Accident Prevention e-News
April 2010
|
Volume 5/Issue 4/Apr 2010
|
In this Issue:
|
|
New! Canada’s first confined space standard
 The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) has announced a new standard, CSA Z1006 Management of Work in Confined Spaces, which specifies requirements and guidelines for managing work in confined spaces and coordinating rescues.
“It’s a one-stop solution for an employer who has or thinks he might have a confined space,” says IAPA occupational hygiene specialist Wagish Yajaman, a member of the CSA technical committee that developed the standard.
Almost every industry sector has some kind of confined space where workers are at risk of serious injury or death resulting from asphyxiation, engulfment, electric shock, falls, and heat stress. These spaces can be death traps for workers unprepared for potential hazards. Would-be rescuers often become victims themselves, accounting for more than 60% of fatalities in confined space incidents. However, notes CSA, implementing proper safety precautions can prevent 85% of all confined space incidents.
The standard defines a confined space as a workspace that
- is fully or partially enclosed
- is not designed or intended for continuous human occupancy
- has limited or restricted access, exiting or internal configuration that can complicate provisions of first aid, evacuation, rescue or other emergency response services
This definition focuses on the characteristics of the space, as well as a worker or rescuer’s ability to enter and exit the space without injury, illness or death.
What’s in the standard
Wagish Yajaman describes it as a comprehensive document intended to provide best practices that complement existing legislation. “It offers employers a managed system of recognizing what a confined space is, identifying hazards and assessing risks, and managing entry and exit,” says Yajaman.
Other components include:
- detailed guidance on roles required for safe entry
- training requirements for the entry and rescue teams
- qualification requirements for training providers
- competency requirements for individuals working in a confined space, with regard to their ability to perform specific roles
- an annex containing supporting documentation, policies and procedures, and sample permits
- a look at how to eliminate confined spaces, ideally at the design stage
“This is one of the most comprehensive standards available on confined spaces,” says Yajaman. “It applies to heavy industry, family-run farm operations and everything in between.”
Always assume a confined space is hazardous…
…unless a competent person determines it to be otherwise through a hazard identification and risk assessment, says CSA. Failing to recognize a workspace as a confined space, or understand its related hazards could lead to significant injury or death for workers and first responders.
“Orders written by Ministry of Labour inspectors indicate that many employers are not doing an adequate job of assessing hazards,” says Yajaman. “They often don’t have a written plan based on the hazards found, or a program to make sure people are addressing the hazards properly.
“Just last week I was in a workplace that has a confined space policy and procedures, as well as signage on the confined space. I look in and there are four guys wearing no protective equipment. Yet they have the area posted as a confined space.”
Yajaman suspects the signage was at least 10 years old. “Management was unaware of what was required, and the workers appeared to have had no training on the hazards. This situation immediately raised 4 questions for me:
- Is it really a confined space, based on Ontario’s Confined Spaces Regulation (O. Reg. 632)?
- If it is a confined space, is there an updated program or plan in place?
- Do they have a trained supervisor? Someone must have told these workers to go in and start cleaning up.
- Do the workers have the training and wherewithal to go in?
“In situations like this,” continues Yajaman, “the thinking is often that nothing has ever happened in the past. But this is not a guarantee that nothing ever will.”
CSA advises that Standard Z1006 Management of Work in Confined Spaces is available for pre-order in English by contacting 1-800-463-6727. The French version will be available in late summer 2010.
How we can help
IAPA offers the following confined space products and services:
Complying with Bill 168: the supervisor’s role
 Employers in Ontario have until June 15 to comply with new requirements under Bill 168, Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Act (Violence and Harassment in the Workplace).
Supervisors, a mainstay of the internal responsibility system on which Ontario’s OHS legislation is based, are central to employers’ ability to comply with the requirements.
What the bill requires
Andrew Harkness, IAPA’s senior strategy advisor, Healthy Workplaces, warns that the requirements are significant. “This is not something that somebody can just write a policy for, post in the workplace, and think they’re done.”
Bill 168 requires Ontario employers to take significant steps that would protect workers from the risk of violence and harassment at work.
