WINDSOR, Ont. – A decision by provincial arbitrator James Hayes has thrown out a proposal to alter the sick-day system and short-term disability plan for employees of Essex County in southwestern Ontario, including the region’s approximately 300 paramedics. The issue has been a major bargaining factor in the current strike by the Essex County Library Board’s workers, who have been on the picket line since June 25. In a press release dated July 25, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) accused the employer of attempting to force the new plan on the local union members at all costs. “As a result of their blind desire to seek an unnecessary sick-time change, the county pushed library workers out on strike and deprived residents of important library services during the busy summer months,” CUPE Local 2974 president Ian Nash said in a media statement. “We are urging the library board and the county to stop playing games and resume bargaining to end this strike, so libraries can be opened again for our community.” Local 2974.1 unit chair Lori Wightman stated in the release that the current sick-time system had never been an issue with library staff.
Category Archives: productivity
Report slams social-assistance computer system as “health and safety disaster”
Frontline workers in the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works are dealing with a “toxic” workplace full of stress and other health risks, according to a scathing new report on the Social Assistance Management System (SAMS) that has been in effect for the past 20 months.
The 55-page report, When SAMS Met “ad hoc”: Work Organization and Stress at ODSP, was authored by Dr. Wayne Lewchuk, a professor of labour studies and economics at McMaster University in Hamilton. Published online on July 20, Dr. Lewchuk’s study charged that SAMS – a computer system that the provincial government launched on Nov. 1, 2014 – was a deeply flawed system with frequent malfunctions that were causing thousands of social-assistance recipients to miss their payments, resulting in what he called a “health and safety disaster” for ODSP employees.
“Heavy workloads, error-plagued software and the inability to realize a vision of work that had been promised all combined to create a toxic environment,” wrote Dr. Lewchuk in the report. “Workers at ODSP continue to be exposed to elevated levels of workplace stress, job strain and effort-reward imbalance.”
The report also included quotations from anonymous ODSP employees on the effects that SAMS had on their jobs. “I don’t have the constant suicidal thoughts that I did when SAMS was implemented, but I’m still not doing well,” one worker said.
Dr. Lewchuk’s study included an online survey of 524 workers, more than 80 per cent of whom were caseworkers and nearly 10 per cent of whom were program support clerks (PSC). More than 95 per cent of caseworkers felt that SAMS had made their jobs harder, while only 16 per cent of them believed that their office had good working conditions. The numbers for PSCs in the same categories were 88.6 and 17 per cent respectively.
The majority of both types of workers reported that their jobs were causing sleep problems, while more than half said that work was causing headaches for them. More than 90 per cent of caseworkers and PSCs together reported that they were exhausted after work at least half the time.
“The Ministry of Community and Social Services owes the workers at ODSP an apology,” Dr. Lewchuk concluded, noting that over the long run, stress and tension make an office environment “as toxic a workplace as an industrial establishment or a construction site.”
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), which has objected to SAMS since before the system’s 2014 launch, commissioned the report.
“Dr. Lewchuk has shone a light on the health cost our members are paying due to the Ministry’s decision to implement a flawed system,” Dylan Lineger, OPSEU’s co-chair of the committee for employee relations at the Ministry of Community and Social Services, said in a media statement on July 20.
“We’re grateful to Dr. Lewchuk for his report and hope it convinces the employer that there’s a health crisis at ODSP.”
When SAMS Met “ad hoc” is available online at https://opseu.org/sites/default/files/opseu_2016_report_final.pdf.
Canadians want more flexibility in work schedules: survey
TORONTO, Ont. — Just slightly more than half of Canadians surveyed are happy with their current work schedule. This puts the nation in the tenth spot out of 25 countries surveyed and slightly above the global average of 50 per cent, according to a June 21 statement announcing the new research findings from global recruitment company Randstad, headquartered in Amsterdam. Out of 15 job functions polled, Canadians classified as economist or consulting are the most satisfied (77.7 per cent) with their current schedules, while those working in education (45 per cent) are the least satisfied. Against their global counterparts, human-resources and recruitment officers and information-technology specialists rank fifth and sixth most satisfied respectively, at 61.3 per cent. “The work environment in Canada, like workplaces globally, is changing rapidly,” Marc-Étienne Julien, chief executive officer of Randstad Canada, said in the statement. “Employers looking to remain attractive in the eyes of today’s workforce need to evolve, align with changing attitudes and offer flexible workplace solutions that work for the business and its employees.” The data revealed that Canadians work 36 hours per week on average, with 30 per cent currently work more than 40 hours per week. Of the 7,041 Canadian employees polled, 30 per cent indicate that they would prefer variable hours, while nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) say they would like to work remotely at least occasionally, just above the global average of 64 per cent. Results indicate that even the older generation is seeing the benefits of flexibility, with 21 per cent of employees aged 45 to 65 expressing their preference to work remotely every day. This compares with 13 per cent for workers aged 18 to 24 and 16 per cent for those aged 25 to 44. The survey also reveals that nearly half (48 per cent) of those polled prefer flexible over standard hours, even though this might involve working longer days and shorter weeks or flexible work days every week. “The data demonstrates that, like their peers around the world, Canadians are expecting more and more flexibility from their employer, which should drive HR managers to engage with individual employees to identify their specific needs and drivers,” Julien suggested. He added that when employees feel that they can fit their work schedules into their life, rather than the other way around, they tend to be more engaged, happy and willing to contribute. “It is just good business.”
