C A N A D A’ S O C C U PAT I O N A L H E A LT H & S A F E T Y M A G A Z I N E MARCH /APRIL 2017
C A N A D A
Sifting through
Dust
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The untold story of McIntyre Powder
THE BIG M
How Millennials reshape occupational safety
MANAGING CHANGE
Surviving organizational restructuring
TICK, TOCK
Taking the toll out of Daylight Saving Time
MENTALLY SAFE
Creating psychologically healthy workplaces
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C A N A D A’ S O C C U PAT I O N A L H E A LT H & S A F E T Y M A G A Z I N E
C A N A D A
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FEATURES
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M CI NT Y R E P OWD ER
When the Dust Settles
A project probes the link between neurodegenerative diseases and inhaling aluminum dust, a practice that was believed to protect miners from silicosis decades ago. BY JEAN LIAN
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M I L L E NN IAL WOR KER S
The Next Wave
As baby boomers retire, the growing presence of Millennial employees is reshaping Canada’s occupational-safety landscape. BY DANNY KUCHARSKY
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DEPARTMENTS H E ALT H WATC H
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Managing Change
Organizational restructuring affect employees’ mental and physical health. Open communication and a positive workplace culture can mitigate these stressors. BY JEFF COTTRILL
S AF E T Y GEAR
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All Hands on Deck
Safety gloves provide more than just a helping hand when it comes to protecting our prized digits. Choosing the glove that fits is largely determined by the task.
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BY JEFF COTTRILL
IN THIS ISSUE
ACCI DE N T P R EV EN TION
ED ITO R IA L 4
Minding Mindfulness
As the clock moves ahead by an hour, taking some simple steps can reduce fatigue and disruption to sleep patterns caused by the start of Daylight Saving Time.
PAN O R A MA 6
O PI NI O N
OH &S U P D AT E
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Spring Ahead
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British Columbia recognizes three new cancers as work-related; Alberta seeks feedback on farm employment standards; Ontario firm fined for owed wages; Saskatchewan supervisor penalized; Nova Scotia covers medical marijuana; and more.
Working towards Mental Safety
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Ontario’s labour minister underscores the importance of creating safe workplaces that are also psychologically healthy. BY KEVIN FLYNN
TIME OUT
Pretty in pink; wrong vibes; breaking wind; bad hair day; and more.
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D ISPAT C HES 1 8
Conflict resolutions hurt productivity; desk-bound jobs hike heart risk and yield thicker waistlines; and more. A D IN D EX
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Fear is the father of courage and the mother of safety.
- HENRY H. TWEEDY
www.ohscanada.com
MARCH/APRIL 2017
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EDITORIAL C A N A D A’ S O C C U PAT I O N A L H E A LT H & S A F E T Y M A G A Z I N E
Minding Mindfulness
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t was one of those frantic mornings when I was trying to do a dozen things, prepping the kids for school and getting myself ready for work. As I was coring an apple for my kids’ lunchboxes, I accidentally sliced my thumb. I was fully aware that I was not coring the apple the right way. Despite that awareness, I decided to save a millisecond by coring it with one smooth cut — towards my hand. It was a fairly deep cut, and it took me about an hour of pressing on the wound before the bleeding stopped. Talk about making it to work on time. That evening, the minor mishap came back to me during the calm of my weekly meditation session. As the editor of an occupational-safety magazine, I could easily see that I injure myself for the same reasons many workers get hurt on the job: time pressure, distraction, taking shortcuts, complacency and taking chances. Personal safety and mindfulness often go hand-in-hand. Obviously, I was not practising what I am trying to learn during these meditation sessions — that is, to be mindful. Don’t get me wrong: I am not dismissing the importance of legislation and enforcement, nor am I letting employers off the hook for their responsibilities to create safe workplaces. Rather, job safety is most effective when it is built on a tripartite relationship: the legislative framework; employers’ obligation to safety; and workers’ understanding that safety is also a personal responsibility. How is mindfulness relevant to workplace safety? A lot, actually. Mindfulness at work means focusing on the task at hand. Following safety procedures, donning appropriate personal protection properly and staying vigilant at all times are all part and parcel of mindfulness. For those who hold safety-sensitive positions or work in a hazardous environment, being mindful on the job lowers the chances of causing or getting involved in an accident as a result of inattention, negligence, human error or flouting safety protocols. And there are also psychological benefits. By focusing on the breath and regarding every passing thought and emotion as fleeting clouds, meditation brings about better emotional self-control by highlighting the transience of these thoughts and emotions, which rise and ebb like waves. In a professional context, this means bringing about a more objective perception of experiences and minimizing the chances of conflict at work. Mindfulness also regulates stress levels by altering the neuroplasticity of the brain. The amygdala — an almond-shaped mass of gray matter inside each cerebral hemisphere — processes emotions and stress responses. Magnetic resonance imaging scans of the brain from various studies have shown that the amygdala shrinks in size following mindfulness practice. Meditation also increases greymatter density in the prefrontal lobe, which is responsible for problem solving and emotion regulation. This puts one in a better position to manage job stress and organizational changes that may occur from time to time. In a society where multitasking and constant distraction are the norm, sitting and focusing on the breath can feel counterintuitive — even regressive. Research has shown that 99 per cent of all accidents are preventable. If the state of my thumb is any indication, safety — both at work and in our personal lives — is very much a state of mind.
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Jean Lian
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C A N A D A
Vol. 33, No. 2 MARCH/APRIL 2017
EDITOR JEAN LIAN 416-510-5115 jlian@ohscanada.com JEFF COTTRILL 416-510-6897 jcottrill@ohscanada.com
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
MARK RYAN
ART DIRECTOR ACCOUNT COORDINATOR
ALICE CHEN 905-713-4369 achen@annexweb.com
CIRCULATION MANAGER
ANITA MADDEN 416-442-5600 EXT 3596 amadden@annexbizmedia.com PETER BOXER 416-510-5102 pboxer@ohscanada.com
PUBLISHER
GROUP PUBLISHER
PAUL GROSSINGER pgrossinger@annexweb.com
COO TED MARKLE tmarkle@annexweb.com PRESIDENT & CEO
MIKE FREDERICKS
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS
DAVID IRETON, Safety Professional, Brampton, Ont. AL JOHNSON, Vice President, Prevention Services WorkSafeBC, Richmond, B.C. JANE LEMKE, Program Manager, OHN Certification Program, Mohawk College, Hamilton, Ont.
DON MITCHELL, Safety Consultant, Mississauga, Ont. MICHELE PARENT, National Manager, Risk Management and Health and Wellness, Standard Life, Montreal, Que. TERRY RYAN, Workers’ Compensation and Safety Consultant, TRC Group Inc., Mississauga, Ont. DON SAYERS, Principal Consultant, Don Sayers & Associates, Hanwell, N.B. DAVID SHANE, National Director, Health and Safety, Canada Post Corporation, Ottawa, Ont. HENRY SKJERVEN, President, The Skjerven Cattle Company Ltd., Wynyard, Sask. PETER STRAHLENDORF, Assistant Professor, School of Environmental Health,Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Ont. JONATHAN TYSON, Association of Canadian Ergonomists/Association canadienne d’ergonomie, North Bay, Ont. Printed in Canada ISSN 0827-4576 (Print) ISSN 1923-4279 (Digital) PUBLICATION MAIL AGREEMENT #40065710 CIRCULATION email: asingh@annexbizmedia.com Tel: 416-510-5189 Fax: 416-510-5170 Mail: 80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, ON M3B 2S9 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Published six times per year – Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/Jun, Jul/Aug, Sep/Oct, Nov/Dec Canada $110.50/yr plus tax USA $132.50/yr Foreign $137.50 Occasionally, OHS Canada will mail information on behalf of industry related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation departmenepartment in any of the four ways listed above. Annex Privacy Office privacy@annexbizmedia.com Tel: 800-668-2374 No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission © 2017 Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
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Number of employees in federal workplaces who filed sexual-harassment complaints in 2015. Four-fifths of the complainants were female. Source: Federal Jurisdiction Workplace Survey, 2015
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1. On
the Road: British Columbia’s Road Safety at Work Week (RSWW) took place from March 6 to 10. WorkSafeBC, which runs RSWW in collaboration with the provincial government, stresses employers’ legal obligations to keep workers safe even when they use their personal vehicles for work. These measures include ensuring that employee vehicles are properly maintained and that workers understand safe driving procedures and have proper training. Source: WorkSafeBC
87%
Percentage of surveyed sex workers who cited the need or desire for money as one of the factors for choosing sex work as a profession. Source: University of Victoria
2. Partners
in Safety: The Alberta Construction Safety Association (ACSA) has partnered with Women Building Futures (WBF), an Edmonton-based group that trains women in industrial trades, to make the province’s construction sector safer for women. The collaboration, which was announced at a joint event in Edmonton on February 8, will allow WBF students, alumni and employees to access ACSA training programs and services. Women entering non-traditional careers like construction often do not have proper health and safety training.
Source: Alberta Construction Safety Association, Women Building Futures
Training Fatality: A Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) search-and-rescue technician was killed in a training accident near Yorkton, Saskatchewan on March 8. Master-Corporal Alfred Barr was a member of 435 Source: Royal Canadian Air Force Transport and Rescue Squadron.
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Scoring a First: The Stable Grounds, Canada’s first exclusive residential therapy centre for treating first responders and uniformed professionals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, opened in West Elgin, Ontario in February. The privately owned facility offers 30-, 60- and 90-day treatment programs.
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Source: The Stable Grounds
5. Pilot
Program Launched: The Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia launched a pilot program on February 1 to determine the best resources for managing injured workers’ concussions and to establish a new protocol for them. Workers with new concussion injuries in the province are directed to one of three clinics Source: The Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia — CORE, Lifemark or CBI — for treatment.
360° 6
FIRE RAVAGES YOUTH SHELTER More than 30 youths were killed in a fire that destroyed an overcrowded state-run shelter in Guatemala. The trouble started when dozens of teens tried to escape, only to be caught and locked down in their dorms. On March 8, someone set fire to mattresses in the girls’ section of the campus, and the blaze spread through the two dorms. The shelter, which was built to hold 500 residents, housed at least 800 at the time of the fire. Source: The Associated Press
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4 hours
The amount of time that chief financial officers in Canada spend per week resolving staff conflicts, according to survey results released on March 9. Source: Accountemps
One-third The fraction of Quebec’s population that anticipates difficulty waking up when Daylight Saving Time kicks in on March 12, an online poll published on March 6 reveals. Source: Léger
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OH&S UPDATE
UPDATE ON PROBE INTO FATALITIES FEDERAL — The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has provided an update on its investigation into a fatal plane crash near Cochrane, Alberta on February 13. The crash killed two flight instructors from Mount Royal University when the Tecnam P2006T plane collided with terrain approximately half an hour after taking off from Springbank Airport in Calgary. At a press conference held in Edmonton on February 27, TSB senior investigator Fred Burow revealed that the investigation team had finished examining and documenting the accident scene and had transported the wreckage to the TSB’s Edmonton facility. They also requested the aircraft’s maintenance history and obtained most of the radar data and air-traffic-control audio. Moving forward, the Board will examine the engines and propellers, study aircraft maintenance records and pilot history, gather more information on weather conditions, interview witnesses and reconstruct the events.
NEW RAIL STRATEGIES NEEDED FEDERAL — The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is calling for Transport Canada (TC) to study the factors that exacerbate the outcomes of derailed trains carrying dangerous goods and develop new preventive strategies. The recommendation came alongside a new TSB report, published on February 16, on the derailment of a Canadian National train carrying petroleum crude oil near Gogoma, Ontario on February 14, 2015. No one was injured when 29 of the train’s 100 tank cars derailed, spilling 1.7 million litres of crude and igniting fires that burned for five days. The TSB investigation determined that failure of the track’s joint bars had contributed to the derailment and that the train had been moving at well below TC’s maximum allowed speed at the time. TSB chair Kathy Fox said at a press
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conference in Sudbury on February 16 that the current speed limits may not be low enough for unit trains carrying flammable liquids. “We are also calling for Transport Canada to look at all of the factors, including speed, which contribute to the severity of derailments, to develop mitigating strategies and to amend the rules accordingly.”
ENGINE FAILURE CAUSED CRASH FEDERAL — A report from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), published on February 2, has cited engine failure as the cause of a fatal helicopter crash near the village of Paynton, Saskatchewan on October 22, 2015. A pilot and an external platform worker were using a Hughes 369D helicopter to install marker balls onto hydro lines when the engine lost power as the copter was hovering at about 100 metres above the ground, causing the aircraft to descend and hit the ground. Both workers were killed. According to the TSB investigation, the engine failure was caused by fatigue and overload on a compressor blade. Furthermore, the aircraft was not hovering high enough to conduct an autorotation landing successfully. “If operators do not follow manufacturer-recommended procedures when operating in an erosive/corrosive environment,” the report states, “there is an increased risk of an undetected and premature failure of the compressor.”
MISCOMMUNICATION CITED FEDERAL — A new investigation report from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is calling for railway workers to communicate signal information more clearly. The call came after a train derailed at Turcot-Quest after it left Montreal’s central station and caused minor injuries to a VIA Rail employee on December 11, 2015. According to the report published on February 27, TSB investigators found
that the train had been moving at about 88 kilometres per hour (km/h) after negotiating a crossover where the authorized speed was only 24 km/h. The crew did not slow down the train, because the foreman’s instructions had not referred to the adjacent freight track and the crew believed that the train was going to proceed on a different track. “If track foremen give… instructions that do not coincide with all potential train routes, train crews could misunderstand and misinterpret the instructions, increasing the risk of accidents,” the report warns. The TSB suggests that the rail system needs additional physical-defence methods to control trains in signalled territory. Otherwise, “the risks of collision and derailment are increased when signal indications are not correctly recognized,” the report adds. Rail-signal misinterpretation is on the TSB’s Watchlist for important safety hazards in the transportation industry.
