Category Archives: Human Resources

Health & Safety, Health and Wellness, Human Resources, Legislation, Occupational Hygiene

New workplace bill would give Albertans job-protected sick days

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A new bill making its way through the Alberta legislature aims to bring the province’s workplace law up to date with the rest of Canada – including guaranteed, job-protected leave for employees with illness.

Bill 17, or the Fair and Family-Friendly Workplaces Act, was introduced on May 24 and had its second reading on the following day. If passed, the bill would align many types of leave with federal standards, including leaves for maternity, bereavement, domestic violence, citizenship ceremonies and illness, death or disappearance of a child, according to an announcement from the provincial Ministry of Labour (MOL).

The bill would also allow workers to have a maximum of five days of job protection for personal illness or short-term care of an immediate family member per year, as well as 16 weeks of unpaid, protected leave for long-term illness or injury.

“A guarantee of job-protected, unpaid sick days would give workers time to get healthy,” Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray said in a press statement, “and it would keep employers from worrying about ill workers spreading infectious bugs to others because they are afraid to take a sick day off.

“These proposed changes would make life better for workers and employers,” added Gray.

The MOL noted that Alberta’s Employment Standards Code and Labour Relations Code have not been updated in any significant way in almost 30 years.

The bill has received public support from doctors across the province. Edmonton family physician Dr. Doug Klein called the sick-day provisions “an important social support initiative” in a statement.

“There is a small minority of Albertans who fear taking sick leave will cost them their jobs,” said Dr. David Ryan, a family doctor in St. Albert. “These proposed changes would improve the overall health of Albertans and protect our workforce.”

“I’ve seen too many hard-working Albertans juggle work and family responsibilities while battling a chronic illness,” said medical specialist Dr. Raquel Feroe. “This balancing act comes at the detriment of the patient. Long-term job-protected sick leave will help Albertans focus on recovery and battling illness.”

Other legislative amendments proposed in Bill 17 include raising the minimum work age to 13, modernizing standards for overtime and vacation pay, simplifying union certification and decertification and elimination a provision that allows employers to pay less than minimum wage to disabled workers.

Currently, Alberta and British Columbia are the only two Canadian provinces without job-protected sick leave. The territory of Nunavut also lacks this provision.

Compliance & Enforcement, Health & Safety, Human Resources

Business owner fined $18,750 following electrocution death

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MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – An Ontario court has fined business owner Jamal Shihadeh for hiring an unlicensed contractor to do electrical work, an offence that resulted in a worker fatality three-and-a-half years ago. In Oct. 2013, Shihadeh hired Elias Mikhail to conduct work at a career college facility, but did not secure electrical permits for the job, according to a news release from the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA), a safety entity working on behalf of the provincial government. On Oct. 13, Mikhail was working on wires carrying 347 volts of electricity and still connected to a power source; a shock killed him, and Shihadeh found his body the next day. On May 25 of this year, Shihadeh was ordered to pay a fine of $18,750, plus the standard 25 per cent victim surcharge. “This is a tragedy for all concerned. Two people have paid the price – one with his life and the other with this conviction and the knowledge of this incident for the rest of his life,” ESA chief public safety officer Scott Saint said in a press statement. “Business owners and operators must understand legal requirements when hiring people to do electrical work… only licensed electrical contractors can be hired to do so.”

Compliance & Enforcement, Health & Safety, Human Resources

Police arrest thieves who allegedly beat up variety-store employee

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TORONTO, Ont. – A 22-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy were apprehended by the Toronto Police Service (TPS) on May 24, following a shoplifting and beating incident at an Etobicoke variety store on the previous day. According to a TPS news release, two young men entered the store on the 23rd and selected some fireworks. After distracting an employee of the store, they ran out with the merchandise, police said. The worker chased the thieves and caught one, but the suspect began stomping on the worker’s head and beating him to the ground. The employee was sent to the hospital with a number of facial fractures, police said. The next day, the TPS arrested Devonta Groves-Bennett and a 16-year-old whose name cannot be released under the Youth Criminal Justice Act; both are charged with three counts of robbery and assault causing bodily harm. The suspects are also accused of robbing and assaulting another teenage boy on the evening of May 21, police said. They made their first court appearance on May 25.

Health & Safety, Health and Wellness, Human Resources, Workers Compensation

Correctional officers demand recognition of their unique, unsafe work environment

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More than 200 prison employees with the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO) took part in information pickets at 49 federal correctional facilities nationwide on May 16, to call attention to the need for a new collective agreement. Among the union’s demands is for recognition of their “unique” working conditions involving daily physical or verbal abuse.

The union’s last collective agreement expired three years ago, and bargaining meetings with Correctional Service Canada (CSC) since then have not reached an agreement, according to an UCCO press release. For one, the workers want the employer to recognize that correctional officers are extremely susceptible to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the dangers of their occupation.

