Category Archives: productivity

Compliance & Enforcement, Health & Safety, productivity, Transportation

Pilot association warns of “impending disaster” following survey

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The Canadian Federal Pilots Association (CFPA) is sounding an alarm that Transport Canada (TC) budget cuts may lead to a major aviation accident in the near future.

The warning comes after the March release of a report by Abacus Data. The report, which revealed the results of a survey of 243 aviation inspectors from March 14 to 22, stated that 81 per cent of respondents believed that a “major aviation accident” was likely due to the current state of Canadian aviation safety. The same percentage felt that TC’s Safety Management Systems (SMS) – in which airlines manage their own safety, with little oversight from outside – prevented inspectors from fixing safety problems, while 85 per cent said that they had little or no faith in SMS.

In an April 3 press conference in Ottawa, CFPA national chair Greg McConnell told reporters that TC’s aviation budget had decreased by 60 per cent since 2008. Due to cuts, many working aviation inspectors have not flown aircraft in more than a year and do not even have valid licences, a situation that “is like having a traffic cop who doesn’t know how to drive a car,” he said.

“There’s been a very slow migration away from traditional regulatory-type oversight, where we’ve moved to an SMS system being the only system,” McConnell told COHSN. “Inspectors end up reviewing reports that the airlines themselves create and then submit to Transport Canada.” Lack of mandatory training for inspectors and oversight has heightened safety risks for both employees and the public, he said.

McConnell added that the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has issued more than 50 safety recommendations to TC to which the latter has not yet responded. “And some of these are ten to 20 years old,” he said.

In an e-mailed response, TC media spokesperson Sara Johnston said that safety is the federal transport ministry’s top priority.

“Canada has one of the safest aviation systems in the world,” said Johnston. “Transport Canada has a robust, risk-based oversight program that allows the department to prioritize its resources strategically to areas that provide the greatest safety benefit.”

Johnston added that SMS is intended to help transportation companies identify safety risks before they become bigger problems. “SMS does not replace all the other safety regulations. Nor does it not replace regular inspection activities undertaken to ensure regulatory compliance. Operators must still comply with all regulations and standards, and SMS adds an extra layer of protection.”

McConnell countered that while SMS works well in theory, it cannot guarantee a strict safety culture. “I believe in SMS myself; I think it can be a very, very good thing,” he said. “But you need to have regulatory oversight underneath, which entices or encourages air operators to do all the things the SMS is supposed to have done.”

The best answer, said McConnell, is simply to bring back the old level of oversight. “Return to doing audits and inspections,” he suggested.

The Abacus report also pointed out that only 55 per cent of surveyed pilot inspectors had completed all mandatory training to oversee and ensure compliance with safety requirements. About 70 per cent said that they had not been sufficiently trained for assigned tasks at least some of the time.

“I suspect that eventually, that might turn into Canada Labour Code-type complaints where people start to refuse to do the work, because it’s dangerous,” said McConnell. “If you’re not properly trained, you can’t do the work.”

Johnston said that Canadian pilots still have to comply with several training and licencing requirements.

“The exemption from in-aircraft training provides an alternative means of compliance in a way that maintains a high standard of aviation safety,” she said. “This practice conforms to international requirements and those of our partners.”

Health & Safety, Health and Wellness, Human Resources, Legislation, productivity, Young Workers

Precarious work affects mental and physical health: OFL survey

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A recent survey by the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) has found that insecure work – such as part-time, temporary or contract jobs – often has a negative effect on a person’s health, both mental and physical.

The survey asked 4,771 Ontario workers from July to October about their experiences with precarious employment, according to a March 20 media release from the OFL. Nearly one-third of respondents claimed that precarious work had caused some form of mental or physical health issues in the 15-minute survey, which was conducted both online and in person.

“People are actually working more than one precarious job to make ends meet,” said OFL secretary-treasurer Patty Coates. “So their workday isn’t the normal nine-to-five workday. They may start at seven in the morning, or they’re working until ten o’clock at night, because they’re working several jobs.” People in insecure work often have no access to paid vacation or sick days, she added.

“So it affects their emotional well-being, their physical health because they’re not taking care of themselves,” said Coates.

Stress and anxiety are a common result of unstable employment, and young people and women are the most likely to suffer from mental-health distress due to precarious work. It can have a negative effect on family life as well.