CITY, WORKERS FACE CHARGES IQALUIT — The City of Iqaluit and two of its employees were scheduled to appear in court in Iqaluit on March 6, after the workplace health and safety authority for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut filed charges on January 27 against the parties over an incident last spring. A landfill worker was injured after being run over by a garbage truck last April 18, according to a statement from the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission, which filed multiple charges against the City, as well as supervisor Keith Baines and employee Ben Kovic, Jr. The charges include failing to ensure the health and safety of workers, along with other counts under the territorial Safety Act and Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.
CORPORAL ACCUSED OF ASSAULT NUNAVUT — Another member of the Canadian Forces (CF) has been charged
with sexual assault against a military colleague, following an incident that allegedly occurred in Nunavut last June. A statement from the Department of National Defence, dated February 14, states that Corporal Frédéric Richer, who is based in St. Hubert, Quebec, has been accused of assaulting another CF member while the latter was working with a technical maintenance team in Nunavut. Corporal Richer is charged with one count of sexual assault, which is punishable under section 130 of the National Defence Act. “Wherever Canadian Armed Forces members serve in Canada or throughout the world, the Canadian Forces Military Police are committed to supporting and protecting victims of sexual assault,” says Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Bolduc, commanding officer of CF’s National Investigation Service. “This charge reflects that commitment and is another example of the effectiveness of the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service.”
CANCERS DEEMED PRESUMPTIVE VICTORIA — The British Columbia government is adding three types of cancer to those considered occupational diseases suffered by firefighters. According to a statement issued on March 6 by the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training, breast cancer, prostate cancer and multiple myeloma will be added to the Firefighters Occupational Disease Regulation under the Workers’ Compensation Act. That means firefighters who develop those diseases after a certain period of time on the job will be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits without having to prove that the cancer is work-related. The province says it first recognized certain cancers as occupational diseases for firefighters in 2005. Since then, the list of cancers has grown to 10 and includes brain, bladder and testicular cancer, as well as leukemia. Heart dis-
ease and heart injury were also restored as illnesses presumed to be conditions developed by firefighters in 2014. “Firefighters are exposed to toxic environments that greatly contribute to increased cancer risks, more than double that of the general population,” says Gord Ditchburn, president of the B.C. Professional Firefighters Association. Members across the province are expected to benefit from the additional coverage, as will their families, who Ditchburn says are often the ones who must navigate the coverage process.
ASBESTOS RISK CLOSES STORE VICTORIA — The Dollar Tree location in downtown Victoria was temporarily closed after an inspection by WorkSafeBC, because of crumbling floor tiles containing asbestos. The store was inspected by WorkSafeBC occupational-hygiene officer
PROVINCE TO ALLOW RIDE-SHARING SERVICE VICTORIA — The British Columbia government is introducing a series of improvements to make the taxi industry more competitive as ride-sharing services are allowed to operate in the province by year end. “British Columbians have told us that they want ridesharing services, and we are moving forward to make it happen,” Todd Stone, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, says in a statement dated March 7. Peter Fassbender, Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development and Minister Responsible for TransLink, says conversations with taxi companies and drivers over the past year have indicated a need to ensure fairness so that they can compete effectively with ride-sharing providers. “This is why we have worked so hard to develop these measures, which reflects what I heard through extensive consultations and will allow ride-sharing companies to operate, but also allows the taxi industry to be competitive.” According to the statement from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, the province will invest up to $1 million to help the taxi industry develop an app with the capability of shared dispatch, so that members of the public can hail and pay for a taxi with a Smartphone in the same way that they would for a ride-sharing service. The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) will invest up to $3.5 million to install crash-avoidance technology in all taxis, streamline the claims process and work with the
cab industry to make their insurance more flexible and costeffective. Depending on the number of kilometres driven, these savings could hover in the range of 25 per cent. Other changes that the provincial government plans to make include the following: working with municipal governments and the taxi industry to remove red tape and overlap within the system; retaining the exclusive rights of taxis to be hired by phone, at a taxi stand or at the curb; addressing the current shortage of cabs to provide more choice, accessibility and opportunity for both consumers and drivers; and working with municipalities and other stakeholders to allow all drivers, including taxis, the same access to provide services across municipal boundaries. The same safety standards will also apply to both taxis and ride-sharing providers. Class 4 licences will be phased out for taxi drivers, and taxi and ride-sharing companies will be responsible for maintaining records to prove that all drivers possess unrestricted driver’s licences, are at least 19 years old, have passed criminal- and safe-driving-record checks and ensure that vehicles have passed regular mechanical inspections. Starting in the summer, the provincial government will seek additional input on these issues from taxi drivers, ridesharing and taxi industries, police, airports, municipalities, ICBC and RoadSafetyBC. — By Jean Lian
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Jason Smit on February 21, according to the inspection report, which contains two outstanding orders. One was a stopwork order, and the other demanded compliance with the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Regulations. Asbestos-containing floor tiles and asbestos inventory located in the retail area were found to be in poor, pulverized condition, the report states. “The employer has not controlled the material by removal, enclosure or encapsulation. Workers access this space and are required to move materials across these floor tiles.” No work will be permitted in the store until it has met the following conditions: hired a qualified hazardous-materials consultant to perform a risk assessment regarding the building’s asbestos content; hired a qualified asbestos-abatement contractor to develop abatement procedures and clean up the risky areas; engaged a qualified person to conduct a final inspection and document that all asbestos is either safely contained or removed; and undergone a follow-up inspection by Smit. “The employer must ensure that all friable asbestos-containing materials in the workplace are controlled by removal, enclosure or encapsulation, so as to prevent the release of airborne asbestos fibre,” Smit wrote.
HEARING PROTECTION SHUNNED RICHMOND — Construction workers under 21 are less likely to wear hearing protection on the job than are those of
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any other age group in British Columbia, according to new statistics from WorkSafeBC, released on February 23. The latest data, garnered from more than 160,000 hearing tests that employers in the province conducted last year, show that nearly one-quarter of surveyed construction workers under 21 reported not wearing hearing protection in 2016, as opposed to 13 per cent of workers older than 50 and 11 per cent of workers aged from 21 to 50. Young workers in construction are also less likely to wear hearing protection than young workers in other industries that require it. WorkSafeBC has accepted more than 37,000 workers’ compensation claims for noiseinduced hearing loss since 2006. Noise-induced hearing loss “can be caused by a single exposure to loud noise or, more typically, by repeated exposures to consistent noise. While the damage may be painless, it is irreversible and may go unnoticed for years,” WorkSafeBC occupational audiologist Sasha Brown says. “We want to raise the level of awareness among employers of the prevalence and seriousness of this occupational disease.”
FARM LAW NEEDED: REPORT EDMONTON — An internal report by the previous Alberta government has revealed that the Progressive Conservatives were fully aware that the province’s agriculture sector needed mandatory workers’ compensation coverage. The 2015 report states that every year, between 18 and 20 Albertan farm
workers were killed in occupational accidents, more than 4,000 were injured on the job and in excess of 400 of the injured were out of commission for at least two months, according to a February 21 statement from the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which obtained the report though a freedom-of-information request. “I have worked on a feed lot, and I have always known that agricultural work is dangerous work. But the magnitude of these numbers is eye-opening,” AFL president Gil McGowan says. After Rachel Notley’s NDP government came into power, Bill 6, or the Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act, went into effect on December 10, 2015. The new legislation made workers’ compensation coverage compulsory for injured agricultural workers, giving farm employees the same basic protections that other Alberta sectors already had. Prior to Notley’s election, Alberta’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner revealed that there were 25 farming fatalities in the province in 2014. Twenty of the victims were owners, operators, owners’ family members or employees of their respective farms. The government report also indicates that agricultural workers in Alberta were losing more than $10 million in pay from lost-time injuries per year. In addition, standard workers’ compensation coverage would cost less for farm employers than the private insurance that workers were relying on did. “This document shows that the problem existed, that the research showed that reforms were necessary and that
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this was ignored by successive Conservative governments who did nothing,” McGowan charges. The AFL statement also notes that since the passing of Bill 6, the province’s Workers’ Compensation Board has processed 763 injury claims from farm workers, 407 of which involved disabling injuries.
OFFICERS LODGE COMPLAINTS CALGARY — A group of thirteen Calgary Police Service (CPS) members has filed complaints of bullying and harassment against their employer. The group is led by Constable Jen Magnus, a veteran of the CPS who publicly resigned from the force at a commission meeting on January 31 after accusing colleagues of harassing behaviour. The group alleges that the CPS “failed
to provide a safe environment for certain employees, which has resulted in years of workplace bullying and harassment,” according to a joint media statement that the officers issued on February 21. At a police news conference on February 21, CPS Chief Roger Chaffin told reporters that the complaints were a “big, positive development” in addressing the alleged problem. “To start working through specific allegations is a really good step for us to start to create the organization that we are trying to here.” Les Kaminski, the president of the Calgary Police Association, says that while there likely were “isolated incidents” of bullying and harassment within the CPS, he does not believe that the problem has ever been reflective of the entire police force. “In my 30-plus years as a police officer in Calgary, the vast majority of the people I have worked around are kind, solid, sincere people who come to
work every day and treat people with respect and dignity.” Kaminski stresses that his intention is not to minimize the allegation, noting that all organizations have always had challenges and issues like this. “The difference is that now, in this day and age, these behaviours are recognized, revealed and are no longer tolerated.” Chief Chaffin encourages other CPS members who have experienced harassment on the job to come forward. The service also plans to hire an external investigator to look into the allegations.
THREATS TARGET PREMIER EDMONTON — New statistics from Alberta Justice, released on February 13, reveal that Premier Rachel Notley was subject to 412 incidents of “inappropriate contact and communication” (ICC) in
RECOMMENDATIONS ON STANDARDS RELEASED EDMONTON — A working group tasked to review employment and labour standards for Alberta’s agriculture sector has recommended that farm workers should not get overtime pay and that family members who work on farms should be exempted from all employment and labour standards. The report notes that most jurisdictions in Canada exempt the agriculture sector from overtime. As work hours in the farming sector are unpredictable, an overtime rate would lower the base pay rate and present “complications” in calculating pay. Applying employment standards to family members working on farms would also be “impractical and unfeasible, as well as burdensome without providing any benefit,” the report says. The report by the Employment Standards Technical Working Group was posted on the website of the Alberta government on March 6. Members of the public were given until April 3 to provide feedback on the recommendations made by six technical working groups, which started reviewing employment and labour standards for the province’s agricultural sector last May. Alberta’s Minister of Labour, Christina Gray, says she is pleased to share the working group’s first set of recommendations. “We would seek feedback as we go through the process, and I encourage Albertans to look at the recommendations and provide their honest and rank responses.” Other recommendations include the following: • The work assigned to farm workers under the age of 16 must not be detrimental to their health, education or welfare, and parental consent must be obtained by employers;
•W ork hours for waged, non-family farm workers aged 12 and 13 should not exceed 20 hours of work per week; • Waged, non-family employees should have four days off every 28 days; and • Minimum wage should apply to waged, non-family farm and ranch employees, except those who work in primary production like greenhouses, nurseries, sod farms and mushroom farms. The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) responded to the release of the working group’s report by urging the provincial government to implement strong basic-rights protections and regulations for all farm and ranch workers. “Given that the vast majority of agricultural workers in Alberta are not unionized, whatever regulations are put in place for the Employment Standards Code will serve as the basic floor of minimum rights for most Albertans working in the agriculture sector,” says AFL president Gil McGowan. McGowan also raises concerns on three recommendations: expanding paid, non-family youth employees in the industry for 12- and 13-year-olds; adding new exemptions for primary production like greenhouses; and exempting employment standards for family members who work on farms. “When you allow kids that young to work for pay, it is a suggestion that they should be able to do potentially dangerous jobs such as operating heavy machinery,” he suggests. The provincial government says it will start drafting legislative amendments based on the recommendations and public feedback received. — By Jean Lian
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2016. Out of these incidents, 26 were forwarded to the police for review and possible investigation. The provincial government also revealed that Alberta’s Sheriffs Branch recorded a total of 19 threats against Notley over the last five months of 2015 — more than against any other Premier since 2003. There were 16 recorded threats against Alison Redford during her stint as Premier from 2012 to 2014. Jason van Rassel, a public-affairs officer with Alberta Justice, says there is “no set definition” for ICC and that it would be “inappropriate” to give a specific example. “As potential threats come to the attention of the Sheriffs Branch, they are analyzed and assessed on a caseby-case basis, and investigators rely on their expertise and judgement to classify them accordingly,” he says. “If something approaches or reaches the threshold for uttering threats set out in the Criminal Code, the file is forwarded to police for review and possible investigation.” Van Rassel says the Sheriffs Branch
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started keeping closer track of ICC against Notley early in 2016 and gathered information from numerous sources. Jerry Dias, president of national private-sector union Unifor and an advocate for eliminating violence against women, calls the Alberta Justice revelations unbelievable. “They think they are going to intimidate her,” Dias says. “It is really about bullying. They think that somehow, if they bully her, that somehow, she will leave.” He adds that this problem seems to affect women in politics exclusively. “Men in politics don’t go through this,” he says, citing B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne as examples of female leaders who endure frequent threats and harassment. The issue of threats against female politicians has always been around. “The difference is that people are talking about it today. People like Christy Clark, who are high-profile, are coming out and talking about what she has had to endure as a female politician.”
