A YouTube video that has gone somewhat viral and has received more than140,000 hits to date has a lot of people shaking their heads. It shows a Gatineau, Quebec bus driver doing paperwork while operating his bus. Several times in the 57-second video, the driver takes his hands completely off the wheel and steers the bus with his knees.

Incredibly, the transit union that represents Gatineau bus drivers is claiming an invasion of the driver’s privacy with the video, and wants to ban passengers from taking video of drivers inside public buses. As union officials see it, drivers don’t need to be stared at or ridiculed every time they do something the public doesn’t understand.

Predictably, the passenger who took the video, Jaime Hill, disagrees with the union’s stance, noting that public transportation is not the same as private transportation, and that there is no expectation of privacy for a driver of a public bus.

According to Gatineau transit officials, the driver in the video has been disciplined, but he will not be fired.

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Last week, the Ontario Ministry of Labour announced that for the next month its inspectors will be conducting a safety blitz of construction sites with tower cranes.

A team of inspectors will be sent to focus mostly on sites in Toronto and Niagara. Not only will they be climbing towers to check access ladders, guardrails and fall arrest equipment, they will also examine inspection records, operator certification, and overall compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Inspectors will pay special attention to maintenance records, including proper documentation on the condition of the tower crane before and after erection, including engineer drawings. They will confirm that all cranes were properly inspected prior to first use and regularly inspected and maintained afterwards, and they will review log books to ensure operational functions such as limit and overload limit switches were properly tested.

This blitz was called because of concerns over an increased number of injuries and close calls resulting from incidents caused by tower cranes, including incidents in which workers were struck by materials being hoisted or pinned by loads that were lowered. There have also been several incidents in which cranes themselves struck scaffolding, or in some cases, tipped over.

Nova Scotia government officials are trying to send a message to employers that young people who are entering the workforce for the first time can feel uneasy or intimidated, and are unwilling or unable to speak up about any concerns they have, and often don’t ask questions about their jobs. But that doesn’t absolve employers of responsibility for keeping such workers healthy and safe.

Overall, 3,665 young workers under the age of 25 reported claims to Nova Scotia’s Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) last year, and WCB officials want to see those numbers fall. To do that, they want all employers to know they must make all employees aware of their right to refuse unsafe work, their right to be informed about any dangers on the job and their right to the proper knowledge and equipment to perform their work safely.

They also note the importance of parents and guardians in keeping young workers safe, and they encourage all to talk to them about approaching their work safely. Parents or guardians should not assume their child’s workplace is safe. They should also not assume that they receive proper training, or that they will speak up when they think something is unsafe. After they’re hired, investigate the workplace and find out as much as possible about the job. Research shows that young workers are five times more likely to be hurt in the first month than those who have been in their current jobs for more than a year.

Irving Shipbuilding Inc. is scheduled to stand trial in March 2012 on Occupational Health and Safety Act charges stemming from an industrial accident that injured a worker at the Halifax Shipyard three years ago.

The accident that led to the charges occurred on March 4, 2008, when a 50-year-old worker who was performing maintenance on the dry dock fell about six metres. Emergency personnel were called, and the worker was taken to hospital with unspecified injuries. The Nova Scotia Labour Department immediately launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fall.

The result of that investigation led to the Labour department charging Irving Shipbuilding with four offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act: failing to protect employees from a hazard of falling, failing to ensure there were adequate guardrails, failing to make sure workers entering a confined space wore full body harnesses; and failing to ensure the worker who fell had been provided with confined-space training.

The company had originally scheduled to go to trial in Halifax provincial court this coming September, but lawyers appeared before Judge Anne Derrick last week to ask for postponement, and she rescheduled the trial for 10 days, beginning March 5.

Halifax Shipyard is one of four yards, along with Seaspan Marine Inc. in Vancouver, Seaway Marine and Industrial in Ontario, and the Davie Yards in Quebec, who are bidding on Ottawa’s $35-billion national shipbuilding program. Irving Shipbuilding Inc. hopes to land the bulk of the contract, about $25 billion worth of work building 20 navy vessels.

According to an economic impact study done by the Conference Board of Canada, if they win the combat vessel contract, it could mean more than 11,000 new jobs in Nova Scotia by 2020, the height of construction. The deadline for bids is July 21, with a decision expected in September.

Ontario-based Goldcorp Canada Ltd., a mining operation doing business as Musselwhite Mine, an underground gold mining operation, was fined $50,000 last week for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a Ministry of Labour (MoL) inspection.

A Ministry inspector visited the Musselwhite Mine, located about 650 kilometers northwest of Thunder Bay, on November 14, 2009. As the inspector reviewed the mine’s training records, it was determined that one of the mine’s workers was not registered as fully trained in all of the prescribed training programs required for work in a hard rock underground mine.

As a result of that inspection, Goldcorp Canada Ltd. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that a worker was trained as prescribed. Justice of the Peace Edith Baas imposed the $50,000, and also imposed the statutorily required 25% victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act.

A failure to properly train one worker cost the company a total of $62,500.

One road construction worker was killed and two others injured after a car slammed into a road work crew in St. John’s, Newfoundland on July 5. The accident is being investigated by the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC).

A single vehicle was traveling eastbound behind several other vehicles in the curb lane on the Outer Ring Road between Topsail Road and Thorburn Road. When the vehicles in front of him slowed rather suddenly, the driver swerved into the median lane to avoid a rear-end collision, lost control of the vehicle and collided with the three road workers. Preliminary information indicates that speed appears not to have been a factor in the collision.

