A business consortium from India has expressed a desire to reopen the Jeffrey asbestos mine in Asbestos, Quebec, and an anti-asbestos advocacy group, the Rideau Institute, is upset about the government’s reaction to the overture.

The provincial government is considering a $58-million loan guarantee to the Indian consortium, which is led by Balcorp Inc. The lure of jobs in a down economy is cited as a major reason for even contemplating the deal. The Quebec government is considering paying for routine inspections in India to make sure the asbestos is used safely.

The Rideau Institute, however, believes it would be impossible to regulate safe use of asbestos throughout India because of the generally poor working conditions in that country. For example, when asbestos cement products are dispersed, they will end up in thousands and thousands of poor villages and slums.

The Institute also objects to the fact that Quebec’s Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail du Québec (CSST), their workplace health and safety board, is part of an economic mission to India next week to promote the safe use of asbestos. They say the Quebec government should not be helping to export asbestos to India, or anywhere else, for that matter.

At an annual meeting held on January 16 and 17 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, federal, provincial and territorial labour ministers discussed a number of issues and reaffirmed their continuing commitment to safe workplaces, to protect workers and employers.

The get-together was co-hosted by the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Canada’s Labour Minister, and the Honourable Jennifer Howard, Minister of Labour and Immigration for Manitoba.

Minister Raitt asserted that the Canadian Government’s top priority was the economy and that “safe and healthy workplaces boost productivity and innovation,” and that “the well-being of workers and employers are key to the success and performance of Canada’s economy.”

According to Minister Howard, “Safe and healthy working environments do not just happen, they require a commitment by governments and everyone at the workplace. … Manitoba has long enjoyed a reputation as a leader in workplace health and safety issues and we want to continue to build on our successes.”

The meeting included discussions of Canada’s international labour activities, and endorsed a renewed strategy for Canada’s work as part of the International Labour Organization. They agreed to work together to develop programs that use social media and other tools to enhance the occupational health and safety of young workers.  They also participated in panel discussions regarding the evolution of work and possible long-range labor policy, with an emphasis on labour relations, employment standards, and mental health in the workplace.

The labour ministers’ meeting is an annual event, but ongoing work continues throughout the year, through the Canadian Association of Administrators of Labour Legislation (CAALL). Established in 1938, CAALL is an association of federal-provincial-territorial departments of labour and heads of occupational health and safety agencies.

The owner of a Manitoba paving company where 15-year-old worker Andrew James was killed when he was buried in burning asphalt two years ago is facing more than two dozen new charges under provincial workplace health and safety laws. Including the charges his company already faces under the Employment Standards Code for employing a person under the age of 16, Gerald Shepell now faces a total of 29 separate charges in the July 25, 2008 accident.

According to court documents, the new charges include eight counts of failing to ensure the safety, health, and welfare of the workers he employed on that date.

According to reports, Shepell has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial on October 7. In an interview, he stated that he didn’t know it was against Manitoba law to employ people younger than 16 at construction sites. He stated that he had the permission of the boy’s parents and thought that was good enough.

For the record, people under the age of 16 are allowed to work in Manitoba, but they must have a permit from the provincial employment standards branch. They are not allowed to work between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., and they are specifically forbidden from working at construction sites, manufacturing plants, on drilling or servicing rigs or on scaffolding.

Nearly two years after three of their workers were killed and two received major brain injuries after being overcome by toxic fumes, the operators of a mushroom farm near Vancouver were finally charged with a series of offences under British Columbia’s labour laws last week.

A total of 29 charges under the Workers Compensation Act and Occupational Health and Safety Regulations were brought against two companies; A-1 Mushroom Substratum Ltd., H.V. Truong Ltd.; and four individuals — Ha Qua Troung, Vy Tri Trong, Van Thi Truong and Thinh Huu Doan — who are either officers or directors of those companies.  Among the charges were; failing to ensure the health and safety of workers;  failing to fix hazardous conditions; failing to ensure workers are aware of safety hazards; inadequate training; and failing to create an adequate safety plan.

The incident that led to the charges occurred on Sept. 5, 2008, when a group of workers at a mushroom farm and composting plant in Langley were overcome by toxic fumes in a shed. What happened inside that shed set off what WorkSafeBC considers to be one the most complex investigations in the agency’s history.

According to investigators, a pipe carrying a compost mixture broke and released a toxic gas. Two men were overcome by the fumes relatively quickly, and when co-workers came to their aid, several of them were also overcome. Three workers died, including one of the rescuers. One worker is still in a coma and another was left unable to speak or hear.

The New Democrats and the British Columbia Federation of Labour, among others, have called for a public inquiry into overall farmworker safety, and also called for changes to the province’s agriculture industry. The Federation claims that the company offered a single pamphlet on working in confined spaces at the work site. Unfortunately, the pamphlet was available only in English, despite the fact that the workers involved were Vietnamese-Canadians, and spoke very little English.

This particular incident isn’t the only case in recent years involving the deaths of British Columbia farmworkers. In March 2007, three farmworkers were killed when a 15-passenger van carrying 17 people flipped onto a concrete median on the Trans-Canada Highway near Abbotsford. In that case, the deaths were ruled accidental, although the coroner’s jury made18 recommendations, including ensuring farmworkers are better informed about their rights.