Statistics from Alberta Justice are not the only recent example of women in politics facing harassment in the province. In November, Sandra Jansen withdrew from the Alberta Conservative leadership race and joined the NDP party, saying that she had faced excessive, misogynistic harassment from the public. While it is important for women to speak out openly about the sexism and harassment they face, men also have a responsibility to do something about it. “Men are the ones that are causing the problem,” Dias says. “So we need to be the ones that find a solution.”
CONSTRUCTION WORKER KILLED MOOSE JAW — A 25-year-old construction worker died at a highway worksite near the village of Eyebrow, Saskatchewan on February 13. According to a statement from the RCMP’s Moose Jaw detachment, officers were dispatched to the worksite on High-
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way 42, located between Eyebrow and Keeler. The victim, identified as Jesse Michael Hoehn from the town of Davidson, “died as a result of injuries sustained in the workplace incident.” Jennifer Veri, a communications consultant with the provincial Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety, confirms that oh&s authorities are investigating the incident.
PRIVATIZATION HIKES RISKS REGINA — The current practice of contracting out courtroom security jobs in Saskatchewan creates an unsafe work environment, according to a new report from the province’s Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety. A statement dated January 31 from the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’ Union (SGEU) says
the report followed staff cuts by the Ministry of Justice in early January — cuts that had left only one deputy sheriff per courtroom, with commissionaires replacing second sheriffs. Following this move, two sheriffs exercised their right to refuse dangerous work, and the labour ministry’s oh&s division issued a notice of contravention to the justice ministry. “This report confirms what we have been saying all along,” SGEU president Bob Bymoen says, referring to the Saskatchewan government’s privatization of jobs resulting in unsafe working conditions. “Deputy sheriffs of court security are trained, screened and equipped to very high standards. Replacing them with commissionaires compromises court security and the safety of workers.” Bymoen demands that the Ministry of Justice rehire all sheriffs whose jobs had been terminated.
SUPERVISOR FINED FOR FATALITY REGINA — A supervisor with SaskPower was found guilty of two counts under The Saskatchewan Employment Act and fined $28,000 in connection with a workplace death that occurred more than two years ago. On December 20, 2014, a worker was electrocuted while repairing a highvoltage transmission line near Wakaw. The sentencing, which took place on March 8 in Melfort Provincial Court, found Kelvin Rowlett guilty of failing to ensure, as far as was reasonably practicable, the health and safety of everyone who worked under the supervisor’s direction and for not following the SaskPower Safety Rule Book’s procedure to review and revise job hazard identification and risk assessment when job conditions change.
COUNCILLOR TABLES MOTION ON BUS SAFETY WINNIPEG — A city councillor has brought forward a motion that will enable the staff of Winnipeg Transit (WT) to evaluate the system’s safety protocols in the wake of the murder of a bus driver in the early hours of February 14. Irvine Fraser died after he was stabbed by a passenger following the completion of his route at the University of Manitoba campus. The Winnipeg Police Service is investigating the incident, according to an announcement from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505, which represents Winnipeg bus operators. “I believe it is the first fatality of a bus operator on duty in Canada who was actually murdered,” Local 1505 president John Callahan says. Marty Morantz, the chair of the standing policy committee on infrastructure and public works for the Winnipeg city council, tabled a motion to initiate a review of WT safety procedures on February 28. “The motion is to have the public service report back on what our current transit safety measures are in a full and comprehensive way, so that we have a baseline understanding of what it is we currently do.” The report will be published on the committee’s agenda so that it is accessible to everyone, he adds. Callahan agrees that the review would be “a good first step” in making the system safer for workers. Bus operators in Winnipeg have faced a wide range of violence from passengers, including spitting, punching, slapping, kicking and having objects thrown at them. A spokesperson for the City of Winnipeg says that all WT buses currently have digital surveillance cameras and
global positioning system-based “Automatic Vehicle Location” technology to help deter criminal activity and convict perpetrators. “Since the installation of surveillance cameras, we have seen an increase in the successful identification of assailants,” the spokesperson reveals, adding that operators are trained to call the Control Centre for assistance when they encounter unruly passengers. “Depending on the situation, the Control Centre may dispatch a supervisor or notify the Winnipeg Police Service.” The police have deployed uniformed and plainclothes officers to random buses and stops. Drivers receive Transit Assault Prevention Strategy training, which teaches self-defence and disengagement of agitated passengers. In the past, WT has attempted pilot projects involving the installation of protective barriers between drivers and passengers, but the measure did not prove to be popular. “If you use a barrier like a shield, you are trapped in the corner,” says Callahan, noting that such a measure requires a door on the other side of the bus to allow operators to escape. “The transit drivers decided they didn’t want them,” Morantz says, citing the sense of confinement as a factor. Violence against transit operators is not unique to Winnipeg, but “it is very unusual to have a transit driver who is murdered on the job,” Morantz says. The goal of the proposed review is to determine what the city can do to prevent such incidents in the future. “No transit driver should have to go to work and fear for their personal safety,” he says. — By Jeff Cottrill
www.ohscanada.com
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He also contravened clause 3-9(a) of the Act, which requires a supervisor to ensure that a jumper cable was used prior to the cutting of an energized shield wire. One additional charge was dismissed, the statement notes.
MANUFACTURER PENALIZED BRAMPTON — A company that makes automobile parts was convicted and fined $75,000 on March 14 over a worker injury two years ago. On June 21, 2015, a worker for Hydroform Solutions in Brampton was lifting and moving a stamping die with a remote-controlled overhead crane when the die swung and hit a transfer bar, which fell from two support posts and struck the employee, according to the Ontario Ministry of Labour. The Ministry’s subsequent investigation determined that the employer had failed to ensure that the crane operation had been carried out in a way that did not endanger any worker’s safety. Martinrea International Inc., which operates as Hydroform, violated the province’s
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Industrial Establishments Regulation and Occupational Health and Safety Act.
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS DRESS CODE TORONTO — The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has issued a new report outlining the commitments made by many Ontario’s restaurant chains to eliminate discriminatory dress codes for restaurant staff on March 8. Not on the Menu: Inquiry Report on Sexual and Gender-Based Dress Codes in Ontario’s Restaurants, which highlights findings from an inquiry into dress codes at certain restaurants operating across the province, was released to coincide with International Women’s Day. Following the OHRC’s Policy Position on Sexualized and Gender-Based Dress Codes publicized one year ago, the OHRC wrote to the companies about dress-code concerns and obligations under the Human Rights Code. An OHRC statement reveals that the responses from companies were “encouraging,” with all of them either developing new policies or amending existing ones. In general,
companies expressed support for addressing dress codes, sexual harassment and other concerns in their workplaces. While changing policies is a good first step, the OHRC encourages companies to take the next step by putting these policies into practice and making sure that employees have the opportunity to bring forward complaints if they believe their rights have been violated. “People who work in restaurants can be vulnerable to sexual harassment and discrimination because of the precarious nature of their work,” OHRC chief commissioner Renu Mandhane says. “After the release of our policy position, we decided to take the extra step of reaching out to restaurants, because we heard that workers often didn’t feel empowered to raise their concerns due to fear of reprisal.”
UNPAID WAGES SPUR PENALTY TORONTO — Quality Brand Products Corporation was fined $72,000 on March 7, after it was convicted on 24 counts of failing to obey orders to pay
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wages. The orders, issued by an employment-standards officer between April 2014 and February 2016, amounted to about $32,000. The wages owed varied between about $100 to $4,500, according to a court bulletin from the Ontario Ministry of Labour. Under Ontario’s Employment Standards Act (ESA), if an employment standards officer finds that an employer owes wages to an employee, the officer may order the employer to pay the amount owed. A person who contravenes the ESA or its regulations, or fails to comply with an order under the Act, is guilty of an offence. An individual convicted under the ESA may be fined up to $50,000 or imprisoned for up to 12 months, or both. A corporation can be fined up to $100,000 for a first conviction, $250,000 for a second conviction and $500,000 for three or more convictions.
ROOFING COMPANY CONVICTED WHITBY — A roofing company in Mississauga, Ontario was fined $57,500 on March 1 for its role in a falling incident that seriously injured an employee.
According to a court bulletin from the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Paiva Roofing Ltd. was working on the roof of an industrial business at Pickering on April 30, 2015 when a worker fell more than 8.5 metres through a roof opening. The Ministry investigated the incident and found that the employer had failed to install an adequate guardrail system. Paiva pleaded guilty to violating Regulation 213/91 (the Construction Projects Regulation) of the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.
BARN COLLAPSE YIELDS FINE WELLAND — An independent construction professional based in Grimsby, Ontario was fined $20,000 on February 9, after a barn collapsed while under construction more than two years ago. According to a court bulletin from the Ontario Ministry of Labour, the constructor, Tom Ivezic, was hired to build a storage barn on a residential farm in West Lincoln. During construction, the partially built structure collapsed from wind pressure on November 24, 2014. It turned out that Ivezic had not braced the barn walls to prevent movement, nor had he
secured the anchor bolts connecting the walls to the foundation. Although there were no reported injuries in the collapse, Ivezic contravened the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act by failing to give notice to the Ministry within two days of the incident. He also failed to respond to multiple messages from a Ministry inspector and to assist the inspector in an investigation.
CABLE MISHAP INJURES WORKER CHATHAM — A worker was hurt when a passing vehicle struck a cable at a road construction worksite in Chatham, Ontario on February 28. Janet Deline, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Labour, says the incident took place during pipeline rehabilitation work conducted by LiquiForce, a firm headquartered in Kingsville. Chatham-based firm Henry Heyink Construction Ltd. was also involved in the work. “A cable on the road was snagged by a passing vehicle, and that caused a worker to be injured,” Deline reports. A statement from the Chatham-Kent Police Service, dated February 28, indicates that its Traffic Management Unit
MEDICAL MARIJUANA ELIGIBLE FOR COVERAGE HALIFAX — The Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission ruled that a mechanic’s medical-marijuana expenses must be covered by the insurance plan of his past employer. The Commission’s decision on January 30 came in favour of Gordon Skinner, a resident of Head of Chezzetcook, Nova Scotia. Skinner, a former employee of ThyssenKrupp Elevator Canada, has been suffering from chronic pain since he was involved in a motor-vehicle accident while on the job on August 13, 2010. He alleges discrimination on the part of the Canadian Elevator Industry Welfare Trust Fund for denying insurance coverage to him. “Employee benefit plans are not required to cover the sun, moon and the stars,” Board of Inquiry chair Benjamin Perryman writes in the decision. “However, where an employee with a disability requests coverage that is consistent with the purpose of a plan and comparable to coverage provided to other beneficiaries, more is required from a plan administrator than simply an assertion that its hands are tied by its policy and forms.” In the absence of evidence that extending coverage would unreasonably alter the plan
premiums or risk its financial sustainability, Perryman concludes that “non-coverage of a medically necessary drug may amount to discrimination.” Skinner began using prescribed marijuana in mid-2012 to treat his pain. Cunningham Lyndsey, ThyssenKrupp’s motor-vehicle insurer, covered the prescriptions for nearly two years. But in May 2014, the board of trustees with the Trust Fund denied further coverage to him. Following three written requests for reconsideration with the trustees, who rejected all of them, Skinner filed a complaint with the Commission under the Human Rights Act in October 2014. Perryman concludes that legally prescribed medical marijuana does not fall outside of the Trust Fund plan’s conditions and rules. As a necessity for Skinner’s pain management, it should be as eligible for coverage as more conventional medication is. Perryman ordered the Trust Fund to pay for Skinner’s medical-marijuana expenses up to and including the amount of his last prescription, in addition to future expenses. —By Jeff Cottrill
www.ohscanada.com
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secured the site of the incident and the investigation continues. An inspector from the Ministry also attended the scene and issued a stop-work order to LiquiForce for traffic protection, Deline says. Additional orders for documentation were issued to both LiquiForce and Henry Heyink.
SECURITY FIRM CONVICTED WHITBY — Following an incident in which a security worker was injured at the city hall in Oshawa, Ontario in October 2014, the worker’s employer was fined $70,000 on February 6 for not complying with orders to develop workplace-harassment and violence-prevention programs. A court bulletin from the Ontario Ministry of Labour does not specify details of the incident, but states that a Ministry inspector issued ten orders to Federal Force Protection Agency (FFPA) requiring the company to conduct risk assessments, develop policies and implement training programs regarding violence and harassment. In March 2015, the inspector visited the workplace again and issued a notice of non-compliance for seven of the orders. Justice of the Peace Gerald Ryan at the Ontario Court of Justice in Whitby declared that FFPA failed to comply with the remaining orders and issued a fine of $70,000. The conviction was an ex parte decision, meaning that not all of the parties were required to be in court at the time.