“We never get the recognition as first responders, which is absolutely terrible, because we’re doing all of the first responders’ jobs inside, every day,” said UCCO president Jason Godin. “So if you look our first responders on the street, the paramedics, the firefighters and the police, we actually have to do all of those jobs behind the walls of the penitentiary.”

For example, he elaborated, officers have to intervene in confrontations or confiscate drugs, but also have to apply first aid when inmates are injured. “Just before Christmas last year, we had a major riot at a Saskatchewan penitentiary, where correctional officers were ordered to put out fires.”

The union is also lobbying for provincial governments to pass presumptive legislation for correctional officers with PTSD – meaning that an officer could collect workers’ compensation without needing to prove that his or her illness was work-related. “In Alberta,” said Godin, “they adopted presumptive legislation for first responders, but they excluded correctional officers. Same as New Brunswick.”

He noted that a recent study of occupational stress injuries in the correctional system stated that 36 per cent of officers suffered from PTSD. The report, which was presented in the House of Commons, made 15 recommendations – “and not one of them got adopted, which is disappointing.”

In an e-mailed response to COHSN, communications advisor Julia Scott stated on behalf of CSC that the employer recognizes the challenges of working in a correctional facility and takes officers’ mental health very seriously.

“CSC staff may be witness to stressful and traumatic events, including death and violence, and, consequently, may be more vulnerable to developing certain mental-health issues, including PTSD,” wrote Scott.

She added that CSC has a number of support programs in place, including Critical Incident Stress Management and a training module called Road to Mental Readiness. The latter was first used by the Department of National Defence (COHSN, Feb. 2, 2016) and has since been adapted by the Mental Health Commission of Canada for first responders.

“We continue to work with staff and union representatives to address the issue of stress and mental health,” said Scott. “Entitlement to benefits for workplace injuries, including post-traumatic stress disorder, is defined and determined by workers’ compensation boards.”

Godin said he felt that federal leaders had failed to live up to their promises in this area. “The Trudeau government campaigned on the importance of mental health in the workplace and certainly campaigned a lot around the first-responder piece,” he said. “It’s disappointing.

“When you campaign on certain things, and then you don’t deliver,” he said, “the focus seems to be more on the inmate than the correctional officers.”

Godin has testified in Parliament about how correctional officers have to act as three kinds of first responders. “It was interesting to see how the MPs reacted,” he said. “They think that all we do is, we’re guards, we just walk around, and I guess we open and close doors, and everything’s hunky-dory.”

UCCO’s next negotiating session is scheduled for May 24 to 26 at Treasury Board Secretariat in Ottawa.

Compliance & Enforcement, Health & Safety, Human Resources

Ontario to implement recommendations on violence in healthcare

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TORONTO, Ont. – The Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL) is moving ahead with a new report’s recommendations on preventing workplace violence in the healthcare industry, according to a May 15 news release. The report, Preventing Workplace Violence in the Health Care Sector, was a collaborative project by the MOL and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care; it offered 23 recommendations on how to make the province’s hospitals safer for employees, reduce violence and reform attitudes about safety in healthcare. Among the actions the Ministry plans to take are the following: increasing supports for patients with a history of violence; initiating an awareness campaign; improving reporting systems for violent incidents; and posting information about fines for healthcare employers. “Progress on workplace violence in healthcare cannot wait – it is an urgent and serious issue,” Labour Minister Kevin Flynn said in a media statement. “By putting forward these recommendations, Ontario is moving towards delivering real, positive change for our healthcare workers.” Eleven per cent of lost-time injury claims from Ontario hospitals result from violence, according to information from the MOL.

Compliance & Enforcement, Health & Safety, Human Resources, productivity, Transportation

City council divided on approach to safety on Winnipeg buses

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Three months after the murder of Winnipeg bus driver Irvine Fraser by a rider, six members of the city council are expressing dismay at how the municipality has responded – particularly in the lack of input from the transit union.

The councillors – Jeff Browaty, Janice Lukes, Ross Eadie, Shawn Dobson, Jason Schreyer and Russ Wyatt – issued a collective press release on May 9, saying they were “shocked” to learn that the Winnipeg Public Service had not consulted with the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1505 on ways to improve passenger and employee safety. A City report on Winnipeg Transit (WT) safety practices is due before the end of May.

“Bus drivers have firsthand knowledge of issues and invaluable perspectives on how to improve safety… Why is the Public Service not reaching out to ATU, like they said they would?” Browaty said in a media statement. “How can any report that comes forward be meaningful, if the bus drivers aren’t even consulted?”

He also accused Mayor Brian Bowman of “not approaching this report with the seriousness it deserves” as assaults against bus drivers continue.