Among the requirements, employers must
- assess the risk of violence
- prepare workplace policies for both violence and harassment
- develop an implementation program, including control measures/procedures, such as
- employee reporting
- incident and complaint investigation
- emergency response for violence incidents
- create a process for responding to complaints and threats
The legislation also expands workers’ right to refuse unsafe work to include situations of violence, and requires employers who are aware or ought to be aware that domestic violence may erupt at work to take every reasonable precaution to protect the worker.
How supervisors can help
Bill 168 hasn’t changed supervisors’ duties under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Under the act, they must
- ensure a worker works in the manner and with the protective devices, measures and procedures required by the act and its regulations [section 27(1)(a)]
- ensure a worker uses or wears the equipment, protective devices or clothing that the employer requires to be used or worn [section 27(1)(b)]
- advise a worker of the existence of any actual or potential danger to the health or safety of the worker of which the supervisor is aware [section 27(2)(a)]
- take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances to protect workers [section 27(2)(c)]
With regard to helping employers comply with Bill 168, explains Andrew Harkness, this means that supervisors
- have a role in training, including making workers aware of violence and harassment hazards
- are responsible for ensuring workers are aware of and comply with their hazard reporting obligations, through ongoing coaching and implementation of new procedures
- are conduits for reporting and investigating incidents of violence or harassment
- can demonstrate compliance by documenting their efforts. “It’s the supervisors’ job to make sure that employees are complying with the legislation and following the company rules, so as such they do need to show how they’ve accomplished this.”
Don’t think inspectors won’t be checking. During Ministry of Labour inspection blitzes, regardless of the topic, inspectors already look closely to see whether
- workers have received adequate instruction from supervisors on the issue at hand
- supervisors understand the legislation that applies to the task they are supervising, as well as their responsibilities and workers' general rights under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Furthermore, inspectors have already received training on the provisions of Bill 168. As of June 15, the date it takes effect, inspectors will be on the watch for compliance shortcomings.
How you can help your supervisors
The following suggestions apply to all health and safety responsibilities, not just violence and harassment prevention:
- clearly state what you expect from your supervisors regarding productivity, health and safety, and other key performance measures
- help supervisors meet their health and safety duties. Build these duties into supervisors’ job descriptions, and give the duties weight in performance reviews. Extend this to others in the workplace. In most successful companies, responsibility for health and safety begins with the board of directors and involves everyone at all levels of the organization. Health and safety objectives are clearly defined in job descriptions and communicated to all workers
- ensure supervisors have the knowledge and skills to fulfill their responsibilities. For example, says Harkness, “supervisors will be an entry point for identifying and responding to problems. It will likely be supervisors making those first inquiries around domestic violence, so there will need to be some sort of information exchange and awareness training so that supervisors have a comfort zone in dealing with a potential domestic violence situation that could make its way into the workplace”
- commit to creating an environment of trust and respect. “For most of our member firms,” says Harkness, “the threat of violence and harassment won’t come through the door. It will originate in the workplace.” Harkness views harassment and bullying as part of a continuum. “If they’re left unchecked, or inadvertently or covertly supported, they will lead to violence. So ask yourself, ‘What are the relationships like between co-workers, or between workers and managers?’ These questions lend themselves to conversations around creating a respectful workplace, in which harassment and bullying cannot gain a foothold”
- make sure supervisors aren’t part of the problem. There may be instances in which supervisors are the source of harassment, bullying or even violence. “So,” says Harkness, “how can we provide workers with a safe means of reporting supervisor violence or harassment? And then how do we deal with it?’”
How we can help
The single most important first step employers can take is becoming aware that violence is a workplace hazard. The second: to build a culture that encourages staff to share their fears without infringing on privacy rights.
The following information and resources relate to Bill 168 in general, and also provide useful guidance in addressing domestic violence.