TWO COMPANIES FINED NEWMARKET — Two firms in Newmarket, Ontario were fined on February 3 over unrelated workplace incidents, the provincial labour ministry says. A company that repairs cranes and other lifting devices was fined $125,000 over an electrocution on July 16, 2015. An employee and manager of Konecranes Canada Inc. were repairing a 20-ton overhead gantry crane for VanRob Inc., an auto-parts manufacturer in Richmond Hill. The manager, who was inside a scissor lift, received an electrical
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shock of about 600 volts from the crane and later passed away in a hospital. The subsequent investigation revealed that the other worker had not followed the company’s standard energy-isolation and verification procedures. A second company, which manufactures windows and doors, was fined $150,000 on the same day for a fatality in Concord, Ontario. On March 1, 2015, two employees of FranCar 2000 Inc. were adding vent sashes to windows that they were placing on an easel, a type of free-standing workstation. The amount of material on the easel caused it to tip over, striking the workers and knocking them to the ground. The easel landed on one of the workers and caused fatal crushing injuries. A subsequent investigation revealed that the back of the easel had been serving as storage for other materials at the time of the incident and that the additional weight of the windows had caused it to tip over.
ROAD ACCIDENT CLAIMS OFFICER MONTREAL — An RCMP officer has died in the line of duty after a road accident on March 6. The RCMP issued a statement mourning the passing of 42-year-old Constable Richer Dubuc, a native of the region of Joliette. Dubuc, who was married and a father of four children, joined the RCMP in November 2009 at the Codiac Detachment in New Brunswick and served for seven years. Last January, he joined
the Integrated Border Enforcement Team at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
EMPLOYEE BEATEN WITH WRENCH HALIFAX — The Halifax Regional Police (HRP) arrested a man for robbing a designer-clothing store and assaulting an employee with a wrench. According to a statement from HRP, a 36-year-old man entered Trove Boutique at 12:14 p.m. on February 23, went behind the counter and struck the worker on the back of the head with a wrench multiple times. The employee pushed the attacker off, but the latter took a cash box containing an unstated sum of money and fled on foot, police report. Emergency medical services checked the victim for non-life-threatening injuries at the store. After a police search of the area, a K9 unit found the empty cash box with a white hat and gloves. At 3:10 p.m., HRP officers arrested a suspect without incident. The suspect was scheduled to appear in Halifax Provincial Court on April 6 to face charges of robbery and assault with a weapon causing bodily harm. Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada Many of the preceding items are based on stories from our sister publication, canadian
occupational
health
&
safety
a weekly e-newsletter that provides detailed coverage of Canadian oh&s and workers’ compensation issues. For more information, please call (416) 442-2122 or toll-free (800) 668-2374. news,
So, what’s on your mind? Ever wonder what other oh&s types are thinking about? Find out by making our website poll at www.ohscanada.com a regular stop.
Would increased staffing in correctional institutions reduce violent incidents? Yes 50% No 27% Maybe 23% Total Votes 320
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DISPATCHES
Sedentary jobs bad for the heart and waist By Jean Lian
Y
et another paper has confirmed that spending too much time seated is bad for one’s health. A study out of the University of Warwick in England has come up with further evidence to show that workers with desk-bound jobs have thicker waistlines and increased risks of heart disease. Walking 11 kilometres a day and standing as long as seven hours may be needed to ward off the ill effects of a sedentary lifestyle. The findings are based on monitoring the activity levels of 111 healthy employees of the Royal Mail in Glasgow over seven days from September 2006 to September 2007. Of the 111 study subjects, 55 worked in the office and the remaining 56 delivered mail for a living, according to a university statement issued on March 1. Results indicate that those who held desk-bound jobs have a bigger waist circumference of 97 centimetres, compared to 94 cm among those who delivered mail, and approximately one unit of difference in body-mass index between the two groups. The sedentary group also has a higher risk of cardiovascular disease at 2.2 per cent, compared to 1.6 per cent for their more active counterparts over ten years. For every additional hour of sitting beyond five hours, the waist circumference increases by two centimetres, the risk of cardiovascular diseases hikes by 0.2 per cent and bad cholesterol increases while good cholesterol or high-density lipoprotein (HDL) decreases — all of which converge to heighten the risk of heart disease, says Dr. William Tigbe, a clinical lecturer with the university’s Warwick Medical School. “Longer time spent in sedentary posture is significantly associated with larger waist circumference, higher triglycerides (fat in the blood) and lower HDL cholesterol,” Dr. Tigbe says. “The levels associated with zero risk factors were walking more than 15,000 steps per day, which is equivalent to walking seven to eight miles or spending seven hours per day upright.” Being sedentary is not unique to postal workers in England. According to a March 2016 online survey conducted among 760 randomly selected office workers in Canada, 63 per cent of them were worried about the amount of time spent sitting at work. One-third of respondents indicated that they spent too much time sitting in meetings, with 20 per cent saying that they committed at least an entire business day, or eight hours a week, to meetings. The results of the
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survey were released by ParticipACTION, a national nonprofit organization in Toronto that promotes active living. The upside is that many Canadians are ready to become more active. If possible, 59 per cent of surveyed office workers indicated that they would stretch during a meeting, 54 per cent would welcome a walking meeting and 41 per cent would prefer to stand during a meeting. Jean Lian is editor of
ohs canada.
Report says death of caregiver “preventable” By Jeff Cottrill
A
fatality report concludes that the killing of a caregiver in Camrose, Alberta by a developmentally disabled client six years ago could have been prevented. Valerie Wolski, a 41-year-old individual supports worker employed by the Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) Alberta East Central Region, visited the CMHA residence of Terrence Saddleback on February 12, 2011. That evening, her husband unsuccessfully tried to reach her by text. A co-worker found her dead on the floor of Saddleback’s living room the next morning, according to the report, which was dated November 10, 2016, but was released to the public on February 1. Following a public inquiry on the case last June, Judge B.D. Rosborough writes in the report that Saddleback had a lengthy history of “antisocial and aggressive behaviour” that included violent attacks, hallucinations, pulling other people’s hair and inappropriately touching women. But Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD), a branch of Alberta Human Services that had previously dealt with Saddleback, never sufficiently briefed CMHA on how dangerous he was. “There has been no suggestion that CMHA withheld or consciously avoided disseminating this information,” Judge Rosborough writes. “It seems probable that information relating to Saddleback’s aggressive tendencies was not emphasized or perhaps even relayed to all CMHA staff.” Colleen Swanson, executive director for CMHA’s Alberta East Central Region, agrees that PDD had not adequately informed the organization about Saddleback. If it had, CMHA would not have taken him on in the first place. “Our program doesn’t serve high-risk individuals,” Swanson explains. “He wouldn’t have met our criteria to enter our program if we had all the information.”
Judge Rosborough made seven recommendations for preventing similar tragedies, including the following: PDD should collaborate with an outside agency to review how it generates, secures and disseminates information about developmentally disabled clients; any organization caring for such clients should keep separate records of safety-related information; no caregiver should be assigned to a client that he or she cannot manage physically; female caregivers should not look after clients who have a history of behaving aggressively towards women; and the provincial government should prepare status reports on the implementation of recommendations from all fatality inquiries, following the example that the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services has set. In a statement dated February 1, Alberta Community and Social Services Minister Irfan Sabir says the provincial government has made a number of changes as a result of this tragedy, including changes to risk assessment for complexneed individuals and information sharing. “However, we know we have more work to do,” Sabir says. Swanson points out that enforcement from the government will be necessary. “We will have to have somebody ensuring that those changes are going to be made.” Jeff Cottrill is editor of canadian occupational health & safety news.
Workplace conflicts hamper productivity: survey By Jean Lian
C
hief financial officers (CFO) in Canada spend as much as half a day per week resolving staff conflicts, a survey published on March 9 reveals. The survey, which was developed by staffing firm Accountemps, fielded responses from more than 270 CFOs from a stratified random sample of companies across Canada. According to the survey, one-fifth of executives are sidetracked from their work by spending, on average, 10 to 14 per cent of their time or approximately four hours a week managing staff conflicts, and 14 per cent devote 15 to 24 per cent of their time on such resolutions. “Conflicts and differences of opinion in the office are bound to happen, especially when employees are passionate about their work,” says Dianne Hunnam-Jones, Canadian president of Accountemps. “However, these issues shouldn’t take managers away from high-priority business concerns or prevent them from doing their jobs effectively.” Some of the ways to foster a more harmonious workplace include encouraging workers to approach colleagues’ opinions with respect and communicating disagreements as they arise, so that solutions can be found before the issue escalates or impedes productivity, Hunnam-Jones advises.
Other avenues to manage work conflicts with grace include showing empathy, handling work-related disagreements promptly, bringing in a third party like a human-resources manager to mediate if no resolution is in sight and letting the matter rest by not holding a grudge.
RCMP responds to allegations of intimidation By Jeff Cottrill
A
statement from the British Columbia RCMP has provided the force’s full response to an investigation into the impending dismissal of employees Atoya Montague and Corporal Susan Gastaldo, who have alleged sexual misconduct and harassment from RCMP colleagues. The statement followed an online CBC News story from March 1, stating that two senior RCMP officials had visited the former employees’ Vancouver psychiatrist in November and tried to bully him into withdrawing a recommendation that the force settle lawsuits with the women before they returned to work. Montague and Corporal Gastaldo have reportedly suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. On the same day as the CBC story’s publication, the RCMP published the full text of its written response to CBC journalists Natalie Clancy and Manjula Dufresne in the statement. “The in-person meeting… was an attempt to have an open discussion, as we both have a role in finding solutions or a path that would help accommodate a healthy and safe return to work for our employee(s),” the RCMP says about the meeting on November 2 with Dr. Greg Passey. “We had hoped that a face-to-face discussion would help clarify our respective understandings of the physician’s and RCMP’s roles in the safe and timely return of members absent from duty on sick leave and reduce possible misinterpretations.” The statement adds that the force disagreed with Dr. Passey’s description of the meeting as “bullying, intimidating and inappropriate,” according to the journalists’ queries, which were included with the RCMP’s response. “Every effort was made on our side to ensure that the exchange was respectful and professional,” the RCMP wrote. The B.C. College of Physicians has claimed that the B.C. RCMP’s physician, who overruled Dr. Passey’s diagnosis, is trained only for general family practice, whereas Dr. Passey is a qualified psychiatrist. The officials who visited Dr. Passey are alleged to have threatened to complain to the College because they disagreed with his opinion — allegations that the RCMP has denied. The visit to Dr. Passey came less than a month after national RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson issued a public apology to women who had served with the force for the previous 42 years, in response to a class-action lawsuit for sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination. www.ohscanada.com
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MCINTYRE POWDER
When the
DUST SETTLES 20
From 1978 to 1979, Jim Hobbs was one of many miners in northern Ontario who inhaled finely ground aluminum dust known as McIntyre Powder, which was believed to protect them from silicosis. Canisters containing this powder were punctured, and a compressed-air system would send out a thick, black cloud of respirable aluminum dust into specially constructed chambers or change rooms where miners breathed in the dust. During the dispersal process, all ventilation would be halted. MARCH/APRIL 2017
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PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY OF JANICE MARTELL
BY JEAN LIAN
Representatives who took part in the intake clinic in Sudbury, Ontario. From left: Michael Roche, chief executive officer of the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW); J.P. Mrochek, WSIB worker representative with United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500 in Sudbury; Sylvia Boyce, health, safety and environment coordinator for USW District 6; Alec Farquhar, director of the Office of the Worker Adviser; and Dave Wilken, chief operating officer for OHCOW
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“We know that people had immediate health effects when very shift, every day, you have to breathe it for about 10 minutes. It is crazy,” says Janice Martell, the daughter they breathed it in,” says Dave Wilken, the chief operating ofof Jim Hobbs, who worked in underground nickel and ficer of Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers Inc. uranium mines in northern Ontario between 1959 and 1990. (OHCOW) in Toronto. “It is a very unpleasant thing. They Like other miners of his time, Hobbs had to inhale Mc- coughed up black sputum after and during their shifts.” The McIntyre Powder aluminum-prophylaxis program Intyre Powder, a finely ground dust of aluminum oxide and aluminum, prior to each shift as a prophylaxis — an action was an initiative of the McIntyre Research Foundation (MRF). It was established in 1939 as a non-profit cortaken by specified means to prevent the onset of a specified disease — against silicosis. In 2001, “Every shift, every poration known as McIntyre Research Limited and sponsored by McIntyre Porcupine Mines Hobbs was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. day, you have Limited, which patented aluminum therapy “It was this mass treatment. You would go into as a preventive measure against silicosis in a specific chamber built for the specific purpose to breathe it miners. The co-inventors of the aluminumof giving you aluminum dust,” Janice says. “These dust treatment were Dr. W.D. Robson and J.J. were not measured doses, like an immunization for about Denny, who were the mining company’s plant needle. This is just sent out, and God help you if physician and engineer respectively. The comyou breathe too deep.” 10 minutes.” pany became the first licensee to administer For non-mining sectors such as pottery manufacturers, foundries, silica-brick manufacturers and refracto- McIntyre Powder in 1943. In 1946, shareholders turned over ries in Canada and the United States, the inhalation of Mc- their interest in McIntyre Research Limited, which was disIntyre Powder was voluntary. But the prophylactic program solved to form MRF. “McIntyre Research Foundation was not an independent was administered differently from how it was used in mining. “You would have individualized ‘treatments,’” says Mar- scientific research body — it was comprised of mining industell, describing apparatuses with mouthpiece hoses attached try executives and industry doctors,” Martell says. An article entitled The Objectives and Achievements of the to ball mills that ground aluminum into a fine dust that miners would suck in for a couple of minutes, according to the McIntyre Research Foundation by Francis B. Trudeau, reprintMcIntyre Powder Project website. She cites a man in the ed in 1955 from the American Medical Association’s Archives Umited States who was exposed in this way while working in of Industrial Health, lists the original directors of the Foundation. Of the six directors, four are the president, vice-presifactories in Pennsylvania from the mid-50s’ to 1970.