“A lot of our young workers are putting off their life,” said Coates, “because they’re not in a stable job. So they’re putting off having relationships, building relationships, putting off getting married. They’re putting off having children. Of course, they can’t even afford to purchase a home. So they’re putting off those life milestones because of the precarious work.”

The OFL initiated the survey to raise awareness of the fact that precarious work is a lot more common today than many people realize, as well as to understand what kind of effect that work has on individuals.

Another reason for the survey, according to Coates, is that the Government of Ontario is embarking on a review of the province’s Employment Standards Act and Labour Relations Act “because they are recognizing that there are changes taking place in our workplaces,” she explained. “There is more precarious work. There’s more part-time work, there’s more casual work, there’s more contract work. And less permanent jobs.” So the OFL is lobbying for changes to these laws “to make sure that workers don’t face the overwhelming stress of long-term precarious employment.

“When you have part-time precarious employment, those workers aren’t as productive because they don’t have the opportunity for benefits such as paid sick leave or vacation.”

Of the survey respondents, more than 25 per cent were precariously employed at the time, including 45 per cent of respondents between 18 and 34 years old. Out of those, more than two-fifths said that full-time work and stable income were concerns regarding their economic situations.

Nearly 90 per cent of all respondents stated that they had children, relatives or friends who were precariously employed, and more than 80 per cent recognized that precarious work is more common now than it was five or ten years ago.

All of the demographics surveyed cited wages, pay equity and benefits as their top priorities.

Health & Safety, productivity, Transportation

New camera may take risk out of grapple yarding

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CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C. – Two British Columbia companies have collaborated to develop a special camera to improve both the efficiency and the safety of grapple yarding, a forestry operation in which a worker uses a “grapple yarder” – a type of cab with an angled boom – to remove felled timber from steep slopes, often as far as 150 metres away. A March 21 press release from TimberWest Forest Corporation announced that it and T-MAR Industries had created a grapple camera that allows an operator to view timber areas on a video screen. The camera is also expected to make the job safer for hook tenders, workers who communicate with the cab operators by radio from the log areas to guide the operations. TimberWest cited a Jan. 2015 incident in which one of its grapple yarders had hit a hook tender with a log, causing serious injury. “Today, all of the grapple yarders operating on TimberWest land must have a grapple camera,” the release added. “T-MAR is now commercializing the camera and selling it globally.” Fall River Logging, a contractor for TimberWest, has been using the camera since Nov. 2015, according to information from TimberWest’s website.

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

Staff conflicts hamper productivity: survey

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TORONTO, Ont. — Chief financial officers (CFO) in Canada spend as much as half a day per week resolving staff conflicts, a recent survey reveals. The survey, which was developed by staffing firm Accountemps and conducted by an independent research firm, fielded responses from more than 270 CFOs from a stratified random sample of companies across Canada. According to the survey, one-fifth of executives are sidetracked from their work by spending, on average, 10 to 14 per cent of their time or approximately four hours a week managing staff conflicts, and 14 per cent devote 15 to 24 per cent of their time on such resolutions. “Conflicts and differences of opinion in the office are bound to happen, especially when employees are passionate about their work,” said Dianne Hunnam-Jones, Canadian president of Accountemps. “However, these issues shouldn’t take managers away from high-priority business concerns or prevent them from doing their jobs effectively.” Some of the ways to foster a more harmonious workplace include encouraging workers to approach colleagues’ opinions with respect and communicating disagreements as they arise, so that solutions can be found before the issue escalates or impedes productivity, Hunnam-Jones advised. Other avenues to handle work conflicts with grace include showing empathy, handling work-related disagreements promptly, bringing in a third party like a human-resources manager to mediate if no resolution is in sight and letting the matter rest by not holding a grudge.

Health & Safety, Health and Wellness, productivity, Transportation

Time change disrupts sleep patterns

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While spring may be one step closer, the daily grind could feel even more trying for many employees who lost an hour of sleep as Daylight Saving Time (DST) kicked in on March 12. And sleep experts are highlighting the effects of disrupted sleep patterns and what it could mean for those who work in safety-sensitive positions.

“Springing ahead can cause all sorts of problems for people, including loss of sleep or accumulation of sleep debt and adjustment in the circadian clock, making it harder to fall asleep at night,” Dr. Charles Samuels, the medical director of Calgary’s Centre for Sleep and Human Performance, said in a statement from the Centre dated March 7. He suggested that people should make sure to get enough sleep on the weekend and go to bed later for a few nights after the weekend to minimize sleep disruptions related to the time change.

