The striking United Steelworkers union is promising to hold Vale Inco Ltd. officials personally responsible if any worker is injured or killed on the job when production resumes at some mining operations in which workers are currently on strike.

Last week, Vale Inco announced its intention to restart several operations so it can produce copper concentrate for sale during the strike. It is the first time in the company’s 60-plus years of unionized mining that it has resumed even partial production during a labour dispute.

If necessary, the union will invoke the Westray Bill, and make corporate executives personally responsible should unsafe conditions develop. That bill, formally known as Bill C-45, was passed back in 2003 and amended the Criminal Code of Canada that makes corporations responsible for failing to protect the health of their employees or the public. The amendments came in the wake of 26 worker deaths after an explosion in the Westray coal mine in Nova Scotia in April 1992.

The judge in charge of the public inquiry in that case blamed the tragedy on a series of safety lapses at the mine, to which provincial authorities repeatedly turned a blind eye. Just before the explosion, Westray workers had appealed to the USW because they knew the workplace was unsafe.

The USW charge that Vale Inco is putting workers’ lives at risk with its plans to resume partial production. They have held repeated meetings with Vale Inco to discuss the company’s plans.

The Canadian government has announced the pre-publication of newly proposed Maritime Occupational Health and Safety Regulations in Part I of the Canada Gazette. The proposed regulations would replace the existing Marine Occupational Safety and Health Regulations, which have been in force since 1987.

The proposed Regulations came as a result of consultations with the Canadian Marine Advisory Council, with a significant level of input from the marine industry in Canada, as well as major marine unions, employer groups and fleet owners. The stated purpose for the update in marine regulations is to better protect those workers aboard vessels that fall under federal jurisdiction, as well as to bring the regulations in line with current national and international standards.

The pre-publication of the proposed regulations in Part I of the Canada Gazette is only the first part of the process for establishing new regulations. The pre-publication will be followed by an opportunity for comments. Regulations come into force on the day that they are registered for final publication in Part II of the Canada Gazette.

Members of the public have 30 days to submit comments on the proposed Regulations to the Labour Program or Transport Canada.

Multinational food conglomerate Bunge has been hit with $70,000 in fines as a result of a serious worker injury at an oilseed processing plant in Toronto in 2008.

The incident that led to the fine occurred on March 28, 2008 last year, when a tanker truck was being loaded with edible oil at the Bunge facility. While the worker was still on top of the truck filling the tank, it rolled out of a loading bay. The movement of the truck caused the worker to fall more than 3 metres to the concrete floor below, whereupon the raised tanker trailer’s wheels ran over his arm and his leg.

After an investigation, Bunge Canada was charge with and pleaded guilty to violating the Occupational Health and Safety Act; specifically for failing to take the “reasonable precaution” of having a system of signals in place for allowing tanker-trailer drivers to pull away from a loading dock.

The fine was imposed last week by Justice of the Peace John Cottrell and comes with a required 25% cent victim fine surcharge, which goes toward the province’s fund to assist victims of crime.

The Bunge plant in question has since been closed.

For those who only consider the cost of a good safety program and not the benefits, consider this story.

While 238,000 businesses will be spared a premium increase for workers’ compensation insurance next year, Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board has announced that it will hit 36,000 businesses with significant increases. The increases will only hit those businesses with the worst safety record.

Faced with $5.5 billion less in reserves because of investment losses as a result of the current recession, the board was faced with having to increase premiums for the first time in many years. But instead of hitting everyone across the board, they decided to base increases on the safety record within a particular industry. The proposed premiums for 2010 range from 0.33 per cent of pay in communications industries to 16.5 per cent for demolition companies. Some business could see increases of as much as 10%.

Not only that, but with less money on hand and not enough coming in through premium payments to cover the estimated $25 billion in claims expected over the next 40 years, the WSIB may have to raise premiums for everyone, even those businesses with good safety records.

Now, a lot of businesspeople will complain and object to the premium increases, but in a way, the premium increases are their fault. Creating a safer work environment, and cutting the number of injuries would go a long way toward reducing the WSIB operating deficit. Currently, approximately 270,000 claims a year are approved. The board has had a goal of cutting injury claims by 7% a year, slashing administrative costs and keeping medical costs under control. The only one of those three they have been able to accomplish has been the reduction in injuries.

If you don’t like the prospects of workers’ compensation premium increases over the next few years, then do what you can to keep your workforces safe and healthy. Reduced claims will result in reduced premiums.

The province of Newfoundland and Labrador has replaced old, outdated occupational health and safety regulations with a new, greatly expanded set of legislation.

On September 1, 2009, The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, 2009 (OHSR) will go into effect; all 518 sections of it, up from 187 sections previously. In addition to the new sections in the updated OHSR, there are also updates to existing regulations, to reflect industry safety practices now in place.

The old regulations were 30 years old, and had undergone a patchwork of changes by adding new additions to regulations as they became necessary. The result was a set of regulations that was very difficult to follow, so the province decided to do an overhaul, and create something more user-friendly.

The result is what provincial authorities hope is a regulation that categorizes and streamlines OH&S topics for easier use. Some of the major changes include; requirements to maintain a program to protect hearing in high noise environments; clarification of blaster responsibilities; procedures for access and egress to enclosed spaces; mandatory procedures for checking the well-being of workers working alone; and requirements to comply with the most recent version of a code or standard, rather than a possibly outdated version.

Over the next few months, the government intends to work with employers to assist them with the new rules, and conducting what they are calling a “soft enforcement” period until January 1, 2010. After that, they will be out in full-force. That doesn’t mean employers will be able to ignore the regulations, of course, but they will be a little more “understanding” with the rules changes.