- An overview of Bill 168, including requirements and resources
- Live webinars, offered in conjunction with the Human Resources Professionals Association: Human Resources Policies to Address Bill 168 (April 21); Violence in the Workplace and Investigation Under Bill 168 (May 19); Assessing the Risks of Workplace Violence under Bill 168 (June 23)
- Two-hour management briefings — Implications of Bill 168 - Ontario’s New Workplace Violence & Harassment Legislation — presented by local lawyers well versed in OHS legislation
- Half-day interactive workshop, Preventing Violence & Harassment at Work - How to Integrate Bill 168 Requirements into your OHS Program
- Conference sessions at Partners in Prevention Ontario (formerly Health & Safety Canada IAPA Conference and Trade Show), May 4-5, 2010, Mississauga, ON
- Ontario’s New Workplace Violence and Harassment Legislation, May 4, 2:00-5:00 pm
- Addressing Workplace Bullying and Domestic Violence, May 5, 2:45-4:00 pm
- E-courses on workplace violence in general:
- Ministry of Labour guidelines, explaining what employers, constructors, supervisors, and workers need to know about workplace violence and harassment requirements in the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
- Supervisor training from a number of perspectives, and in various formats:
Partners in Prevention Ontario: networking and knowledge exchange
 On May 4-5, less than three weeks from now, delegates and exhibitors from across Ontario and Canada will converge at Partners in Prevention 2010: Ontario Health & Safety Conference & Trade Show. The event, in Mississauga, ON, is a centrepiece for Ontario’s workplace health and safety system, showcasing the expertise of dedicated health and safety professionals from 12 industry sectors.
For delegates, Partners in Prevention 2010 builds on a tradition of networking and knowledge and skills exchanges established by past Health & Safety Canada IAPA Conferences and Trade Shows. Tap into the expertise of leading health and safety advocates, consultants, legal advisors, policy makers, and researchers at Canada’s largest annual OHS event. Tour the trade show — 4 shows in 1 — for new products and services, as well as solutions to workplace challenges.
Conference opportunities
One of the greatest challenges facing delegates will be determining which of the 60+ conference sessions to attend. Among the themes emerging from the program are
- core health and safety issues — accident investigation, emergency preparedness, fall prevention, machine safety, respirator fit and use testing for bioaerosols, slips, trips and loss of balance…
- emerging issues and opportunities — hiring or contracting temporary workers, musculoskeletal disorders, OHS for immigrant workers, partnering with OHS researchers, young worker safety…
- healthy workplaces — organizational mental health leadership, bullying and domestic violence, psychological safety and health…
- OHS program management — contractor safety management, lift truck operations, disability management best practices…
- the regulatory environment — Bill 168 – violence and harassment, Ministry of Labour priorities, Ontario’s OHS system review…
While at the conference, explore e-learning through a free e-course hosted by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. A number of course offerings are available. Each course lasts one hour. Space is limited.
Trade show opportunities
Four events will take place in one combined space:
- Partners in Prevention 2010 (formerly Health & Safety Canada IAPA Conference and Trade Show)
- MASC 2010 (Machine Automation Safety Congress), featuring hands-on machine automation safety and safeguarding demonstrations
- CANECT 2010 (Canadian Environmental Conference & Trade Show), for environmental managers, plant personnel, policy makers, lawyers and consultants responsible for environmental affairs
- Your Workplace Conference, a forum and marketplace to exchange ideas and strategies for attaining healthier workplaces, which contribute to well-being, enhanced performance and increased productivity
While at the trade show, take in these features:
- a Healthy Living Stage, with interactive demonstrations of practical wellness applications, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and stress testing, nutrition and fitness, gait scanning, and more. On the stage, you’ll also find these free sessions:
- Developing a Corporate Wellness Program: From Theory to Practice
- Stress Resilience
- Healthy Aging Through Healthy Living
- Healthy Eating Habits for Work
- Ergonomic Products – What Works and When?
- a Partners in Prevention booth, where you can learn more about the newly amalgamated health and safety organizations, speak with health and safety experts, and find health and safety solutions and resources
- a Partners in Prevention Bookstore, with health and safety references and tools, business publications, training resources, multimedia and more. You’ll find resources from
- Health and Safety Association for Government Services — municipal, education, community, healthcare
- Infrastructure Health and Safety Association — construction, electrical & utilities, transportation, aggregates, natural gas, and ready-mix concrete
- Safe Workplace Promotion Services Ontario — farming, landscaping, manufacturing, service, hospitality, retail, and wholesale trade
- Workplace Safety North — mining, forestry, pulp and paper, smelters and refineries, printing, northern Ontario business
Speaker authors will be in the bookstore at select times to sign copies of their books, including Graham Lowe (Creating Healthy Organizations: How Vibrant Workplace Inspire Employees to Achieve Sustainable Success) and Bruce Lourie (Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects our Health).