Following Fraser’s death on Feb. 14, councillor Marty Morantz tabled a motion to initiate a review of WT safety procedures (COHSN, Feb. 28). Since then, the six councillors have independently consulted with Local 1505 and offered a list of recommendations based on the members’ suggestions:

  • a formal transit security force that enacts a “Safety First” policy and culture;
  • a zero-tolerance policy for fare evaders and assaults;
  • relieving drivers from the responsibility of enforcing fare collection;
  • establishment of a Transit Community Advisory Board;
  • a public awareness campaign on transit safety; and
  • revision of the Director of Transit’s job description with more focus on new safety protocols.

“End of the day, I think everybody kind of has the same goal,” Local 1505 president John Callahan told COHSN. “There are a lot of areas of concern; it’s not just one thing.”

Callahan agreed with the six councillors that a transit security force and advisory committee were needed, “because right now, we don’t have anything,” he said. “There’s no means of taking the temperature of the ridership, whether they like the service or not. There’s no real way of reporting that. There’s no way of dealing with issues that arise.”

He added that the current practice of drivers being responsible for fare evaders is a major issue. “That’s the number-one reason for assaults, is fare disputes,” he explained. “It’s enough of a job just operating the bus safely, and never mind having to collect fares and make judgement calls all the time. Leave that to fare inspectors, such as other cities have done.” Some cities use proof-of-purchase systems that relieve transit operators of the duty to enforce payment, Callahan said.

The union recently conducted a survey of its bus operators, and around three-quarters of respondents were in favour of installing shields or barriers on buses to protect drivers. Another area of concern is unrealistic scheduling, Callahan noted: “It’s almost impossible for the operators to keep on schedule. So as a result of that, when the bus is late, people are upset, and again, it causes conflict.”

Local 1505 and the six councillors hired a transit consultant from outside of Winnipeg to advise concerned parties on safety, said Callahan. The consultant met with Bowman and the council on May 11 and led a workshop for drivers on the following day.

The six councillors plan to table a notice of motion highlighting their recommendations on transit safety at the May 24 council meeting.

“Ensuring passenger and bus-driver safety must be a top priority for our City,” said Lukes in a statement.

Health & Safety, Human Resources, Legislation

Nurses call for changes in Criminal Code to protect them against workplace violence

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Healthcare workers in Ontario are using Nursing Week, which runs from May 8 to 14, as an opportunity to lobby for support for federal legislative changes that would make violence against nurses a more serious and punishable offence.

On the morning of May 2, two registered practical nurses spoke at the provincial legislature in Toronto to ask the Ontario government to back a proposed amendment to the Criminal Code, according to a news release from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). Sandra Hillcoat, based in Kitchener, and Maggie Jewell from Lindsay shared true stories of healthcare professionals who had been seriously injured, sometimes permanently, following attacks by patients.

“We are asking for recognition for Nursing Week, in the form of a signal from Ontario’s provincial politicians, that the wave of violent assaults against nurses and healthcare staff is unacceptable,” Hillcoat said at the legislature, as quoted in the release.

“Violence against healthcare staff is normalized by our employers as an accepted hazard of our work,” said Jewell at the legislature. “Patients and their families take out their frustration over an increasingly under-resourced and stressed health system on healthcare staff.

“Healthcare workplaces that are unsafe for staff are also unsafe for the public we care for.”

CUPE’s proposed legal change would apply to sections 264 and 266-269 of the Code. Available on a PDF document from the union’s website, the amendment reads that judges who impose sentences for assaults against healthcare professionals should “consider as an aggravating circumstance the fact that the victim of the offence was, at the time of the commission of the offence, a healthcare worker engaged in the performance of his or her duty.”

On May 5, a group of nurses with CUPE Local 1974 held a media conference at the Artillery Park Aquatic Centre in Kingston, requesting that MPP Sophie Kiwala support the proposed amendment.

“We are looking for something meaningful. We want more than accolades and statements read in the Legislature about the dedication, skills and compassion of nurses,” said Kingston nurse Amanda Poisson at the conference. “We want MPPs… to make it a priority to help end the increasing violence healthcare staff are facing on the job.”

Poisson was joined at the conference by Local 1974 president Mike Rodrigues and Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, stated a separate CUPE news release.

About 50 per cent of nurses in Ontario were assaulted in 2014, according to the union.