On August 27, 2010, at 6:00 p.m., injured worker and Paralympics medalist Josh Dueck took to Empire Field and the Pacific National Exhibition in British Columbia to attempt to break a world record for the “most High Fives by any individual in 24 hours.” The record attempt was part of WorkSafeBC’s Raise Your Hand campaign — an annual initiative to increase young workers’ understanding of their safety rights and how to stay safe at work.

Dueck became paralyzed from the waist down in a workplace accident at the age of 23. Since then, he has become a world-champion para-alpine skier. He has won national and international competitions and recently won a silver medal at the 2010 Paralympics Winter Games. And as a member of the WorkSafeBC Paralympics Speaker program, he has shared his experiences with youth across British Columbia for the past several years.

Since 2007,  the Raise Your Hand campaign has used its website at RaiseYourHand.com, street teams that travel to high schools and universities around the province, and other means to raise awareness about workplace safety to the province’s 350,000 young workers.

Edmonton-based equipment dealer Finning Canada faces four counts for violations of Alberta’s occupational health and safety code in the wake of a worker’s death two years ago.

On July 8, 2008, a worker was killed on the job at Suncor Energy Inc’s Millennium mine site near Fort McMurray, when he and other Finning workers were moving a disabled hauling truck to the shop for repairs. The worker was run over by the vehicle and fatally injured, and two other workers also sustained minor injuries in the accident. One was treated on-site, while the other was taken to hospital in Grande Prairie, where he was treated and released.  A stop-work order was issued at the time, restricted to the immediate area around the site of the accident.

Finning released a statement on its website calling the worker’s death “truly a tragic incident – one that will forever impact Kevin’s family, all those who worked alongside him in the oil sands and our company as a whole.” The statement goes on to say that “at Finning, safety is a core value that influences everything we do. We remain committed to achieving and sustaining health and safety excellence in all of our business operations.”

The charges the company faces include;

• Failing as an employer to ensure, as far as it is reasonably practicable to do so, the health and safety of workers engaged in the work of that employer, as stipulated under section 2(1)(a)(i) of the provincial Occupational Health & Safety Act;
• Violation of sections 7(4) and 8(1) of the Act. Section 7(4) states that an employer must ensure that a hazard assessment is repeated at reasonably practicable intervals to prevent the development of unsafe and unhealthy working conditions.  Section 8(1) stipulates that an employer must involve affected workers in the hazard assessment and in the control or elimination of the hazards identified.
• Violation of section 15(1) of the Act, which demands that an employer must ensure that a worker is trained in the safe operation of the equipment the worker is required to operate.

The company is scheduled to first appear in Fort McMurray Provincial Court August 30 .

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.

A new report from the Conference Board of Canada, entitled “What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You: Literacy’s Impact on Workplace Health and Safety,” suggests that workers are being put at serious risk due to many employers’ overreliance on written manuals and policies and a serious lack of attention to building and maintaining workers’ literacy skills.

The report, which was released July 21, is the culmination of a two-year study for Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. The purpose of the study was to examine the health and safety aspects of literacy skills development in the workplace.

The study found that employers often assume that because they set a minimum recruitment standard of a Grade 12 education level, that all workers are fully literate, and no literacy issues could possibly exist in their workplaces.  According to the report,  64% of employers felt that employees understood their health and safety policies to a large extent or fully, while only 40% of workers themselves agreed with that assessment. At the same time, only 5% of immigrant service agency respondents said they believed workers understood health and safety policies to a large extent or fully.

The report also noted that because literacy is an essential skill in terms of understanding health and safety policies, such as a worker’s right to refuse unsafe work, safe work procedures, safe handling of materials and comprehension of WHMIS information, employers should be more proactive in assessing their workers’ literacy levels by reviewing past incidents. It recommends that employers take a close look at their current  OH&S policies from the perspective of a low-literacy worker. It suggests that all workplaces work towards putting their OH&S policies into plain language to minimize communication difficulties between employers and workers.

Employers are also encouraged to address the stigma surrounding literacy, and recognize that some workers who may be struggling with literacy or communications skills will be reluctant to admit it for fear of reprisal, job loss or even just because of fear that other workers might make fun of them. Therefore, a good practice might be to integrate literacy and essential skills training into regular technical and safety training.

Review the entire report here.

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.

Alberta’s provincial government has decided it’s time to get tough in its approach to occupational health and safety.

In a decision intended to send a message to every company that fails to comply with health and safety rules, Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk has announced that “the hammer is coming down,” so beginning this September,  the safety records of Alberta’s scofflaw companies will be posted online.

The announcement comes in the wake of increased criticism for what many consider to be its lax enforcement of occupational health requirements. Over the next several months, the province will make procedural changes designed to step up enforcement, and ensure that workplace safety directives are more effectively enforced.

The overall objective is to make sure all employers in Alberta understand the consequences of non-compliance with occupational health and safety rules. In addition to the online publication of the names of non-compliant companies, the province will also hire eight more workplace safety officers, and has started a pilot project to inspect workplaces at night and on weekends. It will now be tougher to ignore the rules.

Eight years ago, the government promised to publicize businesses’ workplace safety records, but decided privacy rules prevented it from doing so. Lukaszuk, however, claims that he recently checked with experts and found that to be untrue.

In April, the Auditor General’s office lambasted the government for allowing a relatively small group of employers to routinely violate occupational health and safety orders. Those companies were found to have had worker injury rates three to four times higher than the provincial average.