Back again for a fourth year is World's Biggest Bookstore, with select titles from a variety of different subjects ranging from business to the environment, health and wellness, etc.
Next steps
2 enforcement blitzes in May
 Ontario’s Ministry of Labour will initiate 2 enforcement blitzes next month involving falls from heights, and young workers.
For the month-long falls from heights inspection blitz, inspectors will look for hazards involving platforms, raised floors, mezzanines and ladders, check fall-arrest equipment and guardrails, and watch for dangerous practices (e.g., working on storage racks) and improper use of ladders.
This blitz is a repeat of a blitz that took place in November 2009. Applying a zero-tolerance approach, inspectors visited 1,572 workplaces and issued 4,611 orders, including 149 stop-work orders.
Falls continue to represent more than 17% of lost-time injury claims, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board statistics show.
From May through August, Ministry of Labour inspectors will also visit workplaces with a high likelihood of hiring young workers, who are at greater risk of injury than other workers.
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board reports that an average of 42 young Ontario workers — aged 15 to 24 — are injured, made ill, or killed on the job every day. That's almost 2 young workers every hour of every day and every night, seven days a week. Between 2001 and 2008, 27 of these young workers were killed.
The highest number of allowed lost-time claims occurs among young workers employed in occupations such as sales and service, transport/equipment operators, and labourers in processing, manufacturing and utilities.
Young worker strategies: supervision and training
Rob Ellis, president of Our Youth at Work, and a former president of a business servicing the food and restaurant industry, lost his 18-year-old son, David, to a preventable workplace incident over 10 years ago. It was David’s second day at work, which illustrates a painful truth: workers who are new to a job are 5 times more likely to be injured in the first month.
Lack of supervision and training are two factors that contribute to workplace injury in young workers. A US study found that 80% of work-related injuries among adolescents occurred when no supervisor was present. Also, an Institute for Work and Health study found that only one in five employees (21%) had received safety training in their first year with a new employer (in Ontario, the rate was 28%).
Ellis urges employers to show new workers “every possible place where they might slip, fall, or get cut or burned. There’s no need to hand out a thick training manual. Just set up a really good buddy system. Make the buddy responsible for never leaving a new worker’s side — especially in the first 30 days when most of the injuries occur.”
What makes young workers tick?
Concerned employers look past the stereotypes to find out where young workers’ behaviour comes from, and use that insight to set clear expectations. For example, young workers have grown up listening to their parents tell them to enjoy life now and focus on careers later. The lesson for employers: an authoritarian approach won’t work with this generation.
Engage young people by finding ways to make work and health and safety more rewarding; ask them for help in figuring it out. Volkswagen calls it the “fun theory,” pointing out that “something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better.”
Ask yourself these questions
Here’s what inspectors asked themselves during last year’s blitz. Ask yourself the same questions, and develop an action plan based on the results.
Is the workplace prepared for new workers?
- competent supervisors, as required by the Occupational Health and Safety Act
- commitment by management to excellence in health and safety
- general compliance with the act and regulations
- following the act and regulations for minimum ages for work and being in a workplace
Are new workers ready for work?
- employers are aware of previous safety education, work experience and valid certifications/qualifications
- each new worker knows his or her rights and responsibilities
Is there comprehensive safety orientation?
- tour of the workplace showing new workers where all required information and important instructions are posted
- emergency procedures in place; compulsory workplace safety rules
- general requirements for personal protective equipment, first aid provisions and all other essential health and safety facts
Is job-specific training done well and validated?
- training takes place (and is understood) before any new task is assigned
- complete training is provided on all safety devices and protective equipment
- trainer is expert at performing the tasks and can teach adequately
Are workers supervised adequately?
