Canada is on the verge of becoming the first country in the world to develop a national set of standards designed to protect workers from what they consider to be mental health injury in the workplace.

Mental health issues have been cited as the leading cause of short and long-term disability, affecting one in five workers. Nearly a quarter of Canadian workplaces have been deemed “psychologically perilous,” and a number of federal and corporate officials have provided up to $470,000 in funding to the Mental Health Commission to establish a voluntary set of best practices that could lead to improvements in workplace mental health.

The loss of work days and other disruptions to workplaces caused by mental health issues are estimated to cost the Canadian economy more than $50 billion a year. In the last five years alone, there has been a 700% increase in court-ordered damages awarded for workplace mental health injury. The recognition by the courts of a serious problem coincides with studies characterizing between 10 to 25% of workplaces as “mentally injurious.”

The National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety will be voluntary for employers to adopt, and will provide them with tools to help with implementation.
The federal funds are being provided by Human Resources, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada. Beginning this fall, there will be a 60-day public consultation and it is hoped that standards will be ready for employers sometime next year.

Beginning with new regulations that took effect February 1, 2011, the Government of Manitoba is letting everyone know it is getting serious about preventing all types of workplace harassment.

The new regulations extend protection to workers against psychological harassment. That means the definition of harassment has been broken down into two types. The first is inappropriate behavior to a person based on their race, sex, age or a categories.   The second is basically workplace bullying, which includes “severe, repeated conduct that adversely affects a worker’s psychological or physical well being,” as well as “a single occurrence, if shown to have a lasting, harmful effect on a person.”

According to the Ministry of Labour and Immigration, the new regulations have been in the works for some time, and were created based on feedback from a number of groups, including employers, labour groups, and professional and trade groups. They also listened to a number of individuals who suffered from work place harassment and learned the toll it took on their mental health. The number one reason cited for disabilities-based health leaves is mental health issues, and the new regulations were crafted in order to help with both health and productivity. The new legislation hopes to help by putting on employers the obligation to have policies to prevent harassment.

There is plenty of information available for those who would like to learn about the new laws. A brochure, available at safemanitoba.com, includes detailed examples of types of inappropriate behavior, as well as scenarios to further illustrate how the new boundaries work. For employers who need to rewrite their own harassment policies, the website also features a sample harassment prevention policy.

As has been promised, Albertans will soon have a new website to check out; one designed to provide them with greater access to employers’ injury and fatality records.

Of course, as usual some folks still have no plans to be satisfied. Some feel that the information will be too limited, and won’t offer an adequate picture of most companies’ safety records. The Alberta Federation of Labour, for example, has issued a statement saying that the government’s “watered-down” website falls short of what they promised eight years ago, and that it doesn’t hold employers accountable.  They would like to see more information on the site, such as specific work site inspection reports, safety violations and enforcement orders

Overall, the provincial government plans to publish partial safety records covering 2005-2009 for roughly 125,000 employers covered by the Workers’ Compensation Board.  Nearly 12,000 businesses that carry voluntary insurance coverage, such as farms, advertising agencies and flyer distributors, won’t be included.

The new site, which should be up and running by the end of September, will include the following information:

• The number of recorded lost-time work injury and illness claims by a company;
• Each company’s lost-time claim rate, which helps measure the likelihood of an occupational injury or disease. The claim rate will then be compared with industry and provincial averages. This number will not be included for employers with fewer than 40 full-time equivalent workers.
• The number of fatalities recorded by each company;
• Whether a business holds a certificate of recognition, which acknowledges an employer has an audited safety program.

The creation of this web site comes as the province faces greater scrutiny of its efforts to protect workers. Last spring, the province received scathing criticism after an Auditor General’s investigation found Alberta Employment wasn’t sufficiently going after employers with poor safety records. That report also voiced concerns about Alberta’s safety certificate program.

Over the past decade, 1,285 Alberta workers have been killed on the job. In 2008 alone, the province had the second-highest worker fatality rate, with a 26-year high 166 workers killed on the job that year alone. Every year, more Albertans die from workplace accidents than from murder.

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.

Following criticism that the provincial government has been lax with its investigations of problem employers, Alberta is shaking up its occupational health and safety department.

The shake-up began earlier this month, when executive director Dan Clarke left his post. The government is now advertising for a replacement, and it sees the replacement as part of a structural overhaul of occupational health to make it focus more on compliance and enforcement of safety rules in the workplace.  It hopes to have a new executive director by the end of the summer.

There are many who would say it’s about time. Alberta currently has one of the highest rates of worker deaths in Canada with 166 deaths in 2008 alone. This past April, an auditor general’s report said the department was lax on enforcement and even suggested they had hidden the true number of companies that refused to make safety improvements.  The review showed that the department had suspended compliance orders filed against dozens of companies with high injury rate for no apparent reason. But when they looked more closely, they discovered that many of them were suspended just to make its own statistics look better, and in a number of cases, the compliance orders were reopened in the next fiscal year with no evidence that the companies took any action to improve worker safety.

The auditor general also found that in many cases, companies that ignored safety violations were still getting rebates from the province under a program that rewards firms with good worker safety records. Violations that went unchecked for years ran the gamut, ranging from a lack of hearing and eye protection to fire and explosion hazards.

Alberta Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk  has promised to announce more details with regard to the overhaul in the coming weeks.