Dr. Samuels is an expert on the effect of sleep deprivation and disruption on human health and human performance.  He is also the lead investigator in a long-term study with the Calgary Police Service to explore the impact of rotating shift work on health and performance of police officers. The project is part of a North American collaboration including Harvard University, New York State University in Buffalo and Washington State University.

As modern society pushes the limits of human capacity to cope with the demands of a 24/7 society, physicians are seeing the emergence of new epidemics that can be linked to a lack of quality sleep. Chronic sleep deprivation can contribute to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and other medical conditions, the statement from the Centre noted.

For those whose jobs require them to be constantly on the road, FedEx Express Canada and Parachute, a national charitable organization tasked to prevent injuries, are reminding drivers and pedestrians to exercise extra vigilance on the road, as driver fatigue is a factor in roughly 20 per cent of all fatal crashes in Canada, according to 2010 statistics from the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators in Ottawa. Many collisions occur between 3 and 6 p.m., when drivers are coming home from work.

“As a global express transportation company, FedEx Express puts safety above all, both in the workplace and on the road,” said Pina Starnino, vice president of operations at FedEx Express Canada. “For us, safety is more than just an essential work practice — it is a commitment to our neighbours in the communities we serve.”

And for almost half of Quebeckers, it could take anywhere from one day to a week to adjust to the time change, according to a survey out of Montreal published on March 6. According to an online poll conducted for Bon Matin bread by Léger from Feb. 6 to 10, DST has a negative effect on the behaviour and mindset of Quebec’s population. Poll results indicate that one-third of Quebeckers experience difficulty waking up, one-fifth report a lack of energy and 13 per cent indicate irritability when the clock turns forward.

Health & Safety, Human Resources, productivity, Transportation

British Columbia gears up for ride-sharing service

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The British Columbia government is introducing a series of improvements to make the taxi industry more competitive as ride-sharing services are allowed to operate in the province by the year’s end.

“British Columbians have told us that they want ride-sharing services, and we are moving forward to make it happen,” Todd Stone, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, said in a statement on March 7.

Peter Fassbender, Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development and Minister Responsible for TransLink, said that conversations with taxi companies and drivers over the past year have indicated a need to ensure fairness so that they can compete effectively with ride-sharing providers. “This is why we have worked so hard to develop these measures,” he said, “which reflects what I heard through extensive consultations and will allow ride-sharing companies to operate, but also allows the taxi industry to be competitive.”

According to the statement from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, the province will invest up to $1 million to help the taxi industry develop an app with the capability of shared dispatch, so that members of the public can hail and pay for a taxi with a Smartphone in the same way that they would for a ride-sharing service. The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) will invest up to $3.5 million to install crash-avoidance technology in all taxis, streamline the claims process and work with the cab industry to make their insurance more flexible and cost-effective. Depending on the number of kilometres driven, these savings could hover in the range of 25 per cent.

Other changes that the provincial government plans to make include the following: working with municipal governments and the taxi industry to remove red tape and overlap within the system; retain the exclusive rights of taxis to be hired by phone, at a taxi stand or flagged down at the curb; and address the current shortage of cabs to provide more choice, accessibility and opportunity for both consumers and drivers. The province will also work with municipalities and other stakeholders to allow all drivers, including taxi operators, the same access to provide services across municipal boundaries.

The same safety standards will also apply to both taxis and ride-sharing providers. Class 4 licences will be phased out for taxi drivers, and taxi and ride-sharing companies will be responsible for maintaining records to prove that all drivers have an unrestricted driver’s licence, are at least 19 years old and have passed criminal-record and safe-driving record checks and to ensure that vehicles have passed regular mechanical inspections.

Starting in the summer, the provincial government will seek additional input from taxi drivers, ride-sharing and taxi industries, police, airports, municipalities, ICBC and RoadSafetyBC.

Health & Safety, Human Resources, Legislation, productivity, Young Workers

Recommendations on farm employment standards released

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A working group tasked to review employment and labour standards for Alberta’s agriculture sector has recommended that farm workers should not get overtime pay. Family members who work on farms should also be exempted from all employment and labour standards, as the application of standards would be “impractical and unfeasible, as well as burdensome without providing any benefit.”