WSIB releases report on Ontario’s workplace health and safety
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) has released a report highlighting trends in injuries, illnesses, recovery and return to work in Ontario’s overall prevention system and industry sectors. By the Numbers: 2015 WSIB Statistical Report is updated annually and provides data and information about health and safety in Ontario’s workplaces.
“The 2015 By the Numbers report shows clearly that the vast majority of injured workers are recovering and returning to work within a month, and that is encouraging news,” said Thomas Teahen, the WSIB’s president and chief executive officer. “We are proud to be able to help injured workers resume their lives, support their families and loved ones and participate in their communities.”
The following were among the statistics featured in the report: return-to-work staff made more than 21,000 visits to Ontario workplaces in 2015; more than 91 per cent of injured workers were off loss-of-earnings benefits within one month of return-to-work staff involvement; the board served more than 5.3 million workers and more than 300,000 employers, registered almost 230,000 claims and issued $2.58 billion in benefit payments; and the overall lost-time injury (LTI) rate was less than one per cent in 2015, continuing a decade-long trend of Ontario having among the lowest LTI rates of any jurisdiction in Canada.
The report’s website has a new feature called Report Builder, a self-service tool that allows users to customize the WSIB information they need for building unique reports. This year marks the first time that the report includes statistics on occupational disease claims, the statement added.
Feds launch awareness campaign about pointing lasers at planes
FEDERAL – Transport Canada (TC) has begun a national public-awareness campaign about the dangers of aiming laser pointers at aircraft. A new information page on the TC website, titled “Not a Bright Idea”, states that there were nearly 600 reported incidents of people pointing lasers at air vehicles in Canada in 2015. Lasers put pilots, airline crews and passengers at major risk of accidents by distracting pilots and creating glares that may reduce their vision, even causing temporary blindness, the page noted. Aiming a laser at an aircraft is a criminal offence that can result in five years’ imprisonment, a fine as high as $100,000, or both, TC added. “Pointing a laser at an aircraft is not only a reckless act that puts people at unnecessary risk, it’s simply not a bright idea,” Transport Minister Marc Garneau said in a press statement upon announcing the initiative on May 24. “I take this type of behaviour seriously because Canadians and their families deserve to feel safe while flying. We want people to know there are serious consequences.” The federal government wants those who witness laser strikes on planes to report them to the police or to TC, according to the “Not a Bright Idea” page.
Media union says it is working to prevent harassment on the job
NATIONAL – Following the May 11 signing of the peace bond to dismiss the final sexual-assault case against former CBC Radio star Jian Ghomeshi, Canadian Media Guild (CMG) president Carmel Smyth issued a lengthy statement explaining ways that the union had been working to keep media workplaces across Canada free from harassment. These actions aimed to deal with issues raised by Kathryn Borel, Ghomeshi’s accuser and CBC colleague, and resulted from public scrutiny of how CMG and media employers handled sexual harassment, Smyth said. “We have updated our harassment-reporting practices, added targeted training for union staff and volunteers and strengthened our policies,” wrote Smyth. “Stopping harassment and bullying remains a priority… We can do a better job of ensuring positive experiences at work.” Among specific CMG actions over the previous 18 months: distributing posters in English and French clarifying unacceptable behaviour; encouraging employees to support each other and report incidents to the union; strengthening the CBC’s committee for temporary/precarious work to make employees feel safer when making reports; and holding seminars and other sessions by professionals for union members and others about recognizing the signs of harassment. “As for next steps, and questions about how the union handles individual grievances, there have been no discussions related to this so far,” wrote Smyth, noting that there is a standard legal process for this.
Ferry accident caused by monitoring deficiencies, says TSB
A boating accident that occurred near Burnside, N.L. early last year, when a passenger ferry collided with Burnside Rock a few minutes before docking, resulted from insufficient monitoring of the ferry’s navigation, according to a new investigation report from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB).