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Janice Martell, founder of the McIntyre Powder Project
dent, general manager and mine doctor from the McIntyrePorcupine Mines Limited. The remaining two are Dr. Dudley Irwin from the University of Toronto’s Banting Institute and Dr. J.W.G. Hannon, the medical director of the MRF, who conducted aluminum inhalation therapy with ceramic and silica brick industry workers in the United States beginning in 1940, with the permission of McIntyre Research Limited. The MRF ceased operations in 1992, but the legacy of inhaling the toxic dust lingers. In 2011, Martell learned that her father had been exposed to aluminum dust while he was an underground miner in Elliot Lake. “I was shocked to find out myself that this could happen to my dad, and I thought people need to be aware of this, because the last of these guys are dying,” says Martell, who suspects that exposure to McIntyre Powder could have caused her father’s Parkinson’s disease. “If you are inhaling a neurotoxin through the nasal passages that have direct access to the brain and Parkinson’s is a neurological disorder, I thought there might be a connection.” Hobbs had submitted a compensation claim to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) in Toronto, but was denied. The claim was brought to the tribunal level, but it did not proceed to the hearing stage. When Martell started researching the WSIB’s policies, she realized that the board has an operational policy, which explicitly states that available medical and scientific evidence does not establish causal associations between occupational aluminum-dust exposure and dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or conditions with neurologic effects. With the knowledge that individual claims of miners who had been exposed to McIntyre Powder would never be compensated, Martell founded the McIntyre Powder Project in April 2015 and created a registry to provide a centralized 22
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place for miners and other workers who had been exposed to register their names voluntarily, document their health issues and provide data for further research into the long-term health impact of aluminum-dust exposure. The first name on the registry was her father’s. As of February 2017, there were 355 names. “About a third of the people on my registry are deceased, and it is their family members registering them,” Martell reports. “I am really starting to see the health patterns,” she notes, adding that two-thirds of the names on her registry have lung and respiratory issues, while one-third have neurological conditions like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and short-term memory problems. FAILED EXPERIMENTS Between 1943 and 1980, McIntyre Powder was used as a prophylaxis in some gold and uranium mines, as well as certain base-metal and radium mines in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. Miners in other parts of the world, including the United States, Belgian Congo, Western Australia and Mexico, were also given the treatment prior to each shift. The genesis of inhaling aluminum dust as a preventive treatment against silicosis dates back to a string of experiments starting in the early 1900s. In 1918, Scottish physiologist John Scott Haldane postulated the theory that the dust of certain mineral rocks had an antidotal effect on the fibrogenic action of siliceous dust, according to a paper published in the British Journal of Industrial Medicine in 1956. In 1936, experiments involving the dusting of 13 rabbits with mine quartz — six of which were exposed to pure quartz, while the remaining seven were dusted with quartz containing less than one per cent of metallic aluminum —
Janice Martell addresses a group of miners who arrived from Elliot Lake for the intake clinic in Sudbury.
were conducted at the McIntyre Porcupine Mine in Schum- BABY STEPS acher, Ontario. According to results of a study published in The number of names on Martell’s registry today is a far cry The Canadian Medical Association Journal in July 1937, the from the time when she started researching on this historical rabbits dusted with quartz containing metallic aluminum practice for the McIntyre Powder Project. “When I was looking into it in 2011,” Martell says, “I could find next to nothing.” had shown minimal or no fibrosis of the lungs. She spent a year reviewing archival records from the MRF These findings spurred another paper, Aluminum Therapy and speaking with former mine workers as well as governin Silicosis: An Experimental Study, published in 1944 in the ment bodies involved in making decisions regarding the Journal of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology, yielding results prophylaxis program, according to a December 6 statement with aluminum hydroxide that were similar to those reported from Workplace Safety North, a non-profit health and safeby Ontario researchers. ty association in forestry under the WSIB. In April 2015, As a result of these experiments, McIntyre Powder beMartell went public with her registry. came a preventive medicine against silicosis in Canada unSince then, Martell has partnered with United Steelworktil 1979, when the Ontario Ministry of Labour halted the ers (USW), which has sponsored two McIntyre practice shortly after the Canadian Broadcasting Powder intake clinics in Ontario, with support Corporation’s The Fifth Estate aired a documen“The men who from OHCOW and the Sudbury-based Office tary on September 18, 1979, revealing the health used it were just of the Worker Adviser (OWA), an independent risks of inhaling aluminum powder by miners in agency of the Ontario Ministry of Labour that northern Ontario. guinea pigs.” provides free, confidential services on work“It was bad science,” Martell says of the replace-insurance matters and oh&s reprisal issues. search that went into the McIntyre Powder proThe first intake clinic was held last May in Timmins, and the phylaxis program. second one was held in October in Sudbury. Like Canada, Western Australia was one of the places that The intake clinics provided a formal process through had used McIntyre Powder in mines. Dr. Criena Fitzgerald, which miners who had inhaled aluminum dust provided an honorary research fellow with the University of Western their personal information, work history and health issues Australia in Perth, is the author of Turning Men into Stone, a and signed consent forms to be part of a study. This inforbook that documents the social and medical history of silicomation was pulled together to see if any discernible patterns sis in Western Australia from 1890 to 1970. She describes the emerged. One of the conditions that came out was Amyoprophylactic program involving McIntyre Powder as “a poorly trophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease researched, poorly understood” treatment. in which the nerve cells that control the muscles die. Two out “The men who used it were just guinea pigs, frankly,” Dr. of 100,000 people per year were diagnosed with ALS, “which Fitzgerald says. “When they instituted aluminum dust, there is statistically significant, ” Martell says. was no proper epidemiological study or testing of it before.” While many workers were exposed to McIntyre Powder She thinks that there is a need for a historian to examine the aluminum dust in the past, “we don’t know about it or its rerole of the McIntyre Institute in bringing about this questionlationship to health problems. There has not been much reable treatment and those who were benefiting from it. “Cersearch, ” Wilken says. “What is known, in terms of toxicology, is tainly not the workers.” www.ohscanada.com
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that aluminum is toxic and that it is also neurotoxic.” Although Martell’s registry cuts across Canada, the majority of the names hail from Ontario. “Timmins and Elliot Lake are a focus for me,” says Martell, who expresses her desire to expand the reach of her registry beyond the province. ”But to travel to some of these places is hard,” she says, adding that many exposed miners are already in their 70s or 80s. While USW had sponsored two intake clinics, “everything else I am doing on my own dime.” HELPING HANDS J.P. Mrochek, a WSIB worker representative for USW Local 6500 in Sudbury, recalls the day when Martell approached USW for support without knowing exactly what kind of help she would get. “I remember when Janice sat down in the office here, and I proposed to her an intake clinic,” Mrochek says. “I have done intake clinics in the past, and I thought it was a good fit for her challenge.” Once the idea was born, physicians and nurse hygienists from OHCOW and representatives from OWA and USW District 6 pitched in to what started off as an off-the-top conversation. “And we never looked back,” Mrochek says. Representatives from the WSIB also attended the clinics to answer general questions and provide assistance as required,
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although the collection of information and the submission of any claims to the WSIB are at the discretion of the OWA and OHCOW, says Christine Arnott, the WSIB’s senior publicaffairs consultant. “We understand that this is an important issue to the community and are committed to supporting workers and their families,” Arnott says. At the intake clinics, an exposure-profile section will be created for each participant to document where they have worked in the past, the level and the duration of exposure, how aluminum dust was dispensed and whether a worker was exposed to other contaminants like uranium, for example. This is followed by the body-mapping section, in which participants share their health issues with physicians and hygienists from OHCOW, who will chart these ailments on body maps to identify disease clusters. “The primary objective was to gather valuable data from the workers’ perspective, ground zero,” Mrochek explains. “Because every mine has a different story. The way that they forced the workers to inhale aluminum dust was a little different in Timmins, compared to Elliot Lake.” Now that the intake clinics have concluded, the bulk of the work has now shifted to OHCOW, which will analyze the data collected. The information gathered from intake clinics will be entered into a database to see if there are any com-
CAST IN STONE In 1985, the Ontario legislature established the Industrial Disease Standards Panel (IDSP) to investigate and identify occupational diseases after workers at two companies — Boeing of Canada, deHavilland Division (now known as deHavilland Inc.), which manufactures aircraft, and McDonnell Douglas Canada Ltd., which manufactures aircraft wings composed of aluminum — expressed concerns about their exposure to aluminum dust and aluminum welding fumes. As Ontario’s Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB), now known as the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), had no policy for aluminum claims, the workers’ concerns were referred to the IDSP on December 16, 1988 by Dr. R.G. Elgie, then chair of the WCB, according to an interim report to the WCB on aluminum dated May 1992. As part of the preliminary investigations, the panel reviewed medical literature about aluminum and its effects, visited both aircraft-manufacturing plants and looked at the provincial labour ministry’s hygiene reports on plant conditions at McDonnell Douglas from between 1985 and 1992 and at Boeing-deHavilland from between 1984 and 1992. The WCB report noted that the number of studies to establish consistent results was insufficient and that exposure to aluminum was usually accompanied by exposure to other potentially toxic substances, which made it hard for the panel to identify aluminum conclusively as the causal agent of any occupational disease. But the panel acknowledged that there was some epidemiological and anecdotal evidence to suggest that high levels of occupational aluminum expo-
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sure might lead to cognitive or neurologic effects and that the lack of evidence did not mean a relationship between occupational aluminum exposure and cognitive deficits or neurologic effects did not exist. “It only means that medical science cannot yet answer these questions,” the interim report from 1992 stated. “If evidence can be obtained which identifies a disease that has a probable connection to workplace exposure to aluminum, this Panel will promptly reconsider its opinion and these interim findings.” For Janice Martell, the founder of the McIntyre Powder Project, the WSIB’s existing operational policy that dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and conditions with neurological effects are not occupational diseases when they are alleged to have resulted from occupational aluminum exposure flies in the face of logic. According to Martell, the WSIB applied this policy to all incidents occurring on or after September 23, 1993, which was right after the IDSP had completed its review of aluminum. “The panel accepted that there is some epidemiological and anecdotal evidence to suggest that high levels of occupational aluminum exposure might lead to cognitive or neurological effects. So despite all of those findings, they developed this policy,” Martell stresses. “My personal take on that is that they gave this to thousands and thousands of workers, and they know that if it comes out that this is a problem, they are sunk. The WSIB does not have the funds to pay out claims for this kind of exposure.”
mon denominators in terms of neurodegenerative disorders, reports Wilken, who confirms that nearly all of the intakeclinic participants indicated that they had been exposed to aluminum dust. “It was a widespread practice for many years over a number of mines, so there are thousands of exposed workers in various degrees out there,” he says. While McIntyre Powder was meant to protect against silicosis, it was introduced in mines at a time when other advances in controlling silica were also greatly expanded, such as better ventilation practices and wet drilling. “There is probably some extent to which people who were promoting this were fooled into thinking that they were having a positive effect, when these other advances were really tampering down the number of silicosis cases,” Wilken suggests. One of the challenges in finding out whether there is indeed a link between aluminum-dust exposure and neurodegenerative diseases is that McIntyre Powder has not been used for more than 35 years, and many of the miners who were exposed have already passed on. “So that is an unknown, at this point, to what degree in the possibility for us to gain more knowledge about this,” Wilken says. But one thing is certain: “There is absolutely no evidence that this aluminum dust did what it was intended to do.” CONFLICTING VIEWS Exposure to aluminum is usually not harmful, since only very small amounts of aluminum that has been inhaled, ingested or dermally contacted will enter the bloodstream. But exposure to high levels of aluminum can certainly affect health, according to a fact sheet from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in Atlanta. Workers who breathe in large amounts of aluminum dust can have lung problems, such as coughing or abnormal chest X-rays, while those who have inhaled aluminum dust or fumes have demonstrated decreased performance in some tests measuring functions of the nervous system. Research on the health effects of exposure to aluminum dust, however, is far from consistent. While some studies show that people who have been exposed to high levels of aluminum may develop Alzheimer’s disease, other studies have disputed these findings. For example, a 1996 mortality study out of the United Kingdom investigated the association between occupational aluminum exposure to McIntyre Powder and the death certification for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in two groups of miners who had worked in two tin mines in Cornwall, England from 1941 to 1984. McIntyre Powder had been used as a prophylactic against the development of pulmonary silicosis from the 1940s until 1964 in Geevor tin mine, but not in South Crofty mine. Researchers found that none of the miners who had been exposed to McIntyre Powder at Geevor were certified to have died from senile dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, but two dementia-related deaths were recorded for South Crofty, which did not use McIntyre Powder. But a 2013 study out of the University of Western Australia, Long-Term Effects of Aluminum Dust Inhalation, sings a different tune. The study looked at the link between alu-
Jim Hobbs, 1961
minum-dust inhalation and cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and Alzheimer’s diseases in a cohort of Australian male underground gold miners. Their mortality rates were compared with that of the Western Australian male population from 1961 to 2009. Results indicated that there was increased mortality from Alzheimer’s disease among miners who had been exposed to aluminum dust, although it was not statistically significant. Rates for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular death were also above population levels, but were similar for subjects with or without a history of aluminum-dust inhalation. The study concluded that inhaling aluminum dust offers no protective effect against silicosis. Conversely, exposure to aluminum dust could hike the risk of cardiovascular disease and dementia of the Alzheimer’s type. Due to the limited and conflicting knowledge that available research has yielded on McIntyre Powder and the mounting pressure for compensation from miners who were systematically exposed to aluminum dust, the WSIB has commissioned a review of scientific evidence to examine whether workers with occupational exposure to aluminum have an increased risk of developing adverse health conditions, including neurological effects. The external review is expected to be completed this year. “Pending the outcome of the scientific review, the Operational Policy Manual Document 16-01-10, Occupational Aluminum Exposure, Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Neurologic Effects will not be used to guide decision-making on any claims. The WSIB will consider whether any policy changes are required based on the outcome of the external review,” Arnott says. For Mrochek, an academic study to probe deeper into the effects of inhaling McIntyre Powder should have been done 30 years ago when many more workers were still alive and well, but late is better than never. That said, the possibility that research may find no conclusive association between aluminum dust and the onset of neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease or ALS cannot be discounted. Should that happen, “at the very least, we could say that we gave it a shot,” Mrochek says. Jean Lian is editor of
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MILLENNIAL WORKERS
The Next
WAVE
BY DANNY KUCHARSKY
They are more tech-savvy and better educated than any previous generation. But they also have to scale a higher wall when finding full-time employment in a gig economy, in which temporary jobs are commonplace and companies are inclined towards hiring contractors and freelancers. How will Millennial workers shape the workplace-safety landscape?