On the recommendation relating to overtime provisions, the report noted that most jurisdictions in Canada exempt the agriculture sector from overtime. As work hours in the farming sector are unpredictable due to the nature of work, an overtime rate would lower the base pay rate and present “complications” in calculating pay.

The report by the Employment Standards Technical Working Group was posted on the website of the Alberta government on March 6. Members of the public will have until April 3 to provide feedback on the recommendations made by six technical working groups, which started reviewing employment and labour standards for the province’s agricultural sector last May.

Alberta’s minister of labour Christina Gray said in a statement that she was pleased to share the working group’s first set of recommendations. “We would seek feedback as we go through the process,” she said, “and I encourage Albertans to look at the recommendations and provide their honest and rank responses.”

Oneil Carlier, the minister of Agriculture and Forestry, called the recommendations “an excellent starting point” to ensure that waged non-family farm workers enjoy the same rights and protections as other workers, while preserving rural Alberta’s way of life.

Other recommendations included the following:

  • The type of work assigned to farm workers under the age of 16 must not be detrimental to their health, education or welfare, and parental consent must be obtained by employers;
  • Work hours for waged, non-family farm workers aged 12 and 13 should not exceed 20 hours of work per week;
  • Waged, non-family employees should have four days off every 28 days; and
  • Minimum wage should apply to waged, non-family farm and ranch employees, except those who work in primary production like greenhouses, nurseries, sod farms and mushroom farms.

The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) responded to the release of the working group’s report by urging the provincial government to implement strong basic rights protections and regulations for all farm and ranch workers.

“We are calling on the government to show continued leadership in standing up for some of Alberta’s most vulnerable workers by enacting employment standards that stand up for Alberta’s farm and ranch workers,” AFL president Gil McGowan said from Edmonton. “Given that the vast majority of agricultural workers in Alberta are not unionized, whatever regulations are put in place for the Employment Standards Code will serve as the basic floor of minimum rights for most Albertans working in the agriculture sector.”

McGowan also raised concerns on three recommendations: expanding paid, non-family youth employees in the industry for 12- and 13-year-olds; adding new exemptions for primary production like greenhouses; and exempting employment standards for family members who work on farms.

“When you allow kids that young to work for pay, it is a suggestion that they should be able to do potentially dangerous jobs such as operating heavy machinery,” McGowan suggested. “Our concerns about this are primarily about safety — we have to keep our kids safe.”

The provincial government said it would start drafting legislative amendments based on the recommendations and public feedback received.

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

Study examines connections between organizational change and employee health

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Do significant changes in a workplace have an effect on the mental and physical health of employees? This was the question posed by a new study by Toronto-based human-resources consulting firm Morneau Shepell.

The organization announced in a press release, dated Jan. 24, that it had conducted a nationwide survey of employers and workers, asking them about their reactions to major organizational changes like job redesign, downsizing, restructuring or mergers. According to the researchers, about 40 per cent of employee respondents said that organizational changes had affected their health and well-being in a negative way. Thirty per cent of workers claimed that change had negatively affected their job performance, while 43 per cent said that it had affected their perceptions of their employers in a negative way.

Only slightly more than one-quarter of employees said that organizational change had improved their health, performance and perceptions of their companies, said Paula Allen, Morneau Shepell’s vice president of research and integrative solutions.

“We thought it was important that we actually look at this,” Allen told COHSN, regarding how change affects workers. “The numbers were a little bit higher than we thought, in terms of how many negatively impacted employees.”

This was the third straight year that the company had conducted a survey like this, Allen added. “People are talking about workplace mental health, and there’s expert commentary and different things of that sort,” she explained, “but we think it’s most important to hear directly from the people who are most impacted.” Organizational change became the focus this year because it is so common today: “Looking at business just generally speaking, it seems like no one can really escape. Organizations change, due to technology, new business models, organization.”

The study also analyzed the differences in effect with varying types of workplace change. For example, job redesign had the strongest effect on respondents’ physical and mental health, while major organizational shifts like mergers had smaller effects.

“The closer it is to the person to what they do every day, the higher the impact of a change,” said Allen. “Organizations put a lot of effort into communication and planning and preparation for something like a merger, and might put a little bit less into something like changing the nature of an individual’s job.”

