Following a recent  90-day safety enforcement blitz of more than 2,800 construction sites that uncovered what the Ontario Labour Ministry considered to be an unacceptable number of safety infractions throughout the province,  the government has launched a new campaign aimed at worker safety education.

The blitz found violations ranging from missing guardrails to inappropriate use of scaffolding, and laid bare a marked lack of worker and supervisor training.  As a result, the ministry has ordered a culture change of sorts, and have made a new commitment to constant prevention and protection.

The new safety campaign will focus on education, and features posters with X-rays of broken bones with the tagline “Don’t let these be the last pictures someone takes of you.” The ministry will also operate a toll-free line, 1-877-202-2008, for anyone to report unsafe conditions on a work site.  To encourage absolutely anyone who sees something unsafe to call the line, all calls will be anonymous, and all will be passed on to inspectors for investigation.

The ministry also intends to pass on the message through its web-site and Twitter, as well as in ethnic newspapers, where it will be delivered in 10 languages.

Saskatchewan roofing companies may face serious fines if they fail to implement safety procedures as provincial authorities continue a major crackdown on this growing industry.

Since April, eight roofing companies in the province have been fined for violating safety standards. Most of the fines are related to workers not wearing proper harnesses while on the job.

Saskatchewan Occupational Health and Safety has stepped up enforcement in the hopes that increased fines and scrutiny will serve as a warning to companies, and make them aware that they will be punished if they don’t make workers wear fall protection.

While most support the increase in enforcement, some actually side with the companies, who often feel challenged by keeping workers trained and certified, given the industry’s high employee turnover.  Occupational Health and Safety officials, however, note that a lack of resources is never a good excuse for lax safety.

Provincial officials would also like to make homeowners aware that, when using smaller roofing companies, they should check to be sure they’re covered through Workers Compensation. If a company is not carrying the proper insurance coveraged, the homeowner might be liable for any injury sustained by the worker.

Occupational Health and Safety intends to continue, and even step up inspections until all roofing companies comply with the rules.

WorkSafeBC has introduced The Ladder Challenge (LadderChallenge.com ), an online game designed to show workers how to look at hazards associated with using ladders at residential construction worksite. The game’s objective is to identify the correct order of procedures for using a ladder to reach the roof of a house safely. The intention of the game is to reinforce workers’ knowledge of ladder safety, to help prevent serious work injury.

Those taking the Challenge also have an added incentive to check out the game, because British Columbia residents aged 13 years or older who play the game between now and  August 31, 2010 have a chance to win an Apple iPad. And if they refer coworkers, friends, or family to the game, they can earn extra chances in the draw.

Falls are among the leading causes of serious injury for young workers ages 15 to 24. Between 2004 and 2008, WorkSafeBC recorded 1,706 young worker claims for compensation, and 16% of all time-loss claims among young construction workers were related to falls from elevation, including falls from ladders.

Educators and trainers can visit their section of the site to get suggestions for using the game to help raise awareness of ladder safety. The site also includes links to videos, bulletins, and guides related to ladder safety.

It’s been a pretty hot summer so far, and we’re not even halfway through, so perhaps this is would be a good time to remind you to take special precautions on scorching hot summer days, in order to keep your workers safe and productive.  The higher the temperature goes, the less comfortable workers feel, which makes them more prone to accidents and also causes them to slow down a bit. But just as importantly, excessive heat can be extremely dangerous, and building a culture of safety requires that you keep your workers as safe as possible.

If possible, try to reduce the demand on each worker by reducing  the level of physical exertion such as excessive lifting, climbing, or digging. If possible, try to use relief workers or assign extra workers.  Try to reschedule the most strenuous activities jobs for the cooler part of the day and reserve the hottest part of the day for routine maintenance and repair work.

For those workers who must work outside during the hot part of the day, they should wear light, very loose-fitting clothing, with long sleeves and long pants, in order to avoid serious UV damage from the sun.  For areas of the body that are still exposed, such as faces, hands and necks, be sure to have adequate supplies of good quality sunscreen on hand as well.

Make sure all outside workers are provided with plenty of water. And that should be water, as sugary drinks and drinks with caffeine actually cause faster dehydration. They should also be given plenty of breaks during which they can drink the water. It is far more beneficial to drink small amounts of water at frequent intervals than to drink a lot of water all at once. If the work is particularly strenuous and is performed in direct sunlight, try to provide a shady area or tent, where workers can sit down, drink some water and recharge.

If your workers are toiling away in an area with a combination of high temperature and high humidity,  be aware of the increased risk to such workers of heat stroke or heat exhaustion. In addition to workers who don’t take adequate breaks or drink enough water, pay close attention to workers who take certain medications, older workers or workers who are not in peak physical condition, as they are especially susceptible to complications from heat-related stress.

Some of the warning signs for heat-related illness include headaches, lightheadedness, confusion, irrational behavior, loss of consciousness, abnormally high body temperature and hot, dry skin.  When a worker starts to complain that he or she isn’t feeling well, you would do well to take the complain seriously and sit that worker down in the shade with a cup of water and let them recover.

