Accident Prevention e-News September 2006	Volume 1/Issue4/September 2006
In this Issue: Retaining workers Avoiding electrical injuries Workplace violence Certification FAQs Newsmakers

Retaining Employees through Health and Wellness

A recent survey of Canadian employers conducted by HR services provider Hewitt Associates found that respondents expect 43% of employees will retire early, and less than 11% will work past age 65. Half of these employees are already age 40 or older.

For these respondents, retirement is less an issue than replacement. This looming labour shortage is already reaching crisis proportions in Alberta, where wages are shooting skyward as employers battle to retain staff.

But more money isn’t the only perk that can be dangled in front of workers. What else? Well, the answer depends on whom you ask.

Pets: the hidden solution?

The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association sees bringing Bowser to work as one option, and according to another recent survey, so do many US companies. The results suggest almost one in five American workplaces allows pets at work. According to the survey,

• 55 million Americans believe pets in the workplace lead to a more creative environment
• 53 million believe they decrease absenteeism
• 50 million believe they help co-workers get along better
• 38 million believe they create a more productive work environment
• 32 million believe they decrease smoking in the workplace
• 37 million believe they help improve the relationship between managers and their employees, and
• 46 million people who bring their pets to the workplace work longer hours.

Are pets at work the solution? Well, no, but they may be a partial solution, and a prime example of what Hewitt Associates says we need more of: flexibility. "With an employee population so diverse in terms of age,” says company principal John Tompkins, “a 'one size fits all' approach is no longer effective. Employers who can identify and meet the different needs of their employees will be most successful in the current labour market."

Cathy Course, a senior benefits consultant with Hewitt, recommends taking a disciplined approach to deciding whether to make changes in workplace programs and benefits. "We recommend organizations undergo a process to audit their current talent pool, assess their future workforce needs, and then determine what they want to change and how that fits within their budget," says Course.

Topping the list

Health and wellness programming is gaining increasing recognition as a means of keeping employees healthy, happy, and fit. And by extension, productive, loyal, and less likely to head off for greener pastures.

Such programming can take a number of forms. Some are worker focused, such as lifestyle programming. Others are job focused, such as ergonomic assessments to ensure a good fit between workers and job tasks. Still others look at workplace culture. Does it encourage creativity, productivity and personal growth? Does it promote a healthy work/life balance? Does it protect workers from violence and bullying?

Each approach is just one part of a broader solution. As Cathy Course suggests, the process begins with an audit. Where are you now, where to do you want to go, and what do you have to put in place to get there?

Shock Therapy

Non-electrical workers risk electrocution almost as much as certified lineworkers or electricians.

Not in your workplace? Wake up.

Fact: Workplace Safety and Insurance Board statistics for 2004 show that, right here in Ontario, 92 workers experienced lost-time injuries due to electrical burns. Another 82 died from electrocution and electric shock.

Fact: Electrical safety is a critical element of your OHS program if your organization is involved in operating and maintaining facilities and equipment, construction, process design, electrical safety services, or the installation of equipment.

Fact: Contact with only a minute amount of electrical energy can kill. The current drawn by a small 7.5 watt, 120-volt lamp, passed from hand to hand or hand to foot across the chest is enough to cause electrocution.

Regulatory safeguards around electricity in Ontario’s manufacturing workplaces appear in the Industrial Establishments Regulation (Regulation 851) made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Sections 41-44 of this regulation pertain specifically to electricity hazards, including lockout and tag out procedures and how to protect workers from injury.

Why aren't these safeguards enough to prevent electrical incidents? The problem, explains Steve Oakley, a consultant with IAPA's Synergration Group, is the misconception around what constitutes an electrical hazard. "One of the more common myths out there is that 'low voltage can't hurt me.' " Oakley uses highways as an analogy. "Most people believe that large highways are the most dangerous to drive but in reality it's the secondary highways that carry the most risk."

As for controlling hazards, Oakley notes that companies tend to rely on personal protective equipment as the default solution. However, this is the least effective control measure. The most effective are (in order)

• elimination or substitution
• engineering controls
• work procedures and practices
• administrative controls, and
• personal protective equipment

How injuries happen

Electrical injuries can result from

• direct contact with electrical energy
• electrical arcs, which are a flow of electrons through a gas (including air) to a victim whose body essentially supplies an alternative path to the ground
• flash burns from heat created by the arc, and
• flame burns from the ignition of clothing and other combustible, non-electric materials.

Another concern regarding electrical safety, says Oakley, is that "you don't see as many incidents before you see cascading forms of loss. You might not get two chances." If the improper procedures are carried out, when an injury finally does occur it can be fatal.

To prevent electrical injuries or fatalities, Oakley recommends integrating an electrical hazard control program into your health and safety management system. Manufacturing companies have many employees who may be unknowingly exposed to electrical energy and unaware of their vulnerability to electrical injury. An integrated prevention program is the best safeguard to protect all employees from the hidden dangers of electricity on the job.

Certification Training FAQs

Earlier this year a Woodstock, Ontario manufacturer of building products for commercial farms was fined $55,000 for violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. A director was also fined $10,000.

No injuries, just failures to meet legislated obligations. Among the failures was non-compliance with a work order requiring certification of at least one safety committee employer representative and one worker representative. Implications:

• certification is on inspectors’ radar screens.
• the Ministry of Labour isn’t waiting for injuries before laying charges under the act

IAPA regularly receives questions on certification. Below, Accident Prevention e-News answers your most commonly asked questions.

Q: Which workplaces must have certified members?

A: In the manufacturing sector, every workplace with 20 or more workers must have a joint health and safety committee, and if you have a committee then at least one management representative and one worker representative must be certified.

Q: What’s involved?