Paramedics on the scene pronounced one of the workers, who was in his 50s, dead at the scene. The other two workers sustained serious injuries and were transported to the Health Sciences Center. The RNC then closed the accident site to examine the scene more closely. They are inspecting all vehicles involved in the accident, and a number of witnesses have been interviewed. The RNC is also putting out the word that they would like anyone who witnessed the collision to come forward with information.

Since the beginning of this year, all flaggers and other traffic control persons (TCPs) in Newfoundland and Labrador are required to complete a training course delivered by trainers who are approved by the provincial Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission (WHSCC). The mandatory training prepares such workers to safely and competently perform traffic control duties by providing them with knowledge and skills consistent with industry and legislative standards. The certification training is valid for three years, at which time the course must be completed again, for the TCP to be recertified.

A British Columbia roofing worker for Weather Tight Supplies died last week after he fell through a skylight at the vacation home of former provincial premier Gordon Campbell.

The worker, Dave Lesko of Sechelt, was working on renovations to the vacant waterfront property in Halfmoon Bay, when the accident occurred around 1 p.m. According to neighbors, at least two fire department trucks and two ambulances arrived quickly, and an air ambulance took the injured worker to a Vancouver hospital, where he died from his injuries the next day.

WorkSafeBC is conducting an investigation, as is Weather Tight Supplies, who is required to conduct its own investigation and report the findings to WorkSafeBC. The twin investigations will focus on determining the nature of his activity, what he was doing and how and why he fell.

Security company Garda was slapped with $92,750 in penalties last week for failing to protect a female guard who was raped by an intruder at an unsecure construction site nearly five years ago.

The fine itself was small; just $5,000 plus a $750 victim fine surcharge. But Alberta provincial court Judge Marlene Graham also assessed the company an $87,000 payment, which will go to the Hazard Assessment Working Alone program at SAIT Polytechnic, a safety training program for lone workers, beginning in September 2012

At the time of the assault, the victim had only lived in Canada for three years and had only been issued her security guard licence by Garda three weeks before the assault.

This is believed to be the first prosecution in Alberta, and possibly the first in Canada, in which a company has been charged under the OHSA after an employee working alone was the victim of a crime.

The court said Garda’s primary negligence was in failing to conduct a specific site assessment. The judge said, “In my view, this was very obviously a dangerous and unsafe site. It was an outdoor site just off Macleod Trail. There was an exit door at the back that was always locked. One wonders why you’d have an exit door if it’s always locked.” She also noted that the front of the site was covered by an unsecured orange tarp flap. The victim had been provided with a chair, but no means of protection from anyone who might venture on to the site.

The judge also noted, “There was a high degree of probability an intruder might enter at night in winter, for warmth or to take construction material … who knows what else. … It was also foreseeable that a criminal act could happen. It was patently unsafe and not addressed by Garda. It showed a high degree of negligence. (The victim) was affected profoundly by the sexual and physical assault. … Garda is not to be prosecuted for the act of the intruder, but for its own negligence.”

An Edmonton mine worker who was injured while working at the Minto Mine in Yukon is suing the owner of the mine, Capstone Mining, and mine contractor and former employer Pelly Construction, for damages for his injuries.

The worker, Timothy Hansen, filed a statement of claim in Yukon Supreme Court last week. The accident that led to the suit occurred in July 2009, as he was operating a Caterpillar 330 loader, and rocks and debris fell from above, striking his head and body. The claim does not specify whether the rocks fell from the worker’s own loader bucket or elsewhere. At the time, he was taken to hospital and diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and musculoskeletal injuries.

In his suit, Hansen says he continues to suffer pain and a lack of function in his left hand and arm, as well as emotional distress. He claims that he continues to receive medical treatment for his injuries and to have a reduced quality of life, a reduced ability to earn money, and an ”impaired ability to engage in occupational, domestic, social and recreational activities.”

The suit also accuses two fellow employees of negligence leading to a lack of safety guards on the loader, a broken cab window, and a lack of other safety equipment. He claims he told one of the individuals his concerns, yet alleges nothing was done to address them.

His suit asks the court to grant him regular and special damages, as well as claiming his insured benefits on behalf of the Yukon government.

Last week, the Ontario Ministry of Labour (MoL) issued eight orders to construction company Teranorth Construction & Engineering Limited, based in Sudbury, after a worker was fatally injured in an accident that occurred on June 24.

At the time of the accident, the worker was operating an elevating work platform, or “scissor lift,” below a bridge structure that was under construction as part of a highway expansion project. For some reason, the platform “flipped over,” causing injuries that led to his death. Some witnesses suggested that the platform may have done so because it had been placed on “very uneven ground,” but investigations are ongoing.

The MoL issued a total of eight orders under the provincial Occupational Health & Safety Act to Teranorth, including:
o An order that Teranorth “ensure that the health and safety of workers on a project is protected;”
o An order that no further work was to be conducted with the two Genie lifts presently on the MacKenzie Bridge site until further notice from the MoL;
o An order that the owner of one Genie lift shall provide copies of maintenance records to the ministry;
o An order that Teranorth provide training records related to the elevating work platform that was being used at the time of the accident;
o An order that Teranorth provide training records related to the worker’s fall protection system.
o An order to ensure that the area beneath the bridge structure is undisturbed until advised by the ministry;
o An order that Teranorth take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker when working on the underside of the bridge structure while using an elevated work platform on sloped terrain, and:
o An order requiring Teranorth to provide a plan detailing how observations and sealing work will be carried out to the underside of the structure during ductal placement.