After one of the most dangerous years in the city’s construction history, Calgary’s manager of building regulations has called on Alberta provincial officials to increase fines significantly for those companies found guilty of safety-code violations especially those, such as failing to secure building materials, that not only endanger workers, but the public at large.  He notes that the maximum $15,000 penalty for potentially deadly violations is significantly lower than for breaches of other safety laws, and doesn’t reflect the seriousness of the incidents.

This call comes in the wake of a series of incidents of falling debris that have occurred in the last year at high rise construction sites throughout Calgary, including falling steel that killed 3-year-old Michelle Krsek and injured an uncle last August.

The latest case being investigated by the city involves an online video, recorded last October but just recently discovered and passed on to authorities that was forwarded to city authorities, depicting construction workers with Skyway Canada horsing around recklessly on a Beltline tower. In the video (which has been removed from the YouTube video site), one worker actually tosses a metal clamp across scaffolds and jokes about the potential disaster if the tool had fallen and struck a passer-by. After learning of the video, Skyway Canada suspended two of the workers seen in the video. A third worker visible in the video had already left the company.

In addition to increased fines, city officials would also like to see greater reporting of incidents to the city. Currently, when near-misses or injuries occur, companies are required to report to the provincial Occupational Health and Safety office, but not to the city.  The city would like to see mandatory reporting to the city. The Calgary city council doesn’t have the legal authority to require such a thing, so the city is currently forced to rely on a voluntary reporting program for the city’s construction industry.

The Ontario courts were busy last week, and in the space of four days, worker accidents cost three companies a lot of money.  Take a look at the details of each accident; every one of them was easily preventable with just some basic safety training and worker awareness.

1. In one case, elevator and escalator manufacturer Kone Inc. was fined $90,000 for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act that caused a worker to be injured.

The fine was for an incident that occurred on September 11, 2008, when a worker was repairing an elevator circuit board at the University of Western Ontario. The worker stood on a ladder in the pit and shaft area of the elevator while the elevator’s power was still on. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the worker wasn’t using rubber gloves, mats, shields, or other equipment to protect against electrical shock. Of course, when the worker touched the back of the circuit board, the resultant electric shock caused him to fall to the concrete floor of the pit, resulting in wrist and facial fractures.

Kone Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the worker used rubber gloves, mats, shields and other protective equipment and procedures adequate to ensure protection from electrical shock and burns.

2.  In another case, a $60,000 fine was imposed on Tri City Materials Ltd., a company that works with aggregates, after it, too, pleaded guilty for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act that caused an injury to a worker.

The incident that led to this fine occurred on December 30, 2008. A worker was cleaning out a trailer that acted as a hopper for various materials. Because the hopper’s chute needed power to stay open, the truck attached to the trailer was left running.  Unfortunately, when another worker shut off the truck during the cleaning process, the chute gate immediately closed and caught the worker’s leg.

A Ministry of Labour investigation found that the company’s procedure for safely cleaning the trailer required that it be locked out with its chute gate manually wedged open. They determined that the worker was improperly trained, and was unfamiliar with this procedure or the hazards associated with cleaning out the trailer.

Tri City Materials Ltd. pleaded guilty to failing to acquaint the worker with the hazards associated with cleaning out the trailer.

3. Within days of the above fines, Abitibi Consolidated Company of Canada, owner and operator of a paper mill in Fort Frances, was slapped with a $125,000 fine for their violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act for an accident that injured two workers and a student.

That incident occurred on August 20, 2008, when two of the paper mill’s electricians were changing the power box for part of a paper machine. In this case, the power to the box itself was locked out, but the power to the cabinet containing the box was not shut off or locked out. As the electricians removed the power box, they noticed a cable inside the cabinet that needed to be moved, so one of them reached into the cabinet with a metal tool to remove a clamp holding the cable in place. In doing so, the tool made electrical contact with a live conductor inside the cabinet, creating an arc flash, which in turn caused another arc flash from the live conductors overhead.

The accident caused both electricians to suffer first, second and third degree burns. At the same time, a student who was standing nearby and watching them suffered first degree burns.

Abitibi Consolidated Company of Canada pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that a tool was not used near a live electrical installation to prevent electrical contact with a live conductor.

In addition to the $275,000 in fines in the three cases above, the court also imposed a 25% victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime. That puts the total cost to these three companies at more than $343,000, all for accidents that could have been prevented with a little health and safety awareness.

Proper health and safety training doesn’t cost. It pays.

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.

The Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) has announced a new focus on providing  on quality training and sustainable jobs for injured workers as part of an overhaul of their Labour Market Re-entry (LMR) program.

Based on input from employers and injured workers, as well as the results of an internal review and independent audit in 2009 that identified a need for improvement to the effectiveness and accountability of injured worker re-training in Ontario, WSIB intends to integrate the LMR and Return to Work programs into a new Work Reintegration Program starting later this year.

Among other things, the new program will; work to maintain the relationship between the injured worker and his or her original employer; provide direct WSIB oversight for all re-training services; maximize worker input and choice in their vocational goals; and make greater use of the provincial public education system for injured worker re-training. Ultimately, the program should provide workers with more marketable skills and valid credentials.

The goal of the Work Reintegration Program is to help injured workers return to decent, safe and sustainable jobs and provide Ontario’s employers with more WSIB support in retaining and re-training injured employees, which is important to everyone, including workers, employers, and the Ontario economy.