The roll-on-roll-off passenger ferry Grace Sparkes left St. Brendan’s, N.L., bound for Burnside, at about 4:50 p.m. on Jan. 21, 2015, according to the report, which was published on May 5 of this year. The boat was carrying eight crew members and four passengers. The master of the ferry was navigating while steering. The boat struck the rock at 5:46, but continued on to dock at Burnside shortly afterwards. No injuries were reported in the accident, although the ferry’s hull and bilge keel were damaged.
The TSB investigation found that the Grace Sparkes had deviated from its planned route to Burnside because the master had been focusing on steering the ferry, limiting his ability to monitor the ferry’s location with paper and electronic charts. Although the company’s safety manual recommended that the bridge team cross-reference the boat’s position with other navigational aids, the crew did not follow this procedure; the bridge team was oblivious to the boat’s incorrect position until it struck the rock.
“If navigational aids are not cross-referenced or their associated features, such as alarms, are not configured optimally, bridge teams may be deprived of potentially useful information to assist in the vessel’s safe navigation,” the report read.
In addition, the bridge team had not been sufficiently trained in bridge resource management, which increased its lack of situational awareness. The crew delayed reporting the incident to the Canadian Coast Guard, and the master’s fitness for duty was found to be in question due to issues with the marine medical certification process. The ferry also lacked signage for lifesaving equipment, the TSB noted.
The report also revealed that neither the passengers nor the crew had been properly informed after the ferry had struck Burnside Rock. “If passenger safety announcements or alarms are not used to provide safety information or communicate a state of emergency, there is a risk that passengers and crew will not be prepared to respond to an emergency in a safe and timely manner,” the TSB wrote in the report.
As a result of the accident, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Department of Transportation and Works conducted an investigation and audit that resulted in several corrective actions last year. Among them were new chart correction procedures for all boats, new signs for lifesaving equipment and procedures for more accurate passenger counts.
Alberta government warns about working in the heat
EDMONTON, Alta. – As the weather has continued to warm up during the spring season, the Government of Alberta has issued an announcement on its website to caution employers and workers about the dangers of heat stress. The May 3 media release warned people who work outdoors in the heat to beware of early symptoms of heat stress, including headaches, dizziness, fatigue, dehydration and/or changes to breathing and pulse, any of which could predict a heat stroke. In addition, the government advised employers to help protect their workers in the following ways: moving work to a cooler area; reducing physical activity; extra breaks if necessary; gradually increasing outdoor work times to help employees adjust to the heat; rescheduling physically demanding tasks for cooler times; and providing drinking water. “While many Albertans are enjoying the warm weather, the heat can pose a risk to those working outdoors,” Labour Minister Christina Gray said in a statement. “I encourage all employers and workers to know the signs of heat stress and take steps to protect the health of everyone in the workplace.” The announcement included links to further information on working in extreme temperatures.
More female than male workers seek help for depression: study
NATIONAL – A new study from Morneau Shepell, a Toronto-based human-resources consulting company that provides nationwide employee assistance programs, has revealed that more women than men have been accessing the company’s depression program. A May 2 press release from the organization said that 63.9 per cent of Canadian workers who had sought help through its Depression Care program had been female – and that 28.6 per cent had been women aged 50 or older, according to the report Depression Care: Helping Employers Help Employees. Depression Care is a voluntary counselling service designed to give tools to employees to manage depression and increase work productivity, Morneau Shepell said. The company conducted the study by analyzing productivity and attendance information from 227 Depression Care cases dating from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 of last year. “People are an employer’s most valuable resource, so providing support for mental-health issues is a win-win scenario for both employers and their employees,” Barb Veder, Morneau Shepell’s vice president of clinical services, said in a media statement about the study.
Lost-time incidence rate in Newfoundland drops to historic low
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newly released numbers from WorkplaceNL, formerly known as the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission, have revealed that the rate of incidences due to workplace injury or illness in Newfoundland and Labrador dropped to an all-time low last year. The province’s workers’ compensation authority announced on April 27 that the rate for 2015 was 1.5 incidents per 100 workers. In addition, about 260 fewer workers submitted short-term claims last year than in 2014, and about 200 fewer required healthcare-only assistance from WorkplaceNL in 2015 than in the previous year. The lost-time incidence rate for workers between 15 and 24 years old was 1.4 incidents per 100 workers, an 18 per cent drop from five years before. “Newfoundland and Labrador workplaces rose to the challenge and reduced the provincial lost-time incidence rate to the lowest level it has ever been,” WorkplaceNL CEO Leslie Galway said in a press statement. “We will continue to work with workplace parties, employer and labour groups, government and safety associations to bring even more workers home safe and healthy.” Despite the good news, the province has a rising rate of workplace violence, and there were 24 work-related fatalities last year, WorkplaceNL admitted.