- supervisors are in regular contact with workers to provide instruction and ensure that they are following safe work practices
- workers have access to the supervisor and can ask questions and report unsafe working conditions
How we can help: falls
IAPA offers a number of resources to help prevent slips, trips and falls:
- E-courses (1 hour)
- Free downloads
- Small Business Safety Calculator. A worker who slips on a greasy floor and suffers head injuries is just one of the scenarios in which you can adjust the calculations to reflect typical costs for your workplace
- Assessments and customized training. IAPA consultants have knowledge and experience regarding slip, trip and fall prevention. They can answer your questions, provide hazard assessments, customize training, and recommend other controls for your workplace
How we can help: young workers
IAPA resources for protecting young workers include
In the News
Members appointed to OHS system review panel
Members have been appointed to an expert advisory panel, convened by the province to conduct a comprehensive review of the province's occupational health and safety system. The committee is expected to report back to Labour Minister Peter Fonseca before the end of the year with recommendations for structural, operational and policy improvements.
Under Tony Dean, chair of the review, the panel includes:
- Bud Calligan — retired Secretary-Treasurer, Carpenters District Council of Ontario
- Carmine Tiano — Director of WSIB Advocacy and Occupational Services, Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario
- Vernon Edwards — Health and Safety Director, Ontario Federation of Labour
- Joan Eakin — Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
- Carolyn Tuohy — Senior Fellow, School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto
- H. Allan Hunt — Senior Economist, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Michigan, US
- Domenic Mattina — Vice-President of Sales and Estimating, Mattina Mechanical Ltd.
- Jattinder Dhillon — VP Health, Safety, Wellness and Business Continuity, Corp. HR, Loblaws Canada
- John A. Macnamara — Vice President - Health, Safety and Environment, Hydro One
The panel held its first meeting on March 31. Now under development are a workplan, mechanisms of research, and other information gathering, and consultations.
Learn more about the panel by attending Partners in Prevention 2010, formerly Health & Safety Canada - IAPA Conference & Trade Show (see article elsewhere in this issue).
Survey assesses status of health and wellness programs
A large majority of Canadian organizations surveyed by The Conference Board of Canada take the overall health of their employees into consideration when designing their benefit programs. However, only about 25% of respondents feel that their organization has developed a comprehensive wellness strategy, and 1 in 10 have not done so at all.
“During tough economic times, organizations face pressure to make cuts to programs viewed as non-essential,” says Karla Thorpe, associate director, compensation and industrial relations. “Often, workplace health and wellness initiatives are among the first to be cut. However, it is in these turbulent times, where stress is high and employee morale is a concern, that workplace health and wellness initiatives are needed most.”
Thorpe notes that Canadian organizations are at different stages when it comes to workplace health and wellness. “Some struggle with implementing health and wellness initiatives, while others have successfully integrated health and wellness into their overall corporate strategy and identity. The leading-edge organizations are also making issues such as mental health and presenteeism priorities in their health and wellness strategy.”
The survey report, Beyond Benefits: Creating a Culture of Health and Wellness in Canadian Organizations, discusses the link between workplace health and wellness programs, employee health, and greater organizational health. As well, it features case studies of Canadian organizations that have implemented innovative health and wellness practices.
The report also includes tips to help employers looking to develop or improve their health and wellness strategies. For example, the report highlights how organizations can move forward by starting small — focusing on the fundamentals before expanding their programs.
For more on the report, visit http://www.conferenceboard.ca/press/newsrelease/10-84.aspx.
Walk for Threads of Life
On Sunday, May 2 (in most communities), 3,500 people in 28 communities across Canada will walk together to support families of workplace fatalities, life-altering injuries and occupational diseases.
Steps for Life is the primary fundraising event for Threads of Life, a national registered charity that supports families along their journey of healing after suffering from a workplace fatality, life-altering illness or occupational disease. All funds raised go directly to support Threads of Life's family support program (the only known peer-to-peer support program of its kind in the world), regional family forums, and the production of Threads of Life's quarterly newsletter.
Last year, walks in 14 communities across Canada raised more than $158,000 for Threads of Life's family support programs and services. This year, the 28 walks will take place in 8 provinces. To find out more, visit www.stepsforlife.ca.
|