Organizational change was not the only area that the survey covered. Among other findings: workers 30 years old and younger were more than twice as likely to take sick leave over mental-health concerns than were those older; 61 per cent of employees said that their co-workers had a positive effect on their mental health; and 75 per cent of all respondents cited work culture as the most important issue regarding workplace mental health.

Allen’s advice to employers was to instill a positive problem-solving culture in the work environment, to help workers adapt to change more effectively. “People who had a positive impact as a result of organizational change had workplaces that had that kind of positive problem-solving culture,” she said.

“It’s really important to consider how adaptive the workplace is and workforces are,” added Allen, citing good communication, availability of resources and managers who know how to support employees as ways to help workers ease into change.

“So we hope there’s an awakening for employers.”

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

Railway union requests reports from fatigued workers online

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NATIONAL – The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, the union representing railroad workers with the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific (CP) railways, is asking employees who suffer from job fatigue to come forward with their stories. The union has launched a new website, RailFatigue.ca, on which workers can submit reports of their experiences. Teamsters has accused CP of preventing its employees from getting enough rest with unpredictable shift schedules and of discouraging them from booking time off due to unfitness (COHSN, Oct. 18). “You go to sleep, you get up and then you are not going to work for another 10 hours, and by then, you get tired,” said an anonymous former CP employee in British Columbia, as quoted on the website. “You are ready to go to sleep, but you have got to go to work.” The site calls the industry’s fatigue problem “a dangerous trend that needs to change” and encourages workers who have “been intimidated into reporting to work fatigued” to document their stories for the union.

Compliance & Enforcement, Health & Safety, Health and Wellness, productivity, Young Workers

New campaign wants call centres to adopt policies on worker abuse

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Anybody who has worked in a call centre knows that employees often put up with nasty verbal abuse from annoyed or angry people. Some workers have reported racist or sexist comments and even death threats, according to the United Steelworkers’ (USW) Canadian branch. But many call centres prohibit their employees from simply hanging up on abusive customers, the union has claimed.

Now, the USW – which represents about 10,000 call-centre employees across the country – has launched a campaign to let these workers hang up. Called Hang Up on Abuse, the campaign is urging call centres nationwide to adopt policies that allow workers to hang up when a customer becomes abusive. A new website, HangUpOnAbuse.ca, encourages call-centre employees to share their stories publicly and to sign a petition to demand that their employers allow them to pass on abusive calls without fear of being fired.

“We know that abuse and harassment of call-centre workers is a problem, and it has to stop,” USW national director Ken Neumann said, as quoted in a Dec. 7 news release from the union. “While we can’t persuade everyone to treat call-centre workers respectfully, we can persuade companies to adopt policies that empower workers to end abusive calls.”

Hang Up on Abuse is urging call centres across Canada to do the following:

  • give the right to hang up to their workers;
  • train managers to support employees who undergo abuse;
  • flag clients who have a history of abuse or harassment;
  • have a policy of zero tolerance of abuse;
  • allow all workers the option to report threats to the police; and
  • ensure that employees who report abuse are not disciplined.

Lee Riggs – president of USW National Local 1944, or the Telecommunications Workers Union – called verbal abuse of these workers “dehumanizing,” adding that it remains very stressful for them long after their shifts have ended.

“Some of this abuse is extremely serious,” said Riggs in a press statement. “This can lead to problems at home and to mental and physical pain.”

The release also quoted call-centre employees who have experienced racism and misogyny from clients. Kaoutar Belaaziz, a worker in Montreal, said that she and her colleagues were experiencing abuse and harassment on a daily basis.

“There are callers who tell us to perform sexual acts on them, callers who threaten violence,” said Belaaziz. “People realize they can treat you like this and get away with it. We need to be able to hang up on these calls.”

Michelle Dey, a call-centre employee in Vancouver, said that verbal abuse from customers has an effect that clings to employees for the rest of the workday and even follows them home. “It’s very difficult to just move on to the next call,” she said.

“I had a caller ask me what colour of panties I was wearing. Another one made it clear he was performing lewd acts in a hot tub while he was talking to me,” added Dey.

According to Riggs, these employers have a legal responsibility to create safe working environments. “While some companies say they have zero tolerance of abuse and policies in place to protect workers, we are not convinced that policies are empowering and protecting workers on the frontline,” he said.

“We want all employers to allow call-centre workers to hang up on abusive callers.”

There are currently about 175,000 call-centre workers across the country, according to the USW.