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December 2007
No Need for Surprises
Prepare now for the MOL's new campaign in April 2008
You can avoid being surprised by the Ministry of Labour's (MOL)
High Risk and Last Chance initiatives
simply by making it your business to discover two things.
Know the timelines
The first thing to know is that the MOL operates on an April to March calendar year.
That means the MOL's new intervention strategy will launch in April 2008,
giving you the luxury of more than three months to be ready...if indeed you need to be ready.
Know your record
Which leads us to the second thing you need to know.
Is your record exposing you to unnecessary costs associated with rework and penalties?
It's not difficult to find out if you can expect a visit from one of the MOL's 400 inspectors,
before they come knocking:
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Determine your firm's frequency rate and how you compare with your WSIB rate group average.
If you're unsure, call your WSIB account manager, who has this information.
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Anticipate your weaknesses. You're likely on a list if:
a) your injury frequency rate is 50 per cent or more above the rate group average;
b) you have experienced high cost claims in one or more of the last several years;
c) you have a recent history of critical injuries or a fatality.
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Do a self-evaluation on your risks and associated hazards.
OSSA can help you get on track and minimize repercussions -- give us a call (1-888-478-6772).
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If it's too late...
...and inspectors have already arrived at your front door:
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The best offence is to cooperate.
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Orders often have short deadlines, so don't procrastinate:
invest whatever time and money is required to implement your fix, fast.
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Don't walk this road alone: the Ontario Service Safety Alliance (OSSA) is your WSIB-approved provider of health and safety solutions.
We have the experience and expertise you need to get out of trouble,
and more important, help you build a durable health and safety culture in your organization.
Call us at: 1-888-478-6772.
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The best part about being proactive? The ability to implement a health and safety program
on your terms, at your pace, bearing your brand.
WSIB Levels the Playing Field for Law-abiding Firms
Firms rewarded when they self-disclose non-compliance
The WSIB has reinstated its "Voluntary Registration Policy"
--a program whereby employers who have not been paying their premiums and
who voluntarily step forward to disclose this, are given better treatment
than companies who wait to be found out. While you, as Advocate readers,
won't find the VRP personally relevant, passing the info along to your business
network will make life better for you in the long run. Here's how.
The Voluntary Registration Program helps to level the playing field for conscientious employers,
like yourselves, who are doing the right thing and who are fulfilling
their social and legal obligations at a cost.
The WSIB sums up it up nicely: voluntary registration helps protect
the integrity of the WSIB insurance fund for all Ontario workplaces.
Employers who don't register are a burden on the system and on employers that do.
Here are some highlights on how the new VRP policy works:
...and inspectors have already arrived at your front door:
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If an employer who did not register as required (i.e. within 10 days of hiring their first worker)
comes forward to voluntarily disclose this, the WSIB may:
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Waive penalties for not reporting (the penalties can be serious amounts of money);
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Refrain from prosecuting under the Provincial Offences Act;
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Not require the firm to pay retroactive premiums, depending on when they register.
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The employer coming forward to disclose must do so voluntarily and must not
have been already discovered by the WSIB.
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VRP applies to new employer registrations only.
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Full amnesty is given to employers who disclose before March 31, 2008.
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Partial amnesty is given to employers who:
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have been identified for registration before they voluntarily disclose;
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are only partially in compliance.
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We encourage you to help get the word out on VRP through your various business networks
(e.g. Chamber of Commerce, local business groups, local industry associations).
Anything that levels the playing field for employers who place a high priority
on employee health and safety and that play by the rules, is worth promoting.
To make sure no question goes unanswered, the WSIB has posted its policy, a fact sheet,
a Q&A and a brochure.
No Apologies for Shocking People
WSIB's new ad campaign even more graphic than last year
WSIB Chair Steve Mahoney isn't going to turn down the volume on his graphic ad campaign
until the people of Ontario are equally shocked by the "staggering number of workplace fatalities"
-- 101 in 2006, and 73 by the end of October 2007.
You'll know if you've seen one of the commercials or ads.