A: Certification is a two-part process involving training in the fundamentals of health and safety and in workplace-specific hazards. Certification Part One provides an overall knowledge of health and safety basics that apply to all workplaces. Certification Part Two focuses on significant hazards typical of workplaces like yours. It covers how to assess those hazards and ways to control and/or eliminate them.

The designated worker and management representatives must each complete Part One and Part Two certification training.

Q: How long before a certificate [certification card] expires?

A: There is no training expiration date. However, because safety committee membership changes regularly, make sure you always have certified members.

Q: Is refresher training required?

A: No, but again, you may need to train new members regularly given the turnover in safety committee members.

Q: How will workplace-specific hazard training help me?

A: For every significant hazard in your workplace, you’ll be able to

• describe the hazard and how it may cause injury or illness
• identify relevant legislation, standards and guidelines
• describe how to identify and assess the hazard
• describe ways of controlling it
• prepare an action plan to identify, assess and control the hazard, based on an actual workplace situation

Q: Compliance aside, what benefits do certified members offer my workplace?

“Certification is an investment in the reduction of future losses, including injuries and all other types of losses,” explains IAPA training specialist Clarence McCloskey.

“Workplaces are constantly changing,” says McCloskey, “and it’s the responsibility of every employee to be on the lookout for anything that presents a hazard or a risk. The four or five days of certification are the best training a company could offer to get employees on the road to prevention.”

McCloskey says not just safety committee members are showing up in his certification courses. “Some companies are sending their entire committee for training; some are sending their entire management team. They’re realizing that this is fundamental training that every manager and every committee member should have.”

Newsmakers

No More Chocolate for Darmin

Darmin Garcia, a 21-year-old chocolate factory worker, temporarily lost his taste for the treat after being trapped for over two hours on August 18 in a vat of dark chocolate.

Garcia told reporters that "I was pushing the chocolate down into the vat because it was stuck." As the chocolate came loose from the hopper and began to slide, Garcia went with it. Although he was able to right himself, Garcia remained chest deep in the warm chocolate. "It was in my hair, in my ears, my mouth, everywhere."

Garcia was stuck in the vat for two hours as emergency response workers tried to remove him. Garcia said he felt like he weighed “900 pounds.” The primary challenge for rescuers was his pants, which were caught on a roller. Eventually, after workers thinned the chocolate with cocoa butter and removed some of it, Garcia was able to slip out of his pants and rescuers pulled him up. Garcia was taken to hospital and later released.

Peters Strikes Action Committee on Youth

Elyse Soininen and Jessica McClinchey, both former high school dropouts, join a group of labour market experts, specialists and others with experience or expertise in youth issues on Ontario Labour Minister Steve Peters’ newly established Action Group on Vulnerable Workers Under 25.

Sue Boychuk, the ministry’s manager, Young Worker Health and Safety, says the ministry’s injury and fatality statistics show a need for action: “Many of the teenagers being seriously injured or killed were not registered high school students.”

The action group’s first meeting is scheduled for September 13, and will focus on social and economic issues facing working youth. “We want to find out who they are,” says Boychuk. “We want to know if work is hard to find. Are these people working full time or part time or multiple part-time jobs? Are they moving from one job to another? Where do they go for advice on workplace issues? Or do they?

“Before we begin working on prevention, we want to spend a lot of time discovering who these youth are, what they need, where they go [for information], who would they even listen to, who their mentors are… what value do they place on money? Is it everything, or is the job more important?

“So really,” says Boychuk, “the first step in this process is ‘Who are these youth,’ ‘What makes them tick,’ and ‘What interests them and won’t interest them.’ ”

Specific goals for the group include:

• identifying gaps in communication, knowledge or skills that may contribute to workplace injuries and deaths among post-secondary youth
• identifying best practices for, and recommending enhancements to, a coordinated strategy that can make workplaces safer for new, young and inexperienced workers, including increasing employers’ and supervisors’ knowledge and skills
• recommending ways to provide appropriate health and safety social marketing, awareness and education to workers under the age of 24 who are outside of the education system
• recommending where, when and how messages aimed at this group would be most effectively delivered, and
• recommending an implementation plan, including time lines and an evaluation process.

Elyse Soininen and Jessica McClinchey were recommended to the ministry by their school boards, which maintain successful return-to-school programs. The two young women had gone back to school and completed their secondary education. Other action group members include

• Minister of Labour Steve Peters (chair)
• Brett McKenzie, director, Membership Development/Marketing, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Construction Council of Ontario
• Paul Kells, founder and vice chair, Safe Communities Foundation Canada, and executive director, Passport to Safety, Safe Communities Foundation
• Dr. Cam Mustard, president and senior scientist, Institute for Work and Health
• Matt Wood, executive director, Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres
• Brenda Pipitone, director, Special Projects and Community Partnerships, George Brown College, and
• Mitzie Hunter, vice president, Marketing, Goodwill Greater Toronto, Central and Eastern Ontario.

Boychuk expects the committee to submit recommendations to the minister in spring 2007.

Changes at CSA

Pat Keindel, CSA’s president, Standards, is stepping down and assuming a part-time role as vice-president, Business Development. “Her vision has taken the Canadian Standards Association from a standards development organization to a world-renowned full service solutions provider,” says CSA president and CEO Rob Griffin. Keindel’s move is attributed to “an effort to achieve a better life work balance.

In other CSA news, Tomislav Mehes of Copper Cliff, Ontario and Norma McCormick of Winnipeg, Manitoba have received the association’s 2006 award of merit. Mehes was recognized for his work in developing and advancing standards in respiratory protection and compressed breathing systems. Mehes is superintendent, Emergency Preparedness and corporate industrial hygienist at Inco Limited. McCormick, founder and principal of Corporate Health Works, Inc., was recognized for her commitment to advancing OHS standards.