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illennials, most commonly defined as those born between 1980 and the early 2000s, comprised 37 per cent of Canada’s labour force in 2015. This exceeded the rates of only 31 per cent for Generation X, who were born from the early 1960s to late 1970s, and just 30 per cent for baby boomers born between the end of World War II and 1964, according to a 2015 Environics Analytics report. A similar trend is taking place south of the border. By 2020, nearly half of the workforce in the United States will consist of Millennials, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Forecasts predict that by 2028, Millennials will make up 75 per cent of the Canadian workforce. While Millennials have supplanted the long-reigning baby boomers as the dominant group in the labour pool, 26
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there are significant differences between the two generations, says Toronto-based senior engagement consultant Michelle Dagnino, an expert in youth culture and generational change. “Millennials have a different view of the workplace,” Dagnino says, adding that surveys and research show that salary is no longer the top factor for Millennials seeking employment, as it has been for prior generations. “There is also a real difference in terms of how younger workers think about work and envision the job.” She cites finding meaning in the work they do and bringing their creativity and skills around technology to the table as among the considerations for this new breed of workers. “Young people have been educated and led to believe that everything they do has a bigger meaning as part of a
more profound movement,” Dagnino says. This can be a challenge, because not all work is meaningful. “There are jobs we have to do because we need to pay the bills, or we do it because we hope it will give us opportunities elsewhere.” Millennials have a significantly higher rate of post-secondary education than baby boomers. As a result, many of them who are entering the workforce feel that they have already obtained the required skills for the job. That is a departure from the older generations who went into jobs without particular skill sets, but expect their employers to provide them with on-the-job training. “Most younger employers feel that they cannot count on their employers to be there over the long term and to maintain that kind of loyalty to them that a lot of the older generation has grown up with,” Dagnino suggests.
THE SAFETY GAP Workplace health and safety is another area in which differences in expectations could present challenges. “For a lot of Millennials, they see it as a thing that is perhaps negotiable and perhaps something that is not necessarily applicable to them and the job that they are doing,” Dagnino says. Millennials who are new to a job typically want to fit in and do not want to rock the boat. “Those challenges can be more serious when you think about some of the other pressures that are facing young workers and Millennials in terms of precarious work and high unemployment, when there is fear you might lose your job and that it might be really hard to find another job,” says Tara Peel, national representative for health, safety and environment with the Canadian Labour Congress in Ottawa.
“It can be difficult to assert your health and safety rights.” The injury rate among young workers has varied over the years, but one thing that remains constant is that new workers are more vulnerable to job injuries. According to Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, new workers are three times more likely to be hurt during their first month on the job than more experienced workers are. Among injured workers under the age of 25, more than half of them were hurt within their first six months at work. Peel points out that some provinces are trying to come up with workplace health and safety strategies that target young workers and inform them of their rights. Unions’ young-worker committees are also thinking about how they can tailor their health and safety messages to young workers. Many of Canada’s unions have developed programs that try to build a culture of health and safety among youth before or as they enter the workforce. The United Food and Commercial Workers Canada has developed Know Your Rights, a workshop designed for high-school students, while United Steelworkers Canada runs the New Worker Awareness program for young workers. Organizations like Safe Workers of Tomorrow in Manitoba also educate high-school students about their rights and responsibilities on the job and about employer obligations. ENCOURAGING SIGNS Research from the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) in Toronto indicates that such programs may be paying off. Dr. Curtis Breslin, an IWH scientist, has examined the most recent available data between 2000 and 2007, which shows declining injury rates among young workers aged 15 to 24. “It is tricky to do research on what the reasons are for the reduction, but some of the possible things that are going on are that during that period, there was a work-safety curriculum introduced in high schools and middle schools,” Dr. Breslin says. He also cites young-worker safety blitzes by the provincial labour ministry as one of the possible reasons for the downward
trend in young-worker injury rates. But other research focusing on Millennials that Dr. Breslin has conducted, such as focus groups on 12-to-14-yearolds and on those from 16 to their early 20s, indicates that this group regards risk as part of the job. “They had already been socialized. They had already internalized the idea that the potential for injury is just part of work.” Another study has found that young people are treated unfairly on the job and that this unfair treatment can lead to safety concerns. From 2010 to 2012, Ellen MacEachen, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Public Health and Health Systems in Waterloo, Ontario, gathered data on the health and safety practices of temporary agencies — many of which hire Millennials — to identify how work and health systems can be improved. Interviews with temporary workers revealed that younger people felt they were treated differently at worksites. At one call centre, for example, all the regular workers had headsets, but a young worker was given only a handheld phone. As a result, she ended up with neck pain. “You can just imagine her trying to hold the phone on her shoulder,” MacEachen says. Other temporary workers talked about being instructed to unload heavier boxes from trucks in a warehouse. “In certain places, younger workers don’t recognize what the risks are, because it is new to them,” MacEachen says. “Workers who are new to the job tend to have higher rates of accidents. They don’t really understand the routine. It makes them feel very clumsy.” MacEachen is leading a three-year University of Waterloo study of Uber drivers, most of whom are Millennials. The study involves focus groups with Uber drivers, the company behind Uber, taxi drivers, passengers and policy makers. It is one of the first studies funded to look at the health and safety risks of drivers for the app, who are “very entrepreneurial people with unusual work relationships.” The susceptibility to occupational injuries is compounded by young workers’ fear of speaking up about unsafe or
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unhealthy work conditions. Dr. Breslin cites a cashier who was experiencing musculoskeletal pain from standing for long periods of time and asked for a chair or soft mat. “She felt that she was labelled as a complainer.” Part of the solution lies in making sure that young workers know and assert their rights. With unionization rates low among young employees, Peel cites increasing union membership as “one of the clearest paths to having relevant health and safety information and having those rights to a healthy and safe workplace enforced.” But Peel is also quick to acknowledge that regardless of whether or not Millennials work in a unionized setting, the principles of a safe workplace apply. “Employers are still responsible for eliminating dangerous conditions and providing training. That is something we continue to work on for all workers.” To address specific challenges faced by Millennials, unions are working to encourage governments to address health and safety issues in a gig economy. “Unions are taking on the issues of precarious work and high unemployment and are pushing for strategies that don’t just expect individual workers to become more adaptable to changing work. We actually need strategies that 28
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focus on good jobs for young people and job security,” Peel adds. THE NEW GEEKS Clearly, Millennials are technologically adept. A PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report entitled Millennials at Work: Reshaping the Workplace indicates that Millennials represent the first generation to enter the workplace with
Forecasts predict that by 2028, Millennials will make up 75 per cent of the Canadian workforce. a better grasp of a key business tool than more senior workers have. According to PwC’s 14th Annual Global CEO Survey, 41 per cent of Millennials prefer to communicate electronically at work than face-to-face or over the telephone, while three-quarters believe that access to technology makes them more effective at work. As well, technology is often a catalyst for intergenerational conflict in the workplace. According to Dagnino, technology accounts for a higher sense of anxiety among older generations who do
not know how to manage Millennials. “One of the highest fears is that you have a generation coming in that has this highly in-demand skill set and that Millennials know more about technology than [employers] could ever.” But Millennials’ knowledge of technology only goes so far when it comes to occupational health and safety training. “This generation, because they are skilled technically with technology and with multitasking, can be fooled that they are somehow able to process information much quicker when in fact, there is no evidence that they are. It is not just how they get the information, but being able to apply critical thought,” explains Dagnino, who recommends that Millennials be taught via workshops that allow participation and interaction, as opposed to lectures. The other downside of Millennials’ technical proficiency is the loss of the ability to sit, listen and think critically. “It is almost a lost art. It is too much of this ‘I don’t know something; I will just go and Google it,’” says Robert Miller, an instructor in the workplace-safety program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in Burnaby. To counteract the Google effect, students in BCIT’s two-year oh&s program are trained to go to the library to do research and talk to colleagues faceto-face. Miller emphasizes that workplace safety “is a people business, and we need to get back to the basics of interpersonal skills.” Students are also encouraged to learn from older generations. “We try to teach that when you are working in safety, you are not going to be working with just the 25-year-old,” Miller says. And this is where the different dynamics of how Millennials interact with people of the older generation could prove challenging. Millennials have had relationships with older people, such as their parents, who treat them as mature and equal from a very young age. “Their experience in school with their educators is very different from the experience of prior generations, where the educator was a figure of authority. For a lot of the Millennial generation, an educator is treated as a peer and somebody you can challenge,”
Dagnino says. As a result, implementing workplace-safety standards can present an issue for employers, because many Millennials may see them as negotiable and not necessarily applicable to their jobs, she suggests. FACE TIME Many of Miller’s students are Millennials who represent an entirely different demographic from those of the past, when workplace-safety programs were popular with people in their 40s or 50s seeking mid-life career changes and wanted to become safety professionals. Today’s safety professionals-intraining tend to be university graduates who are not sure what to do next with their degrees. They “are starting to see oh&s as a means to starting a new career with a minimal amount of work experience, and that is a real change over the years,” Miller says. “That is challenging all of us and challenging employers hiring our graduates.” As a result, Millennials are coming into workplace-safety programs “a little bit more naïve,” with little work experi-
ence and scant understanding of health and safety issues. “They are really kind of starting from the ground up,” he says. “They just don’t have the nuances and understanding of work culture and how people work.” They also lack the savvy to persuade and talk to people — in addition to the sense of entitlement. “I give assignment work, and often, they want me to walk them down the garden path. ‘Just tell me how to get from A to B to C to get the job done and don’t worry about all that messy detail in between,’” Miller says. On the plus side, many Millennial graduates are more academically oriented and studious than the previous generations of safety professionals. “Our graduates are coming out with very solid oh&s knowledge,” Miller says. Their quality of work is good and they meet their deadlines “as long as we keep them on track.” To make up for their limited work experience, BCIT’s oh&s program has been running a mentorship program for the last few years to help Millennials transition into the workplace.
“Generally speaking, our employers are very happy with our graduates,” Miller says. “I think if they go into a workplace teachable and kind of humble and learning to fit into an organization, they do extremely well.” But Dagnino argues that Millennials are not any more entitled than their predecessors were when they were in their 20s. “I don’t think the older generations looked any kinder on boomers as they entered the workplace,” she says. Rather, Millennials today face a more challenging economy. And this is where unions have a role to play. “Part of the job we are doing here is looking at making sure that the government is turning its mind to changing workplaces and how do we really think about things like health and safety when you think about the gig economy,” Tara says. “I don’t think that we have all of those answers yet.” But she stresses the need to “build better workplaces where these kinds of health and safety concerns are more readily addressed.” Danny Kucharsky is a writer in Montreal.
REVITALIZING THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY Although Millennials comprise the largest cohort in the Canadian workforce, some industries, like trucking, have difficulty attracting new blood, notes Angela Splinter, the chief executive officer of Trucking HR Canada in Ottawa. In 2011, Millennials aged 25 to 34 represented less than 15 per cent of truck drivers, compared with 18 per cent in 2006. This “very low” representation is “a dangerous trend,” says Splinter, who regularly hears that fleets are scrambling to find drivers. On average, Canadian truck drivers are 47.1 years old — four years older than the average worker. A study for the Canadian Trucking Alliance predicts that there could be a shortage of 34,000 drivers by 2024. To develop a national employment strategy for youth in the trucking industry, Trucking HR Canada launched a survey in January to gather information about young people employed in the trucking industry. The Youth with Drive survey, which is considered a first step towards developing an action plan for attracting and retaining Millennials, seeks feedback from employers and employees in the trucking industry. One of the challenges the trucking industry faces, especially when it comes to Millennial workers, is work-life balance. “There certainly is a desire on the part of the younger workers for more work-life balance, sensible work arrange-
ments, the ability to use technology when they want to,” Splinter says. “They are just accustomed to always having it there.” As well, a 2012 study reveals that Millennials perceive the trucking industry to be unsafe. “We certainly need to dispel that myth around safety. We need to highlight our safety record more,” Splinter notes. ”We are not seeing the millions of other deliveries that are getting made on a regular basis. We only see the accidents.” As attracting new blood into the long-haul truck driving profession remains challenging, the industry is implementing flexible work-life arrangements that provide a greater balance as a way to retain older workers who want to work part-time instead of retiring. Such initiatives, Splinter notes, could be expanded to attract Millennials, who value worklife balance. Splinter also sees technological advances, like self-driving vehicles, as an opportunity for the industry to attract Millennials, who are more technologically adept. Technological advances that result in new skill requirements for the industry “can better engage a younger workforce and get them more interested in the industry when they see something that is changing and that they can be a part of that,” she adds.