They're unforgettable and feature young workers in a surreal scenario:
about to lose their life on a construction site or face permanent disfigurement
in a restaurant kitchen. The message? There's no such thing as an "accident".
Taking the heat
The WSIB took some heat for its graphic ad campaign last year.
Yet this year it has upped the ante. As Mahoney says in his November 5 news release,
"I didn't apologize for our ads last year and I certainly won't this year.
We won't stop until every person in every workplace, worker and employer alike,
takes responsibility for workplace safety and spreads the message
that zero is the only acceptable number of workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities."
While the ads may be uncomfortable, even emotional,
it is unlikely that there's a parent anywhere who wouldn't agree with the message...particularly
the 174 families whose lives were shattered in the past 22 months when their loved ones died on the job.
The campaign includes television, radio, print, transit shelters and outdoor ads,
Internet ads, and a customized web site at www.prevent-it.ca.
The print and TV ads are running in many languages, including Cantonese, Mandarin, Italian, Portuguese, Punjabi and Spanish.
The Latest MOL Convictions for Service Sector Health & Safety Violations
Opportunities to learn from others
Every month, organizations take an entirely preventable hit on their bottom
line when they are fined tens of thousands of dollars for violations of the Occupational
Health and Safety Act that injure or kill Ontario workers.
In recent weeks, one person died,
two more were seriously injured,
and countless people were put at risk in Ontario’s service sector.
SCM Supply Chain Management Inc. (a warehousing firm), Brampton,
fined $200,000 for a violation resulting in the death of a worker.
The worker suffered fatal head injuries when he became trapped in an automated device
employed to change batteries in equipment used to move objects in the distribution
and warehousing centre in Mississauga. He was pronounced dead at hospital.
A Ministry of Labour investigation found that although the equipment, called a Battery Bull,
had no mechanical defects, the unit was not fitted with guards or other devices to prevent access
to its moving parts when in operation.
Employers should realize that when equipment is sold to them,
the equipment sold does not necessarily comply with the requirements outlined
by the Occupational Health and Safety Act. It is the responsibility of the employer
to ensure that any equipment purchased, especially that with moving parts,
is outfitted with all the necessary guards or other required safety features.
Grocery chain fined $90,000 for injury to young worker
Sobeys Capital Incorporated, Woodstock, fined $90,000 for a violation resulting
in a young worker fracturing his hip after slipping on ice on the floor of
a walk-in food cooler. The company pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the floor
used by the worker was kept free of obstructions, hazards and accumulations of ice,
as required by the Regulations for Industrial Establishments.
Speaking of ice...as the winter months arrive, and with Environment Canada calling for a wetter,
colder winter, employers must be diligent that all walking and working
surfaces are clear of water, snow and other debris that can cause slip, trips and falls.
Halton Recycling Ltd. (a recycler), Halton, fined $65,000, and KAS Group of Companies
(a staffing agency), Mississauga, fined $22,500, for a violation resulting
in a worker falling and suffering broken bones.
The recycling company was employing two workers provided by the staffing agency
who were operating a recycling truck, and picking up items left at street curbsides in Hamilton.
One was the driver, the other was the loader.
The loader jumped off the truck while it was turning on a cul-de-sac.
One of the truck tires rolled over the worker's foot.
Neither company had provided training to the worker' on any of the workplace hazards; specifically,
they failed to acquaint the loader with any hazard in the handling and use of mobile recycling equipment.
This situation serves as an example of the shared responsibility
for the safety of a staffing-agency employee working for the contracted company.
The fine reinforces the Ministry of Labour's insistence that all workers be provided
with adequate and appropriate health and safety training on the hazards
the worker is likely to encounter on the job.
If We Offered You a Bold New Way to Reduce Your WSIB Premiums and Collect Rebates...
...would you be interested?
We're convinced that you would. Dozens of other companies across the province have joined "Safety Groups"
-- an extremely effective tool that, through the power of collaboration,
has helped participants achieve results it would have been difficult, if not impossible,
to achieve alone. In 2006, those results typically included rebate cheques
totalling an average of 3.2 per cent of a firm's annual WSIB premium,
and a reduction of over 20 per cent in their injury frequency. And that's just for starters.
