Edmonton, (800) 252-9394, while encouraging nurses in the province to “take a stand against abuse, violence and harassment” on the job. “If you encounter any of these in your workplace, get help, take a stand and talk to us,” the release read. Founded in 1977, UNA currently represents more than 30,000 Registered Nurses, Registered Psychiatric Nurses and allied workers in the province, according to information from the union website.

Kindergarten teacher’s refusal to work justified, says labour board

A recent decision by the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) ruled in favour of a Toronto kindergarten teacher’s refusal to work in Jan. 2015, because of a student with a history of violent behaviour.

OLRB alternate chair Brian McLean stated that the second of the teacher’s two work refusals was justified, but dismissed the teacher’s appeal regarding the first refusal, according to McLean’s written decision, dated June 12 of this year.

“I am satisfied, based on the evidence, that the teacher had a genuine and honest concern about her safety,” wrote McLean. “The student had injured the teacher in a way that required her to go to the hospital. He had also injured other faculty and students. Regardless of his age and size, the student was a safety risk.”

The teacher, who was not named in the document, had already learned about the child’s tendency towards violence during the 2013-14 school year, before the student was enrolled in her senior kindergarten class, McLean wrote. In July 2014, after the teacher expressed her concerns about the student to the school principal, it was arranged that the student would be accompanied by a full-time education assistant (EA) in class.

But the student continued to behave violently towards other students and staff, including one incident in which he scratched the teacher’s face, including her eye, sending her to the hospital, according to the OLRB decision.

On Jan. 16, 2015, the EA was not present at the start of the class, and the student began acting out, first by striking another student. Later, after the EA’s arrival, the teacher took the rest of the students out of the classroom prematurely for music class in the library. “The teacher looked through the window in the door and saw the student kicking and hitting the EA,” wrote McLean. “The student threw things at the window and kicked and swore.”

The teacher advised the principal that she was exercising her right to refuse unsafe work. The principal and superintendent then decided to remove the student from her class for the day. But the teacher assumed that he was out of the class permanently and was surprised to see the student back in the classroom on the following Monday morning, Jan. 19.

“The teacher [told the principal] that she did not feel safe, since she was concerned about a violent outburst,” said McLean. “She felt unsafe because the student was unpredictable.”

In his decision, McLean stated that the Jan. 16 refusal was not justified because the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act does not permit a teacher’s work refusal when the life, health or safety of a student is at risk. “It would have been easy for the student to hurt himself, given the way he was acting, in any number of ways, such as slipping and hitting his head on a desk or on the floor,” he wrote.

But McLean approved of the second work refusal on Jan. 19, as the teacher “had a genuine and reasonable fear that the student would engage in violence… and the employer had done nothing new to assist in dealing with the situation.”

He added that “it is unclear what more the employer could have done to protect the teacher” in the situation.