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HEALTH WATCH | ORGANIZATIONAL RESTRUCTURING
Managing Change ing types of workplace change. “Organizations put a lot of effort into communication and planning and preparation for something like a merger and might put a little bit less into something like changing the nature of an individual’s job,” Allen points out. But the survey reveals that job redesign had the strongest effect on respondents’ physical and mental health, while major organizational shifts like mergers had smaller effects. “The closer it is to the person to what they do every day, the higher the impact of a change,” Allen notes.
By Jeff Cottrill
S
ignificant changes in a workplace affect the mental and physical health of employees, says a recent study by Toronto-based consulting firm Morneau Shepell. The nationwide survey asked employers and workers about their reactions to major changes like job redesign, downsizing, restructuring or mergers. Results show that about 40 per cent of employee respondents said that organizational changes had affected their health and well-being, while 30 per cent of workers claimed that change had negatively affected their job performance. For nearly half of the respondents (43 per ADAPTING AND EVOLVING cent), such changes had adversely influenced their percep- Globalization, advances in communication technology and tions of their employers. Only slightly more than one-quar- increasingly diverse workplaces are some of the factors drivter indicated that organizational change had improved their ing organizational change, which is not the only area that the survey covered. Other findings include the following: health, performance and perceptions of their firms. workers younger than 30 were more than twice “We thought it was important that we actually as likely to take sick leave over mental-health look at this,” says Paula Allen, Morneau Shepell’s vice president of research and integrative solu- “Organization concerns than older workers; 61 per cent of emtions. “The numbers were a little bit higher than change causes ployees said that their co-workers had a positive effect on their mental health; and 75 per cent of we thought, in terms of how many negatively imstress for respondents cited work culture as the most impacted employees.” portant issue regarding workplace mental health. This is the third straight year in which the people.” To help workers adapt better to major changcompany has conducted a survey like this, Allen es, Kaisla suggests that employers should view adds. “People are talking about workplace mental health, and there is expert commentary and different things their organizations as individual people who will be affected of that sort,” she explains, “but we think it is most important by big decisions in different ways. “At every level,” she says, “they need to be asking the question, ‘How will this impact to hear directly from the people who are most impacted.” Morneau Shepell’s findings are consistent with what other the psychological health and safety at our workplace?’ And researchers have found on organizational change, which re- you need to start looking at the risks that are being discussed, fers to the process of changing an organization’s strategies, and you need to have a two-way conversation.” Organizational change is inevitable, especially these procedures, technologies and culture. “A lot of us don’t really know how to deal with that in a healthy fashion, especially if days, says Chénier, who advises employers to communicate there is a lack of communication,” says Louise Chénier, pro- as openly as possible about what is happening, even when gram manager for workplace mental health with the Mental they do not have all the details. Otherwise, anxious employHealth Commission of Canada in Ottawa. “It can have a posi- ees may fill in the knowledge gap with their worst fears, like tive impact if we are involved in the change, if we have some downsizing or closure. Such communication should include control over it. But for the most part, it can have a negative the reasons for the decisions being made, and employers should take the workers’ feedback seriously. impact on the employees’ mental and physical well-being.” Employers should also instill a positive problem-solving Julia Kaisla, director of community engagement with the Canadian Mental Health Association’s British Columbia di- culture in the work environment to help workers adapt to vision in Vancouver, agrees with the study’s findings. “We change more effectively, Allen recommends. Good commuknow that organization change causes stress for people, and nication, availability of resources and managers who know we do know that culture has a big effect on how people re- how to support employees are ways to help workers ease into spond to change.” While change itself can be positive, it can change. “It is really important to consider how adaptive the also become challenging when it threatens people’s sense of workplace is and workforces are.” security and predictability for the future, Kaisla adds. The study also analyzed the differences in effect with vary- Jeff Cottrill is editor of canadian occupational health & safety news. 30
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SAFETY GEAR
HAND PROTECTION
All Hands on Deck tal consideration for an employer, Burtney says. “If you have a worker who is using a box cutter once a day, that employee is not going to need the same level of cut protection as someone who is dealing with really sharp blades all day long.” Employers also need to take workers’ comfort into account, as employees are far more likely to wear PPE that fits them well and comfortably. To ensure the right fit of gloves for each employee, Burtney recommends involving the employees themselves in the selection process. “No one glove is going to make every single person happy, so you kind of have to find a nice balance between something that is going to protect them without frustrating the majority of the people,” he advises. “A lot of times, what we find is that the glove only comes in two sizes. It is going to be useless for half the employees.”
By Jeff Cottrill
O
f all the body parts that can get injured in many jobs, the hands are among the most vulnerable. Laceration, burns, even impact and pressure are some of the ways in which workers can hurt their hands. That is why safety gloves are an essential form of personal protective equipment (PPE) for worksites across many industries. The automotive, manufacturing and oil and gas industries are three of the biggest markets for safety gloves, according to Matt Burtney, a content marketing associate with Superior Glove in Acton, Ontario. “Those [industries] play a big part in the styles of gloves that are created,” he says. Cut-resistant gloves are especially important in industries that involve blades or other sharp objects, while gloves designed to protect against impact are useful in the oil and gas sector. For assembly-line jobs and oil-and-gas work, Superior DEEP IMPACT also manufactures gloves with palm coating to enhance the Unlike cut-resistant gloves, employers have a smaller range of grip, making such gloves useful in work conditions that are options when it comes to gloves that protect against impact or vibration, as the number of companies that can manufacoily and wet or in jobs that require handling small parts. ture approved or certified anti-vibration gloves is “very limDepending on the product and its application, safety ited, ” says Eric Lehtinen, the president of Impacto Protective gloves consist of a variety of materials. Kevlar, DSM Dyneema Products Inc. in Belleville, Ontario. or stainless steel are often used to make up cut-reFortunately, Impacto specializes in manusistant gloves, while anti-impact or anti-vibration “The biggest facturing anti-impact and anti-vibration PPE, gloves might use Kevlar, nitrile or leather. Gloves trend is looking including gloves. “We continue to develop new that are designed for chemical protection may technology to help attenuate vibration and attenconsist of latex, rubber or plastic. for a thinner uate impact,” Lehtinen says. The company offers glove with higher more than 300 styles of customized safety gloves THE RIGHT LEVEL for various protection needs, including numerCut-resistant gloves offer different levels of proprotection.” ous glove types with built-in wrist support and tection, ranging from level one to nine, as classisome with padded sides and backs. fied by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in Impacto’s DRYRIGGER series consists of oil- and waterWashington, D.C. The level of cut protection depends on the resistant gloves, which are suitable for workers in the oil and force required to cut through the glove material, as measured gas industry. The series includes the DRYRIGGER SUB-ZEvia the mass of the cutting object in grams (g). For example, a RO, designed specifically for oil and gas work in cold weathprotection of level nine is strong enough to resist up to 6,000 er. Among its features are high-visibility fabrics for nighttime g of cutting pressure, whereas a level-one glove can be cut by work, silicone dots for tight grip, extra layers of ultra suede only 200 to 499 g. and Nitrile for added protection and Kevlar thumb patches Industries that usually require higher levels of cut protecfor dexterity. The SUB-ZERO protects oil and gas workers tion include aerospace, metal stamping, metal recycling, pulp and paper and those in which workers handle sharp objects, from fractures, bruises, pinching and abrasion. According to Burtney, anti-impact gloves are a relatively according to Terry Smith, the national sales and marketing new development, but they have become more common in manager with SHOWA, Inc. in Coaticook, Quebec. “Recyoil and gas in recent years, replacing the standard cotton cling could be another one,” he adds. “It could be in printgloves. “Ten years ago,” he says, “if you walked onto an oil rig, ing presses, glass manufacturing as well.” Professions that no one was wearing impact gloves.” use lower levels of cut protection include packaging, material Superior Glove offers a wide selection of gloves designed handling, small-parts assembly and forest reconstruction. for the oil and gas sector, in which hazards to hands can Matching the right cut resistance to a job’s hazards is a vi-
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PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT): SUPERIOR GLOVE; ANSELL HEALTHCARE LLC; IMPACTO PROTECTIVE PRODUCTS INC.
range from cuts and puncmanufacturers are always tures to pinching and crushlooking for ways to produce ing. The selection includes thinner, more flexible cut-regeneral-purpose gloves that sistant gloves without sacrificprovide strong grip and ing protection. protect against puncture “The biggest trend is lookand chemicals, anti-impact ing for a thinner glove with gloves with dense thermohigher protection,” says Koplastic pads, oil-resistant koszka, who notes that Ansell gloves and those designed has been manufacturing thinfor pipeline construction. ner gloves with what he calls Ansell Healthcare LLC “a second-skin feel,” but with in Iselin, New Jersey unhigh cut levels. derstands the importance Burtney says that some of hand protection in the companies are now mixing cutoil and gas industry. The resistant fibres, like Dyneema company’s safety gloves for Current hand-protection products that are available on the mar- or Kevlar, with glass, fibreglass oil workers includes prod- ket include the TenActiv cut-resistant series from Superior Glove or steel to make them stronger ucts that shield against cuts (left), the HyFlex 11-931 from Ansell (top right) and Impacto’s without increasing the bulk or and abrasions, impact and DRYRIGGER SUB-ZERO gloves (bottom right). thickness. “It is still going to chemicals. Its Hyflex line be a fairly easy-to-wear glove, of gloves offers a mix of safety, flexibility and performance, and it is not going to limit your dexterity, but it is going to and they are also washable, according to Jason Kokoszka, An- mean that you can get a glove that fits snugly and comfortsell’s associate director for mechanical protection. “You want ably, but has a fairly high level of cut resistance.” to make sure they properly fit, they are wearing the correct Another current trend is safety gloves that are more enviglove for the application and you can launder gloves.” ronmentally friendly, which is particularly important when so many used gloves wind up in landfills. SHOWA, for exCOST VERSUS QUALITY ample, created the world’s first 100 per cent biodegradable Unlike other types of PPE, safety gloves tend to have a high safety glove a few years ago. Today, the company has five bioturnover rate, especially cut-resistant gloves, which become degradable glove products on the market. unreliable once they have accumulated some wear and tear. “You could throw them in the garbage, and when they hit “When the glove begins to wear, you want to make sure that the landfill site, the microorganisms start to work and they you replace it, so you are continuing to protect yourself at the will break down the glove,” Smith explains. highest level,” Smith says. Waste is an even bigger problem when workers lose their For gloves designed to protect from chemicals, it is pos- safety gloves. Glove Guard LP in Highlands, Texas manufacsible to extend their lifespan by rinsing them after every use. tures and sells an assortment of clips and holders that keep “For general-purpose gloves, you could certainly launder gloves right by a worker’s side. One simply hooks the clip to them, but there are certain laundering procedures to use,” a belt loop or waistband and clips the gloves to it when they Smith advises. As a general rule, it is time to replace a pair of are not needed. The clips have become successful enough that gloves whenever the wear on them becomes evident. the company now sells similar products for hard hats, safety Lehtinen also recommends using a laundering program glasses and water bottles. to make gloves last slightly longer. “I have witnessed successWith improvements in technology come changes in perful programs where gloves have been laundered, whether it is formance standards for classification and testing. ANSI’s levdry-cleaning or whether it is just a laundry service,” he says. els for cut-resistant gloves are part of ANSI/ISEA 105-2016, “A lot of times, gloves don’t wear out, they just get dirty.” or the American National Standard for Hand Protection ClasThe frequent replacement of safety gloves also invites the sification, which was updated last year. This standard also question of whether it is wise for an employer to buy cheaper includes performance ranges for chemical protection and gloves to save money. But Burtney warns that cutting corners impact resistance. Recent changes include the expansion of around costs may compromise employees’ safety. “A $7 glove classification levels to address gaps and follow approaches is still cheaper than having to pay for a workplace accident,” used in other international standards, as well as a single, unihe says. If cost remains an issue, Burtney recommends using versal test method to standardize ratings. a laundering program to make the gloves reusable. “Whether it is new fibres or new materials to help stop Kokoszka agrees that quality is a more important factor to cuts and slashes and abrasion and things like that, they are consider than cost. “If you are wearing a cheaper glove and it constantly coming up with things,” Lehtinen says about the is less expensive, the majority of the time, you are just going safety-glove industry. to be churning through those.” Since comfort is an important factor, today’s safety-glove Jeff Cottrill is editor of canadian occupational health & safety news. www.ohscanada.com
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ACCIDENT PREVENTION
DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME
Spring Ahead PLAYING WITH TIME: Every second Sunday in March, most Canadians lose an hour of sleep as they turn their clocks ahead by one hour to mark the start of Daylight Saving Time (DST). This effectively makes sunrise and sunset occur one hour later. But this century-old tradition, which is intended to make better use of daylight and conserve energy, is not without its fair share of controversy. Critics argue that energy savings are negligible and even cite DST as the cause of a spike in occupational injuries during that period. A PATCHWORK BLANKET: In Canada, except for Saskatchewan and parts of British Columbia, DST began at 2:00 a.m. local time on March 12 this year. On the first Sunday in November, DST ends and returns to Standard Time when clocks are turned back an hour. Thunder Bay, Ontario had the honour of being the first location in Canada to implement DST in July 1908, while Germany was the first country to establish DST nationwide in 1916. An article published on November 3 in the Calgary Herald highlighted some of the myths associated with DST. They include limited savings in energy consumption, lower productivity due to increased cyberloafing and more road accidents. According to the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, the number of car accidents in the province increases by 23 per cent on the Monday after DST begins. But time change does not affect everyone equally. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Washington, D.C., people who sleep for seven hours or less per day tend to have more problems with the time change. As well, a person’s natural tendency to get up and go to bed early or wake up and retire late may also influence his or her ability to adjust to the time change. DISTURBING STATS: Changing the clocks twice a year can bring real and present danger to those who work in hazardous environments or safety-sensitive positions by affecting their ability to stay alert on the job. A study published in the September 2009 issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology by the American Psychological Association analyzed the number of injuries reported to the United States’ Mine Safety and Health Administration from 1983 to 2006 and the number of work days that employees had missed due to their injuries. During this 24-year period, there were 576,292 reported injuries on the job. On average, there were 3.6 more injuries on the Mondays following the switch to DST, compared to other days. As well, 2,649 more days of work were lost as a result of those injuries, or a 68 per cent increase in lost work days. 34
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DISRUPTED RHYTHM: The adverse effects that DST has on workplace health and safety are affirmed by information posted on the website of BCL Consulting Group, which lists the following outcomes: • Heightened risk of workplace injuries and accidents: The lack of sleep, even as little as 40 minutes, can affect the number of workplace incidents following the spring time change. There is an increase in the frequency and severity of accidents and injuries in the week following the onset of DST. • I ncreased risk of heart attack: Sleep disturbance, particularly lack of sleep, can release stress hormones that increase inflammation. This can cause more severe complications in someone who is already at risk of having a heart attack. • Higher incidence of cluster headaches or migraines: The body can notice a difference in sleep patterns, even if it is just by one hour. The lack of sleep disturbs the circadian
as it can take one week for the body to adjust sleep times and circadian rhythms accordingly. • Remind employees that the first few days after the time changes are associated with elevated health and safety risks, due to disturbances to circadian rhythms and sleep. • Remind workers to be especially vigilant while driving, both during and outside of work hours, to protect themselves, since others around them may be sleepier and, therefore, at higher risk of making errors that can cause accidents. HELP THYSELF: As fatigue stemming from sleep deprivation can hike oh&s risks, employees can improve their adaptation to DST by making small changes in their daily lives. Starting about three days before the time change occurs in spring and fall, gradually move up the timing of waking and bedtime, meals, exercise and exposure to light earlier by 15 to 20 minutes each day until these are in line with the new time. Consumer Reports, an independent, non-profit organization, recommends the following steps: •A void taking a nap on the Sunday when DST kicks in: This will make it easier to fall asleep earlier and wake up early the following day. •E xercise: Working out, especially several hours before bedtime, seems to improve sleep.