A Brampton kitchen manufacturer has been fined $75,000 for violating the Occupational Health & Safety Act (OHSA), in an incident that resulted in the death of a worker. In addition, two supervisors from a temporary help agency were each fined $10,000 for their involvement in the same incident.

In August 2006, two workers from temp agency Opportunity Labour Agency Services were told to enter a shipping container to cut banding around a stack of plywood. As one of the workers began to cut the bands, the bundle of plywood fell on him. Ironically, these workers had been assigned this work after the task had already been deemed unsafe by other supervisors.

Neff Kitchen Manufacturers Limited pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that the plywood could be removed without endangering the safety of any worker, which is covered under OHSA Industrial Regs., section 45(b)(ii). Two supervisors from Opportunity Labour Agency Services also pleaded guilty for failing to advise the workers of the potential or actual danger posed by this load. As noted, each one was fined $10,000, as well.

The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Karen Walker. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25% victim fine surcharge on the total, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

The reason it seems as if so many governments are staging “safety blitzes” is because they are. And the reason they do so is simple; it’s because they work.

Think about it; if companies are aware of a safety blitz, they are more likely to get their house in order, so as to pass inspection. That’s a good thing for everyone concerned. But if the companies are unaware of, or don’t care about, the safety blitz, inspectors will catch them violating rules and regulations, which is good for workers, but not so much for companies.

One glaring example of the latter came during a road safety program in Winnipeg this summer. Winnipeg police and Manitoba’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance conducted a blitz of heavy trucks (over 4,500 kg) from June 1-5, and July 27-31.

The actual results of the blitz are startling. Winnipeg police released the number on August 6, and they showed that 62% of the 321 trucks stopped failed to pass inspection. Of that number, half — or 32% of all trucks inspected — were immediately pulled off the road for “serious mechanical defects.” In addition, inspectors issued 53 tickets during the blitz. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of these results is the assertion by Winnipeg police that the numbers are not much different than those they usually see.

Manitoba’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance plans to send inspectors out on a regular basis, with larger blitzes conducted two or three times a year, so trucking companies may want to keep a better eye on their trucks.

The Ontario Ministry of Labour has brought charges against Sunrise Propane Energy Group, nearly a year after a huge explosion that killed two people and left thousands temporarily homeless.

The two charges, alleging violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, are based the company’s failure to protect the health and safety of workers and to ensure their Downsview propane facility was operating in accordance with industry regulations. The company faces fines of up to $500,000 per charge, or as much as $1 million in total.

Last August 10, an early morning explosion at Sunrise Propane’s Murray Rd. facility sent mushroom clouds high into the sky, tossed people out of bed, blew open windows and doors, and forced thousands of residents to evacuate the surrounding neighbourhood.

As a result of their complex year-long investigation, the Ministry of Labour alleges that the company failed to provide instruction and supervision on “safe work practices and recognition of hazards associated with propane storage, dispensing and handling, and on appropriate emergency response to propane leaks,” and that they also “failed to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that a propane facility was installed and operated in accordance with regulatory requirements and safe industry practice.”

The Ontario Fire Marshal’s office is still investigating the fire, and could possibly bring additional charges, as well. In addition to the possible fines, a $300 million class action lawsuit, representing 3,000 displaced residents against Sunrise Propane and Teskey Concrete Co. Ltd., the owner of the land, awaits certification by a judge.

Believe it; not following all applicable regulations, and failing to train your workers thoroughly can be very expensive indeed.

Throughout the month of August, the Ontario provincial government plans to continue its efforts to reduce workplace injuries by continuing its Safe At Work Ontario campaign, and conducting safety blitz inspections focused on the placement of concrete at construction sites. Specifically, occupational health and safety inspectors from the Ontario Ministry of Labour will focus on hazards related to the design, erection and dismantling of forms used in the placement of concrete at such sites.

Their plan is to concentrate much of their energy on a wide range of hazards related to formwork. Some of the hazards they are most interested in identifying include those conditions that could result in workers falling or being injured in trenches and excavations. They will also be looking to identify those situations that could result in a worker being electrocuted, or being seriously injured or killed by vehicles and equipment. They will also take a look at workplace ergonomic issues, as well. The inspectors, as always, will take a zero-tolerance approach to violations of health and safety regulations in these areas.

The overall goal of the Safe At Work Ontario safety blitz program is to increase productivity in Ontario’s economy, as well as to reduce the stress and strain on its health care system, by reducing workplace injuries.

According to the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, construction formwork and demolition resulted in a lost-time injury rate more than 2.5 times the overall average for construction work in 2008. A previous compliance program by the Ministry of Labour from 2004-2008 reduced the annual workplace injury rate 20%, resulting in savings of about $5 billion in direct and indirect cost to the economy.

In yet another sign that safety authorities are getting serious about hitting companies harder, financially speaking, gold exploration company Conquest Resources Ltd., was fined $130,000 last week for violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) in the death of a worker.

In December 2007, Conquest hired an independent contractor to build an ice road on Sturgeon Lake, two hours north of Toronto, in order to service the company’s drilling activities. The accident in question happened on Christmas Eve, when the worker drove onto the lake alone to begin plowing. He fell through the ice and drowned.

A Ministry of Labour investigation found the worker was not given any current, accurate information about the thickness of the ice.

Conquest Resources Ltd. pleaded guilty under the OHSA to failing, as an employer, to provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker to protect his health and safety. The $130,000 fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Raymond Zuliani. In addition to that fine, the court imposed a 25% victim surcharge on the total, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

The next time you consider sending someone out to do a job without making sure he or she has all of the training and information they need, ask yourself if it’s worth the life of the worker and $162,500.