Motor vehicle incidents continue to be a leading cause of workplace injuries and fatalities across Ontario. It is this fact that led over 100 members of Ontario’s business sector to Mississauga on Oct. 26.

The Ontario Public Service Union has warned against privatization of occupational health and safety enforcement in view of the province’s current review of the OHS enforcement and prevention system.

 

Employers — urged by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) in Ontario —now have increased focus on claims management for work-related injuries, as well as early and safe return to work (ESRTW). This has resulted in health and safety and human resource professionals being given additional duties, often very complicated. If mismanaged, these added responsibilities can cost companies money, time, respect and integrity.

Partners in Prevention 2010, Ontario’s newest health and safety tradeshow and conference, kicked off May 4th with the Ministry of Labour announcing the availability of the workplace violence toolbox to help organizations comply with Bill 168, new legislation amending the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) to add workplace violence-specific requirements.

The Alberta government may soon be releasing safety records of all employers in the province, in a bid to further promote compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act among companies, Alberta’s Minister of Employment and Immigration Thomas Lukaszuk told Canadian Occupational Safety in an interview.

The Research Action Alliance on the Consequences of Work Injury (RAACWI) is working with the WSIB to help eliminate the stigma affecting injured workers, particularly in their dealings with the WSIB.

Rebate money issued to employers under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s Experience Rating System should be reinvested in safety programs and not be part of a company’s revenue stream.

This was the suggestion of some safety practitioners to officials of the WSIB during one of the sessions at this year’s Human Resources Professionals Association Conference.

For over a decade, injured worker groups have met several times with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to raise concerns about Ontario’s experience rating system. Introduced in the 80s as an incentive for employers to provide a healthy and safe workplace, the program has in many cases had the opposite effect according to its critics.

 On June 13, 2008, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario issued the “Fatal Claim Premium Adjustment” policy that cancels rebates earned by employers in the case of a workplace fatality.

The WSIB’s new policy is anti-employer and arguably puts fault back into a workers’ compensation system that has been based on a no-fault principle since its inception in 1914 under the Meredith principle. The WSIB offered little explanation for this dramatic policy change, which appears to have been implemented further to avoid media scrutiny and to further punish employers.

Ontario wants to introduce legislation that would make workers’ compensation coverage mandatory for individuals working in the construction industry who are currently not covered.