Other potential risks to the health of workers toiling outdoors in summer aren’t necessarily heat-related. It might be a good idea to have workers regularly check for ticks, which sometimes carry Lyme Disease. Be sure to watch out for mosquitoes, which can carry West Nile Virus, and plants, such as poison oak and poison ivy, that can cause skin rashes and make it difficult to work.

Taryn Crawford, a 25-year-old driver who slammed into the back of a work truck and  pinned 19-year-old worker Sefatullah Khanzadeh between two vehicles and killing him, pleaded guilty to careless driving in Edmonton provincial court last week.

According to a stipulated statement of facts read into the court record, Khanzadeh was working as a contract landscaper for Land Tec on July 24, 2009, when the accident occurred. At around 10:30 that morning, he and his work crew were weeding the median of 97th Street near 144th Avenue. One work truck had been parked in the inside lane of 97th Street, and traffic cones had been placed near the site to direct traffic away from the work crew. After completing the weeding work, Khanzadeh began to pick up the cones and throw them into the back of the truck. As he did so, Crawford’s car slammed into the back of the truck, pinning Khanzadeh between the two vehicles. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

In February, a Workplace Health and Safety report, which was not presented in court, stated that Crawford was “distracted from driving responsibilities” and was seen texting on her wireless phone immediately after the crash. According to the report, “(t)he driver …  did not even know that she had crushed a landscape worker. There were no visible skid marks from her vehicle,” indicating she had not tried to stop before the crash.

The careless driving charges, which fall under the Traffic and Safety Act, carry a maximum penalty of a $2,000 fine and six months in jail.

In a sign that 2010 could be the year government officials get very serious when it comes to fining companies for workplace violations, the Ontario Court of Justice handed out two enormous fines in two days as a result of accidents that led to worker deaths.

One January 19, Sherritt International Corporation, operating as Canada Talc, pleaded guilty and was fined $285,000 for an Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) violation for an August 20, 2008 accident in which a young worker was killed.

That incident occurred at the Canada Talc mine in Madoc. The worker in question had been operating equipment to fill bins with muck flowing down from other areas of the mine. (“Muck” is a mixture of broken rock, sediment and water.) As the bins filled, they were supposed to be sent up to the surface of the mine to be emptied. But sometime during the night, another worker on the surface of the mine heard strange sounds coming from the muck-loading area, and a mine shaft camera revealed an overflow of muck. The second worker failed to reach the young worker by phone, a third worker went to investigate, and found an overflow of muck going down past the young worker’s control station and discovered that he had essentially been drowned by the flood of muck into his work station.

An investigation by the Ministry of Labour found that the young worker’s control station was located directly in front of the tunnel from which muck was flowing, and that extra water had been added to the muck to make it flow faster, all of which combined to put the worker in serious danger. To make things even worse, the worker had not yet completed task-specific training, he was working alone and the mine’s written procedures did not adequately address how to control a run of muck.

Sherritt International pleaded guilty to failing to take the reasonable precaution of developing and implementing safety procedures and devices to protect the worker from a run of muck. The $285,000 fine in this case was imposed by Justice of the Peace Jack Chiang, and the court also added the required 25% victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act.

One day later, on January 20, Lafarge Canada Inc., a manufacturer of construction material, pleaded guilty to a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) that caused the death of a worker, and the court fined that company $350,000.

The incident that led to that fine occurred on August 27, 2008 at the company’s cement plant in Ernestown. Workers were using a special rig to install a new lining of bricks to the inside of a kiln. The rig consisted of a work platform mounted on four legs with an overhead arch to hold up bricks. As the workers moved the rig along the sloping kiln floor, they had to adjust its legs to keep the work platform level. As they adjusted the rig at one point, its platform lurched forward, causing the workers on the platform to fall. The rig’s arch, which weighed more than 400 kilograms, also fell and landed on one of the workers, crushing him to death.

That Ministry of Labour investigation found that a manufacturer’s warning sign had essentially been ignored. The sign on the rig specifically prohibited workers from being on the rig as it was being moved. In addition, they found that the company had no written policy or clearly planned procedures for moving and adjusting the rig on the kiln’s sloping floor.

Lafarge Canada Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring no worker was on the platform of the rig as it was being moved or adjusted. The $350,000 fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace John Doran and did not include the required 25% surcharge.

Including the 25% surcharge, the total fines for these two companies came to nearly $800,000 and both incidents could have been avoided by simply putting in common sense safety measures and training workers properly.

Have you examined your safety systems lately?

To support their new Career and Technology Studies (CTS) program, Alberta high schools and students now have access to a comprehensive library of more than 70 health and safety DVDs being made available through a partnership between the Government of Alberta and the Job Safety Skills Society (JSSS). The collection, including French language DVDs, provides student and educators with free, immediate access to a wealth of resources, which will be made available to educators and students via LearnAlberta.ca. Employers can also take advantage of this library, and can find contact information on the JSSS website.

The health and safety topics covered by the DVDs range from the office to the welding shop, and titles include Job Safety Analysis, Hand Tools, Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System and Ergonomics.