Health & Safety, Health and Wellness, Human Resources, productivity

SAFE Work Manitoba launches strategy on workplace mental health

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WINNIPEG, Man. – SAFE Work Manitoba (SWM), the province’s public agency devoted to preventing occupational injury and illness, used National Mental Health Awareness Week as an opportunity to promote its new strategy on psychological health in the workplace. The strategy was announced at a press conference in Winnipeg on the morning of May 2, featuring representatives from SWM, the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) and FWS Group, according to a media advisory. The organization’s goal is to help employers apply the National Standard of Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace, by providing helpful tools to prevent psychological injury to workers and include psychological health as part of workplace safety culture. “Physical health has long been the measure of worker safety and health. We now recognize that psychological health and safety in the workplace is also important,” SWM chief operating officer Jamie Hall said in a media statement. “Psychological harm can cause just as much pain, suffering and cost as physical injuries.” About 500,000 people across the country miss work because of psychological issues every week, resulting in a loss of $20 billion per year, according to information from CMHA.

Compliance & Enforcement, Health & Safety, Human Resources

Mental-health facility found not guilty on four out of five oh&s charges

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A Brockville, Ont. judge has acquitted the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group on four out of five occupational health and safety charges, arising out of a patient’s attack on an employee of the Brockville Mental Health Centre (BMHC) two-and-a-half years ago.

The incident occurred on Oct. 10, 2014, when mentally ill resident Marlene Carter stabbed registered nurse Debbie Vallentgoed in the neck and head repeatedly, with a pen that Carter had hidden on her person (COHSN, June 7). Carter already had a history of violent behaviour in the prison system.

On April 25, Justice Richard Knott found Royal Ottawa, which runs the facility, guilty on only one charge – of failing to reassess for the risk of violence at the Brockville site, according to a media release from the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA). The organization was found not guilty on four other charges.

“I think it’s a fair judgement,” said Dr. A.G. Ahmed, Royal Ottawa’s forensic associate chief. “Certainly, we’ve learned a big lesson from this.”

A media statement from the organization said that it was “pleased” with Justice Knott’s decision, particularly his perception that the BMHC had proper safety procedures, policies and training in place at the time of the incident.

“Even before this incident happened, we’ve continued to improve on our policies and procedures,” said Dr. Ahmed, elaborating that Royal Ottawa’s interdisciplinary team holds a “safety huddle” every morning to assess and discuss safety risks. “We’ve developed a dynamic estimate of environmental safety,” he added. “We identify individuals that will respond to the specific needs of those patients or the environment. And finally, we continue to do our risk assessment on each patient.”

Not so content with the court’s decision is ONA, which stated in an April 26 media release that it felt “disgusted” with the trial outcome.

“I was shocked,” Vicki McKenna, ONA’s first vice president, told COHSN. “At this point, I don’t know what it’s going to take for employers to take this seriously in the healthcare setting,” she added, referring to violence against employees. If this sort of incident happened in any other sector, she speculated, the employer would be more upfront in taking accountability for it.

“Here, we have an employer that just doesn’t seem to be taking this seriously and, at the same time, is wasting healthcare dollars fighting through the courts,” said McKenna. “I’m hoping that other employers who are watching will not think, ‘Oh well, see, it doesn’t really matter’ – that they will say, ‘I don’t want our organization to get dragged through the courts like this.’”

While violence is a significant problem in Ontario’s healthcare sector, the BMHC has a higher number of incidents in its history than most facilities do, McKenna noted.

“If they want to save face, I think that they should step up to the plate here and do what they need to do to put the proper risk-assessment process in place.” Understaffing is a chronic issue at the facility, she said, as is a lack of staff security and personal alarms. “They need to do those things and to take every measure possible to make sure that they’ve got a safe environment.”

Dr. Ahmed, who was aware of ONA’s view, said that the organization was constantly evolving in its safety measures.

“I can never say there’s nothing more to do. Any day that a man says that he knows too much, and he doesn’t learn, that day, the person should stop doing whatever they’re doing,” he said. “We want to see the judge’s written decision. We’re going to look at it, and we’re going to take that into consideration in making improvements.

“We’ve improved a great deal.”

Health & Safety, Human Resources

New coalition launches campaign urging safety at Kinder Morgan

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VANCOUVER, B.C. – A recently formed British Columbia organization has launched an online campaign to hold Kinder Morgan to its pledge to value workplace safety over profits while building a safe, environmentally responsible pipeline. The B.C. Coalition for Safety before Profits (BCCSP) was founded in April in response to community concern about Kinder Morgan’s commitment to health and safety and training employees rigorously, according to an April 25 press release from the coalition. “By refusing to partner with the most experienced and highly skilled unionized workers, Kinder Morgan is putting profits before safety,” BCCSP spokesperson Patrick Campbell said in a media statement. “These jobs were promised to the people of B.C., and that should mean something.” Campbell cited the TransMountain Project as an example of a project successfully completed by a unionized workforce in the province. BCCSP is a collaborative project between members of the International Union of Operating Engineers, the Labourer’s International Union of North America, United Association Canada (Canadian Piping Trades) and Teamsters Canada, according to the release.