An ounce of prevention

Times Contributor     

 

Deadly statistics quieted a room of men and women in Wheatland County council on May 20, as Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Officer Ryan Schur read a roll call of safety violations leading to mortalities to the packed council room.

“One hundred and eighty-eight people died in Alberta last year from workplace injuries,” said Schur.

Schur has seen where a momentary lapse in worker judgement, a silent co-worker and companies cutting corners have left families without their fathers and sons. People have lost limbs, and injuries force them to go through years of rehabilitation. Violations and subsequent prosecution have closed company doors for good. 

Schur regrets that he had to investigate these deaths and said they are often totally preventable. He gave examples of an unsafe excavation that killed a worker as the wall caved in, a worker crushed by falling debris due to a bent scaffold shelf leg, and the 2009 incident where a three-year-old Calgary girl was cut in half from flying sheet metal, left unsecured at a site and picked up by strong winds. 

“This is where I get passionate about health and safety,” said Schur. “I have been to enough accidents.”

He also said financial boom time breeds negligence.

“When there’s a boom, we have untrained labour and people getting hurt,” said Schur.

He commented that young people or new immigrant workers going into their first jobs are often fearful of speaking out and work in unsafe environments. Unions don’t have the power they used to, to get employers to respond to complaints. Schur also said he would like to see safety requirements for farm operations, which is not currently covered under their mandate.

Schur said attitudes about health and safety have to change. He said he rarely gets to speak to workers in a proactive way, before the call comes in for an inspection or investigation. He complimented the county for being proactive, by putting good workplace guidelines in place and calling for the presentation. He said he would like also like to see education programs start at a grassroots level and education modules for young people in the schools.

He said it is the workers, supervisors and companies who really have a responsibility to ensure safety and training programs are in place and actively used on a day to day basis. Measures like updating log books, maintaining training schedules and workplace checks were so important. Employers need hazard assessments, equipment maintenance checks, worker training, WHIMIS training for chemicals and first aid certification for their employees. Supervisors need to make sure workers have qualifications and up to date certifications, ensure equipment is safe and well maintained and rectify workplace hazards. Workers need to think safe at all times, participate in training, report hazards and report coworkers in the workplace if they are impaired by substance abuse, or are employing unsafe work practises. Most of all, attitudes need to change from thinking the guidelines are a pain or a joke, to become part of ordinary day-to-day operations.

Those interested can look up an employer to see if they have safety measures in place, as they are now listed online for public viewing. See www.work.alberta.ca/occupational-health-safety/employer-records-results for ratings. Please note the definitions below the table for explanations on the evaluation.