rhythm, which can alter the release of hormones that affect mood, hunger and desire for sleep. This can trigger bouts of debilitating pain, like cluster headaches or migraines.
ILLUSTRATION BY SCOTT PAGE
• I ncreased cybersurfing during work hours: Although not necessarily a health risk, there has been a noted increase in the amount of time spent surfing the net at work, which has a direct effect on motivation and productivity, specifically on the Monday following the time change. TAKING CHARGE: While we have no control over the synchronization of clocks that occur twice a year, making preparations to adjust to DST as early as one and a half weeks before the time changes in the fall and spring can help ease the transition, NIOSH says. Employers can play a part by relaying the following points to their workers: • Consider reducing demanding physical and mental tasks as much as possible during the week after time change occurs,
•M anage lighting: As exposure to artificial light stimulates the body and mind by encouraging feelings of wakefulness and alertness, controlling the amount of exposure to artificial lighting one hour before bedtime will make it easier to shift one’s snooze pattern earlier. Ways to control the amount of lighting in the hour before bedtime include avoiding electronically lit screens on computers and tablets, drawing curtains and shades to keep unwanted light out of the bedroom, using a nightlight with a red bulb that has a longer wavelength and poses less disruption to sleep and wearing an eye mask while sleeping. •G et outside early: A little sun exposure, especially early in the day, can help the body’s circadian rhythm get back in sync. If possible, try to avoid the late afternoon sun, as that can keep one up later. •E mbrace the new schedule: Eat meals at the usual time and follow other habits according to schedule so as to help the body adapt to the time switch faster. •B e alert: Take a little extra time on Monday morning to get out the door and pay extra attention on the road, as you are likely not the only drowsy driver out there. www.ohscanada.com
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OPINION
MENTAL HEALTH
Working towards Mental Safety By Kevin Flynn
A
few years back, I had the honour of chairing Ontario’s All Party Select Committee on Mental Health and Addictions. The goal was to examine the way we look at and approach mental health in our province and determine how we could improve the system. One of the most significant initiatives I had the privilege to be a part of was that committee’s action plan for Ontario, which we released in 2010. At the time, I could see that the way we were viewing mental health was not working. The growing problem was already on my mind, thanks to the dozens of courageous individuals and struggling families who had come in to my constituency office to speak with me. But my experience with the committee solidified my belief that something needed to be done. Our non-partisan action plan included better access to care, improvements to how provincial agencies respond to crises, housing initiatives and employment support. The call to action we put forward has been embraced by multiple ministries, and I am proud of the work that my Cabinet colleagues have done to implement some of the ideas and improve the mental wellness of Ontarians, young and old. As Ontario’s Minister of Labour, I have made it a priority to ensure that the province’s workplaces are safe. This includes the fundamental right for those workplaces to be psychologically safe spaces for every worker. A psychologically healthy workplace enjoys better recruitment and retention of talent, enhanced productivity, higher levels of creativity and innovation and higher profits. Thankfully, this is a message embraced by many businesses right across Ontario. But it is a message that must be understood by all businesses. Nearly a quarter of the country’s working population is currently affected by mental-health problems or illnesses. In many cases, this leads to more absenteeism, a lack of productivity and employee turnover. Approximately one-third of short- and long-term claims for disability in Canada can be directly attributed to mental-health concerns. This is difficult for businesses, and it is bad for the economy. But on a human level, it is bad for our society. As a government, we have put a strong focus on mental wellness. The National Standard on Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace received all-party support in the Ontario Legislature. This voluntary standard lays the foundation for companies to integrate a health and safety system into the way they do business. It outlines how resources can best be put
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in place, emphasizes the importance of education and awareness and offers guidelines for people in leadership positions. Mental health in the workplace is also being raised among federal, provincial and territorial ministers of labour. At last year’s meeting of ministers, we reaffirmed our commitment to continue efforts to address mental health in the workplace as part of our respective governmental responsibilities. Encouraging all parties to promote psychological wellness is an essential component of the health, well-being and economic success of Canadians. Governments are finally realizing this. We need to continue moving the conversation forward so that more employers recognize that mental health is a key component of a healthy workplace. Everyone in Ontario has the right to work in a safe environment. This is the fundamental philosophy at the Ministry of Labour. It is also a fundamental belief of mine. In March of last year, the Ontario Legislature passed Bill 132 — the Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act. As part of this legislation, amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act strengthened the responsibilities and duties of employers when it comes to investigating complaints of violence and harassment in the workplace. Safety does not just mean freedom from physical dangers, but psychological ones as well. This includes harassment of any kind. Mental health in the workplace needs to be a part of everyone’s health and safety management system. My goal is to work with business and our partners to expand employer-provided services available to all Ontario workers. I am engaging with companies that have introduced strong workplace mental-health programs for their employees and encouraging them to share what works and what does not. I am happy to say that this is an approach already being used successfully by our first responders. Last April, the Ontario Legislature unanimously passed Bill 163 — the Supporting Ontario’s First Responders Act. This legislation created the presumption that when post-traumatic stress disorder is diagnosed in a first responder, it is work-related. It also legislated a focus on prevention. Bill 163 can be seen as an example of how groups can promote better awareness and shared practices on work-related traumatic mental stress and how we can work together to address prevention and promote resiliency. Those battling a mental illness — often suffer in silence. We need to end that. Working toward a psychologically-safe workplace is a critical matter that can have a positive impact on all families in Ontario. Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada
Kevin Flynn is Ontario’s Minister of Labour.
ADVERTISING DIRECTORY C A N A D A
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Canadian Occupational Health & Safety News
So, what’s on your mind? JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 Does seasonal affective disorder affect productivity at work?
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016 Are oil and gas companies wellequipped to detect pipeline leaks?
Yes 86%
Yes 35%
No 8%
No 42%
Don’t Know
Don’t Know
23%
Total Votes
507
Total Votes
6% 436
Go on — have your say. Check out www.ohscanada.com to vote in our latest poll.
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TIME OUT IN THE PINK: Pink may be the colour of choice for prin- station, invaded the set and blasted a fart at him, The Huffcess parties, but for residents in Onoway, a small town northwest of Edmonton, pink was also the colour of water running out of their taps. The town was using potassium pomegranate to do its weekly wash of filters at the water treatment plant when the chemical, which turns water pink when used in large quantities, got into the water distribution system, The Canadian Press reported on March 7. The mayor assured residents that the water is in the pink of health. Preliminary indications point to a problem with the automations and valves at the water treatment plant during the backwashing of the filters. The town has drained its water reservoir and all lines have been flushed, but residents may need to run their water for a few minutes before the water turns clear again.
BURGER MANIA: Two restaurant owners in Dunnville, Ontario thought Lady Luck was smiling at them when a man, who claimed to be the producer of reality show Burger Wars, said he wanted to showcase their restaurants on the program. But the producer was actually a convicted fraudster who is wanted in British Columbia, CBC News reported on March 13. The conman said contestants would have to pay $500 and gather thousands more in sponsorship money to get the show off the ground. The local paper even wrote a glowing story about the show. It is estimated that town residents contributed more than $2,000 in sponsorship funds, and some even donated time and money to renovate the restaurants. Ouch. TAKING OFF: A remote community in Nova Scotia might
be poised for a meteoric rise into aerospace fame, as Canso was chosen to be the site for launching the Ukrainian Cyclone 4M medium-class rocket to deliver satellites into orbit, starting in 2020, CBC News reported on March 14. The location was selected based on factors such as low population density and proximity to multi-modal transportation. Maybe it does take rocket science to inject new life into a quiet town.
WRONG VIBES: An Ottawa-based sex-toy manufacturer
sent out vibes of the wrong kind when it was sued for selling adult sensual lifestyle products that collected and transmitted highly sensitive information about consumers without their knowledge or consent. A woman in the Chicago area launched the lawsuit against Standard Innovation Corp. in September 2016, and another plaintiff joined the suit in February, CBC News reported on March 13. The lawsuit claimed the app collected data on use of the vibrator and sent users’ personal email addresses to company servers in Canada. The company has settled the privacy lawsuit to the tune of $5 million.
HIGH WIND: For a television station in Mississippi, it was
not breaking news that snatched the headline of the day, but a case of breaking wind. A television weatherman of Mississippi’s WLBT was giving a weather update when a boy, who was scheduled to appear on an attorney call-in show at the
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ohs canada
ington Post reported on March 8. Just before a staff picked the boy up and away from the camera, the kid gave his own forecast, saying “there are farts everywhere and toots.”
SEEING RED: Sometimes, it is not kids that present the knottiest disciplinary challenges, but parents. Two mothers dropping off their kids at an elementary school in Deer Park, Texas were involved in an altercation that led to one mom pulling a gun on the other — in full view of their kids. According to an eyewitness account, a mother confronted the driver of a car she alleged was speeding in a school zone. The mother in the car pulled out a gun and told the yelling mom to back off, The Huffington Post reported on March 10. The school should consider putting up a “No-Gun Zone” sign. LOST AND FOUND: Long-distance driving can be a lonely profession, so a driver of a long-haul semitrailer had a feline with him on the road. But the driver thought he had lost his soulmate for good when the cat jumped out of the truck during a rest stop in Ohio, The Associated Press reported on March 6. The driver gave up after a long search, but was elated to see his cat when he reached Shoals, Indiana. His furry friend had been clinging to the undercarriage of his 18-wheeler for 650 kilometres through rain and snow. Purr. HIGH FLYERS: Getting a free trip to attend a job inter-
view sounds too good to be true, but that is exactly what Wellington, New Zealand offered to 100 talented workers from around the world as they sought to boost the capital’s growing technology hub. The idea was first promoted in tech hubs like San Francisco, and it caught on in New Zealand, with 12,000 people having completed applications, The Associated Press reported on March 10. Successful applicants not only get free flights, free accommodation and sightseeing trips during their four-day stay in Wellington, but also get to meet leaders from the technology sector. Talk about a good deal.
HARRIED DAYS: In a hyper-connected world, the things
that can give someone instant fame are endless. For a judge in South Korea, it is hair curlers. The Acting Chief Justice, who oversaw the ouster of South Korea’s president, went to work with two pink plastic hair rollers still attached to the back of her bobbed hair, The Associated Press reported on March 10. The image of the judge with curlers in her hair went viral and became a symbol of a hardworking woman. The hair rollers even had a ring of sarcasm to it: one of the contentious issues facing the impeached president was whether she had fulfilled her duty as president when a ferry sank and killed hundreds of teenagers in 2014. Prosecutors said the president had summoned her hairstylist to her office several hours after the ferry sank, and that her hair was picture perfect on her first media appearance following the tragedy. Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada
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