YELLOWKNIFE, N.W.T. – The Workers’ Safety & Compensation Commission (WSCC) announced on Feb. 10 that certified first-aid providers are available to bring two-day training courses for employers and workers to selected communities in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in late February and March. A media release from the WSCC stated that each class must have a minimum number of 12 registrants, who will learn first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation for the workplace. The first scheduled courses are to taken place in Fort Liard, N.W.T. on Feb. 25-26 and 27-28; additional classes are planned in Fort Simpson and Hay River, N.W.T. and in Iqaluit, Qikiqtarjuaq and Pangnirtung, Nvt., as well as Yellowknife, over the subsequent four weeks. “There is no cost for participants to attend the training once the minimum 12 registrants have signed up,” the WSCC stated. “Participants are responsible for their own costs to travel to and from the sessions.” Those interested are invited to register through the classes’ respective Eventbrite pages.
Category Archives: Workers Compensation
Pilot program to send workers with concussion to one of three services
HALIFAX, N.S. – The Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia (WCB) has launched a pilot program to determine the best resources for managing injured workers’ concussions and to establish a new protocol for them. According to a WCB news release, workers with new concussion injuries in Nova Scotia are now being directed to one of three clinics – either CORE, Lifemark or CBI – for treatment. The program, which began on Feb. 1, is a result of research by Dr. Paul Eagan, the WCB’s chief medical officer. Each of the three clinics has a full-time occupational therapist and is accessible across the province, the WCB stated. “Workers who sustained an injury prior to February 1 and are currently being treated for concussion-related injuries will continue with their current service provider and treatment program,” the release added.
British Columbia appeal court overturns decision on asbestos contractor
The British Columbia Court of Appeal recently threw out last year’s decision by the provincial Supreme Court rejecting a WorkSafeBC order against an asbestos-removal contractor.
On Feb. 26, Judge George Macintosh of the B.C. Supreme Court ruled that Seattle Environmental Ltd. had not violated a 2012 order to comply with the province’s Workers Compensation Act and Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. The judge stated that the order had been too complex and vague for the company to follow and that WorkSafeBC had not set it out “in unambiguous terms” (COHSN, March 1).
But WorkSafeBC appealed the decision, and on Jan. 13 of this year, Justice John Savage of the Court of Appeal in Vancouver wrote in a unanimous court decision that the order’s terms “are not ambiguous or insufficiently clear so as to be incapable of supporting a finding of contempt, given the nature of the statutory regime for workplace safety and the procedural history.”
The case’s origins go back to July 31, 2012, when WorkSafeBC filed a petition for orders restraining Seattle from exposing people to asbestos. The province’s occupational health and safety authority cited 17 incidents in which the company had allegedly violated the Act and Regulation, while noting that it had issued 244 orders to it, according to Judge Savage’s written decision.
“The respondents,” Judge Savage wrote, “are in the asbestos-abatement business. Asbestos has been determined to be a dangerous carcinogenic substance that requires special detection, handling and abatement techniques. As a result, these businesses are highly regulated under British Columbia workplace safety legislation.”
The judge noted that while the Act and Regulation may be complex pieces of legislation, this does not excuse people in a highly regulated profession like asbestos removal from following them.
“Requiring familiarity and understanding of statutory and regulatory requirements for workplace safety from voluntary industry participants is not an impermissibly onerous requirement,” wrote Judge Savage. “This is especially so, given the nature of the business in this case.”
The decision received praise from the B.C. Federation of Labour (BCFED) and the B.C. Insulators Union. In a Jan. 29 news release, BCFED president Irene Lanzinger said that she was “comforted that the Court of Appeal reinforced employers’ responsibility to abide by health and safety laws.”
But Lanzinger cautioned that the provincial Liberal government was still not doing enough to protect workers and that its asbestos-removal laws were inadequate.
“They failed to act on practical solutions that unions proposed to protect the well-being of workers in the asbestos-abatement industry,” she said. “Workplace protections are weak and not always rigorously enforced.
“Under the B.C. Liberals, workers are only an afterthought in our ‘workers’’ compensation system.”
