June 14, 2010

Opinion | David Zurawel

Workplace Safety Panel can set the system on the right course

The Ontario government, through the Ministry of Labour, has launched a high profile review of the province’s occupational health and safety system in response to a disproportionately high number of workplace fatalities within the construction sector late in 2009 and into 2010.

Despite these tragic events of the past number of months, what must not be overlooked is that Ontario has a sophisticated and very high functioning occupational health and safety system that continues to improve through consistent effort and commitment by employers and workers.

According to data recently made available by the Prevention Division of the Ontario Workplace Safety & Insurance Board, injuries and illnesses by year for the last ten years have demonstrated consistent improvement.

From 1999 to 2009 the total number of reported workplace injuries and illnesses has come down from annual figures of 279,512 to 198, 132 respectively, representing a 29% decrease. Similarly, reported workplace deaths have decreased 27% from 100 annually in 1999 to 73 in 2009. This translates to a 2009 injury rate of 1.4 per 100 workers, down from 2.6 per 100 in 1999.

Yet, while progress is being made for workplace safety in Ontario, it must never be overlooked that the results in each case still represent a significant impact to the life of an individual and their family. Good systems can always improve.

For this reason Mr. Dean and his expert advisory panel must not focus their efforts on delivering recommendations to the Labour Minister that only call for changes to the current occupational health and safety system.

Significant reductions in the number of reported workplace fatalities, injuries and illnesses will not come from simply bolstering current programs of prevention, enforcement and sanctions on contractors that are already part of the solution.

The real targets that need to be identified, policed and sanctioned into compliance are those individual businesses that currently function outside of the system, perpetuating the underground economy and not honest firms already "playing by the rules".

The lack of any sort of training, absence of a safety culture and the avoidance of payment of premiums for those exposed to construction project risk perpetuated by these businesses are the root cause of the great majority of human misery and an unsustainable level of cost for legitimate business in Ontario.

The questions that need to be answered together by employers, workers and the government is how to go beyond what is already known and practiced in order to get at the heart of the solution.

How are employers going to encourage others to adopt a commitment to health and safety? How are workers going to ensure everyone on a worksite exercises their own personal responsibility for their safety and the safety of those around them and how are government and its agencies going to look beyond businesses it knows to identify the real perpetrators of our collective problem?

Failure to find these answers will only maintain the unacceptable status quo: workers will meet with tragedy, business will become uncompetitive and government will struggle with inefficiency. The opportunity is before us all to step up and set Ontario's occupational health and safety system on the right course.

David Zurawel is the vice president of government relations for the Council of Ontario Construction Associations (COCA).

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