Now, OSSA has been approved by WSIB to offer service sector firms
like yours membership in a Safety Group and an opportunity to reap similar benefits, and more.
How a Safety Group works:
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A Safety Group is a WSIB program sponsored by a health and safety association
-- which for the service sector is OSSA.
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Twenty or more member-firms attend three out of five one-day meetings per year.
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The meetings are facilitated by the OSSA.
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Group members select five safety objectives and work on measurable
improvements in these areas over the next year.
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Members collaborate to develop and plan sustainable prevention programs,
work on common problems and hazards, and integrate these solutions into
their daily business practices.
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OSSA provides education sessions, resources, tools, support, advice, site visits,
coaching and discounted access to its many products, courses and services.
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Benefits within your reach:
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Safety Group members received rebate cheques of an average of
3.2 per cent of their annual WISB premiums in 2006.
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Typically, firms see a reduction of greater than 20 per cent in their injury frequency.
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Members that improve their NEER experience by improving their health and safety program,
will increase their rebate or reduce their surcharge,
resulting in lower premiums for that calendar year.
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If the rate group succeeds in improving their results,
this drives down the premium rate for everybody.
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Firms targeted for a WSIB Workwell Audit can defer the audit
for 12 months by joining a Safety Group.
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For more information on how the program works, benefits, and membership fees and registration:
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Check out what the WSIB has to say about its Safety Group Program. |
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Review OSSA's invitation to service sector firms. |
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Call John Aird, Manager, Special Projects, at 1-800-525-2468, extension 3001, or 905-614-3001.
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What Do You Mean, I Have to Train My Contractors!
Companies fined for onsite violations by their contractors
Last August, Premier Candle Corp.
was fined $105,000 for health and safety violations
that resulted in serious burns to not their own staff, but to a driver from
a trucking company contracted to deliver hot liquid wax to the plant.
What can the service sector learn from this industrial incident?
The driver had just finished filling a Premier Candle silo with hot wax and was detaching
the pipes through which the wax had been transferred when he was sprayed.
He suffered second and third degree burns to the right side of his body.
The important message for risk-averse organizations is that the candle company was fined,
not the trucking company. Likely, the driver didn't work with hot wax day after day.
Possibly the trucking company sent different drivers to make the various deliveries.
Ultimately, Premier Candle pleaded guilty to failing to provide the driver with information,
instruction and supervision on the safe loading of hot liquid wax from the truck into the silo.
Imagine this service-sector scenario
Consider this every-day scenario: a driver is delivering cases of product to a grocery store or warehouse.
He has an old-fashioned pump truck, but the grocery store has an electric power jack.
The driver asks if he can use the jack to unload the cases from his vehicle.
The warehouse staff say, sure. Who wouldn't want to help the guy out?
The problem is, the driver isn't trained on the jack.
Without proof of training the grocery store or warehouse is liable for any injury.
The lesson the Premier Candle story offers every organization is
that the employer is responsible for training and supervising any individual
doing work on its site, even individuals who are not their regular employees.
Just two ways to respond
Here are the only two acceptable responses organizations can make to contractors or subs who want to use your equipment:
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No, you can't use my equipment.
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Yes, feel free--provided you can demonstrate proof of training on this particular equipment.
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You're Invited: Heads Up on Two Important Dates
Mark your calendars now to avoid double-booking
Heads up on two important events landing in the first half of 2008. Please mark your calendars!
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The Annual IAPA Conference:
April 21-23, 2008, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
This promises to be a cracker of an event
(the speaker lineup attracted over 8,000 attendees at the 2007 conference).
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Tenth year anniversary party: June 18, 2008, at the Centre for
Health & Safety Innovation, 5110 Creekbank Road, Mississauga.
OSSA is inviting you and others who are leaving your mark on OSSA's success,
to help us celebrate our coming of age.
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OSSA Board of Directors and advisory committee members: please mark your calendars right away.
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5110 Creekbank Road, Suite 500,
MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, L4W 0A1
Client Services Line: 1.888.478.OSSA
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