Alberta Education is currently implementing two sections, Business, Administration, Finance and Information Technology, and Trades, Manufacturing and Transportation, under the new CTS program, which was revised to engage students in learning opportunities that will help them discover their interests in practical and purposeful ways. In fall 2010, new programs entitled Health, Recreation and Human Services, Natural Resources, and Media, Design and Communication Arts will be made available.

If you’d like more information about the program, visit the CTS web site. These DVD collections are part of the JSSS JobSafe program, recognized by Alberta Employment and Immigration.

The time to begin teaching worker safety is when workers are very young, and this is a great step toward developing a safety culture for the future

Offering constructive criticism of anyone, whether it’s an underling, a co-worker, or family member, tends to be treacherous. People hate criticism, constructive or not, because it necessarily highlights the bad, and usually puts them on the defensive.

So, drop the “constructive criticism” notion, and try giving feedback instead. Feedback is a much better alternative for making observations and commenting on someone’s work performance and behaviours, even if your intention is to highlight something negative. Actually, it’s a better way to go especially when you intend to highlight a negative.

All feedback you give should be intended to improve performance; you should never intend to score points. Any feedback should make the other person aware of ways they can improve job performance, and highlight what they’re currently doing well. If you take that approach, you’ll avoid the defensive posture most workers take in the face of “constructive criticism.” And don’t underestimate how great people feel when what they do right is acknowledged by either a superior or a co-worker.

After you give your feedback, the person you’re talking to should feel empowered to improve. If they feel like you’re picking on them, and trying to make their life miserable, they won’t feel good about things, and they’re likely to feel more discouraged than anything, and less likely to participate in the “team” atmosphere you’re hopefully attempting to create.

Start a feedback session by stressing something positive; tell them what they’re doing right first. But make sure it’s genuine and honest; no one likes a “suck-up.” And let’s face it; if you have to make something up, the worker probably shouldn’t be working there. No one does everything wrong. It doesn’t have to be anything earth-shattering; it can be as simple as an acknowledgement of the fact that they’re always on time or that they always wear the proper personal protective equipment. But always start with something positive; this puts them in a frame of mind to more readily accept everything else you have to tell them.

Then, it’s time for any “constructive criticism” you might want to discuss. This is the right time to tell the worker how they could improve in aspects of their job. Be specific, but don’t make it sound as if they’re doing everything wrong. Instead, tell them how they can do certain things better; suggest areas for improvement; don’t provide a laundry list of things they do wrong.

But when you’re finished with the “needs improvement” portion of the feedback session, give them another positive. The finale should be stronger than the one you started with. Find something the worker does extremely well, and end the feedback on a high note.

By couching the negative feedback with some positive input, you make the criticism a little easier to hear, and also make them more enthusiastic about wanting to improve. The best team is made up of people who want to work together to improve, not people who are always afraid of being fired.

WorkSafeNB has joined other workplace safety bodies in attempting to appeal to future workers by launching a new web site, youthsafenb.ca, designed to appeal to students of all ages, and to provide teachers easy access to workplace safety resources.

The new web site contains three sections: Stella the Safety Skunk teaches safety to children in Kindergarten to Grade 2; Smart Choices is a section designed to appeal to children in Grades 3 to 8, and No Mercy will hopefully appeal to high school students.

Each section features such resources as games, puzzles, and colouring pages available for download, while providing access to other teaching tools such as DVDs, posters, and promotional items that can be ordered online. The site also includes links to other safety websites.

It is hoped that, while teachers will find the website useful, post-secondary students, parents and employers will also find valuable information, as well. Older students will find information on job finding techniques and protecting themselves at work, especially the three rights. Parents can learn about the risks their children may face as they enter the workforce. Employers can learn about their responsibilities when it comes to the health and safety of young workers.

When it comes to the workplace safety olympics, B.C. Place Stadium isn’t exactly a gold medal winner, based on their current record.

In just the first five and a half months of 2009, WorkSafeBC cited Vancouver’s Olympics stadium for workplace safety violations a whopping 66 times. According to inspection reports on the stadium, which was first opened in 1983 and will be the site of the 2010 Olympics’ Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the site is failing to perform to even the most basic standards of safety.

Reports have, at various times, deemed the operators of the air-supported roof as poorly trained; reported the lack of a fall protection plan for areas in which workers were not protected by permanent guardrails; reported that a sound and lighting truss hanging from the roof was unsafe; reported that there was no risk assessment done for workplace violence; and reported that there was no plan in place to protect first aid workers and cleaning staff from contact with blood or bodily fluids. There were also numerous complaints of inadequate safety training, especially for younger workers.

Among the reports of injury included a worker who had been overcome by epoxy fumes in January and the near-electrocution of another worker in March.

In an attempt to correct the problems before the Olympics, stadium operations and engineering supervisors were fired June 25. On July 7, control room workers who were doubling as security guards were told to choose between the jobs, transfer to another department, or opt for a lump-sum severance package.

If Vancouver is to have a first class Olympic experience, they should work harder to make sure those working the games are properly trained for the safety of everyone involved.