Do you know how many body bags have been returned home to Canada from the war in Afghanistan? Probably. At the time this article was written, it was widely reported that two more soldiers had perished in an ambush in Afghanistan, bringing the total to 42.
Do you know how many workers are killed in Ontario workplaces? Probably not.
Why don’t we know this? And, why aren’t we as disturbed about the number of people who die here at home, in our workplaces? Because workers die all the time and their deaths don’t make front page news.
Last year, in Ontario, close to 100 workers lost their lives due to traumatic injuries and other immediate causes, and just over 277,000 suffered from injuries or illnesses in the workplace. In 2005, 343 families buried someone they loved who had suffered from a fatal incident or work related disease.
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board Chair Steve Mahoney cites a classic example of just how little attention workplace fatalities receive: In March,
hundreds of mourners gathered to pay tribute to a fallen hero, Brigadier, the police horse that died in the line of duty at the end of February. Brigadier stole the hearts of the nation and the front pages of the newspapers. The same day that the memorial for Brigadier was held, a worker died in a northern Ontario mine. His name was Robert Nesbitt and he was six months away from retirement after a 30-year career in the mines. His death was big news in Sudbury, but it was a footnote everywhere else.
Rather than wait for the media to wake up to the fact that these numbers are staggering and unacceptable, the WSIB is taking direct aim at our collective apathy with its groundbreaking social marketing campaign. If you haven’t seen any of the advertisements yet, it is only a matter of time until you do. The broad-based campaign features grisly images in a variety of formats including television and radio spots, print ads, transit shelter and bill-board ads, as well as Internet advertising.
The campaign, themed There Really are No Accidents, is deliberately shocking and provocative—a bold departure from WSIB’s previous softer campaigns appealing to workers to know their rights, and employers to understand their obligations. “The inspiration for the campaign came from the fact that people don’t get the message unless they are hit over the head. It is a wake-up call. It’s time to shock people into recognizing that the number of fatalities in Ontario workplaces is unacceptable,” says Mahoney.
One spot features a young retail store worker perched on a rickety ladder, with a co-worker looking on. A couple of seconds into the spot, the ladder tips and the worker falls through a glass display. The bloodied worker rises to correct her co-worker who is screaming to alert others to the accident. “Accident? This was no accident,” she says.
The message: WSIB wants us to stop using the term accident because it implies that workplace incidents are not preventable. “The fact is that every single workplace incident could have been prevented,” stresses Mahoney. “In almost every case, we say the employer should have done this, or the employee should have done that.”
The campaign supports WSIB’s goal to achieve zero fatal incidents and zero lost-time injuries in Ontario workplaces. An ambitious target to be sure, but as Mahoney puts it: “What number is acceptable?”
So, is the campaign succeeding? Well it is capturing attention and there have been some pretty strong reactions—some love it and others feel it is going too far. But as anyone in advertising will attest, any campaign worth its salt spurs discussion.
Some employers have expressed concerns that the campaign is singling them out. Mahoney counters: “This is not just about employers. There is enough responsibility and culpability to go around. The ads highlight the role of the employer and the role of the employee in prevention. All I know is that this campaign is not about blame. It’s about the fact that every single incident that happens in the workplace is preventable.”
Many of us are shocked to learn the number of people who die in Ontario workplaces each year, maybe because we haven’t heard the numbers before, or maybe because we just haven’t been listening. It’s easy to ignore an issue that doesn’t make the headlines of the day, but WSIB, through its new campaign, is committed to waking us up. It is putting the issue of workplace death and injury in our faces—where it should be, with the hope that people will pay attention and take the necessary actions to prevent needless and tragic deaths and injuries.
For more information on the campaign, and workplace health and safety resources, visit www.prevent-it.ca.
Are you a Young Worker? Just starting out on the job? Visit www.youngworker.ca.
Excerpted from Safety Mosaic, Volume 9, No. 4, Winter 2006
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