Seattle Environmental faces $355,000 in fines for oh&s violations, according to BCFED.
City of Edmonton launches review of workplace safety
Nearly three months after the death of a sewer worker, the City of Edmonton has initiated a comprehensive review of the safety culture of municipal workplaces. But a spokesperson has said that the review is not a response to the sewer tragedy or any other incident.
The City had already launched a general safety initiative of which the new review is a part, according to Doug Jones, Edmonton’s deputy city manager of operations. On Jan. 25, the City Council held a presentation announcing the review, which will examine three distinct areas: people, processes and technology.
“The City of Edmonton leads in so many areas,” explained Jones. “We decided we wanted to be a leader in safety in the municipal area. And so what does that mean? It’s saying, ‘How do we train our people to be safe? How do we train our leaders in the organization at all levels to exhibit the right safety-leadership behaviours? How do we promote all the right things about safety?’”
The goal is not only to create a safer environment for City employees, but also to translate the positive effects of that into the public realm, he added.
“Some organizations would traditionally discipline around a safety incident, so then it’s moving away from discipline to learning about it and putting the processes in place to eliminate the risk.”
The City has hired consulting firm DuPont Sustainable Solutions to conduct the review, which will evaluate the safety culture from the ground up, from the frontline workers up to the executive levels. Among the areas that DuPont will examine are training and equipment.
“Technology’s changing so rapidly,” said Jones. “Are there other things out there that we could use that maybe weren’t available five years ago?”
A 44-year-old City employee died while working underground on a sanitation sewer project last Nov. 2. A stop-work order from Alberta’s Ministry of Labour shut down the site to allow for an investigation, and the City voluntarily suspended all tunnelling work in Edmonton. The latter shutdown was lifted on Jan. 16, according to local media reports.
But Jones said that the safety review was not launched in reaction to the sewer fatality. “The initiative was started before that was going on,” he said.
“Certainly when you have a tragic incident like that, it gets your attention,” he added. “We have to learn from them.” But the safety initiative came from a new leadership team that made a decision to pursue safety excellence last year.
A Jan. 25 story about the safety review in the Calgary Herald noted that EPCOR Utilities Inc. had submitted a proposal to take over the city’s drainage system and save the City millions of dollars in lost-time incidents and Workers’ Compensation Board rebates. But Jones denied that the proposal had any relevance to the timing of the safety review.
“There’s a consequence of when you do the right things, there’s some financial benefits that go with it,” he said. “I think they identified something like $600,000 in savings. That wasn’t a driving factor.”
Instead, the City wants to find ways to enhance its approach to occupational safety. “Are there things that we need to do and change,” he said, “to drive a culture of safety excellence?”
WorkSafeBC warns of increased risk of avalanches this winter
RICHMOND, B.C. – Workers in British Columbia’s construction, primary-resource and adventure-tourism sectors may be at higher risk of avalanches in backcountry worksites than usual this year, WorkSafeBC cautioned in a news release sent out on Jan. 26. January has seen a large snowpack in several of the province’s regions, the workplace-safety entity warned, so employers need to identify, assess and mitigate avalanche risks. Information on proper compliance measures is available from local WorkSafeBC prevention officers and the Canadian Avalanche Association, the release stated. “Employers in these situations are required under the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation to ensure a well-rehearsed safety plan is in place and well-understood by all workers,” Patrick Davie, WorkSafeBC’s manager of prevention field services for the Kamloops region, said in a press statement. “If the conditions warrant it, the best plan may be to avoid areas of high risk entirely until the end of the avalanche season.” Three B.C. workers have died in avalanches since 1998, while WorkSafeBC has accepted 50 time-loss injury claims from avalanches over the same period, the organization said.
Awareness campaign highlights noise-induced hearing loss
TORONTO, Ont. – The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), Ontario’s workers’ compensation authority, has launched a new awareness campaign to draw attention to noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), a common occupational risk. The Board announced in a Jan. 18 news release that its campaign would consist of online videos demonstrating the effect of NIHL and an interactive website, ToneItDown.ca, which allows visitors to test how their hearing compares to that of the average person. Manufacturing and construction were the sectors that submitted the most approved WSIB claims for NIHL over the previous decade, stated the release, adding that more than half of all the workers diagnosed with NIHL are older than 65. “Unlike cuts and bruises, NIHL happens gradually, is rarely painful and often takes years of exposure to develop,” WSIB president and CEO Tom Teahen said in a media statement. “Our goal is to encourage everyone to factor hearing protection into their safety practices at work.” NIHL is a type of permanent hearing loss resulting from excessive noise exposure.
Labour federation questions safety enforcement after construction fatality
VICTORIA, B.C. – The B.C. Federation of Labour (BCFED) is asking whether the provincial government and WorkSafeBC are doing enough to enforce occupational health and safety rules, following the death of construction worker Rolan Huetzelmann in Victoria on Jan. 15. Huetzelmann was killed by a fall of more than 10 metres after a gust of wind caused a plywood sheet to knock him off scaffolding, BCFED stated in a Jan. 20 news release. “Why Huetzelmann wasn’t using a safety harness while working three stories off the ground in high winds will be a central question for the workers’ compensation board to delve into,” BCFED president Irene Lanzinger said, as quoted in the release. “Surely… the provincial government through [WorkSafeBC] could issue weather advisory warnings to employers to direct them to implement appropriate safety procedures.” Lanzinger added that in the view of the Federation, any employer whose negligence leads to a worker fatality should face a prison sentence.
Bill aims to make cancer an occupational disease for firefighters
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador is the latest province to propose to make cancer a presumptively occupational disease for firefighters – meaning that afflicted firefighters would not have to prove that the disease was caused by work in order to collect workers’ compensation benefits. According to a Dec. 12 news release from WorkplaceNL, the provincial government hopes to amend the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Act and Regulations to provide presumptive cancer coverage for career and volunteer firefighters. If passed into law, the amendment would cover 11 types of cancer, including brain, breast, bladder, kidney and lung cancer, along with leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. “This legislation is another example of how our government listens to people and creates beneficial change through their feedback,” N.L. Premier Dwight Ball said in a press statement. “This new benefit will not increase the assessment rates currently paid by employers who fund the workers’ compensation system.” Ontario passed a law making lung cancer presumptively occupational for firefighters and fire investigators nearly a year ago (COHSN, Jan. 12).
Equipment operator convicted of defrauding workers’ comp board
REGINA, Sask. – The Regina Provincial Court ordered an equipment operator to pay restitution and serve a Conditional Sentence Order on Dec. 20, after he pleaded guilty to defrauding the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) of about $80,000. According to a news release from the Board, the worker went back to his job while still receiving WCB benefits. The sentence requires the worker to adhere to a curfew of 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. for six months, as part of an order lasting two years minus one day; he must also pay back the $80,000 plus a victim’s surcharge. “The WCB has a responsibility to safeguard the workers’ compensation system,” the release stated. “It relies on workers, employers and caregivers to accurately report injuries, employment activities, payroll and medical treatment.”
WSCC publishes new practice code about the hazards of lead
YELLOWKNIFE, N.T. – The workers’ compensation authority for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut has released a new code of practice regarding the occupational risks of lead and how to control them. Published on Nov. 30, Working with Lead is the 20th code of practice compiled by the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission (WSCC). The 38-page document includes information on the health effects of lead exposure, how to identify and evaluate lead hazards, how to conduct worksite reviews and develop a lead-exposure control plan, how to eliminate or limit lead exposure and other employer responsibilities. “The code provides [for] stakeholders a comprehensive resource for understanding how to ensure workplaces remain safe and how to implement best practices in meeting regulatory requirements concerning lead work,” stated a WSCC media release. “WSCC’s codes of practice provide practical guidance to help Northerners meet safety standards required by legislation.” Working with Lead is downloadable as a PDF from the WSCC website at http://www.wscc.nt.ca/sites/default/files/documents/Working%20With%20Lead%20Guideline_Current_Code%20of%20Practice_NT%20and%20NU%20English.pdf.