Employers have a higher confidence level when it comes to workers’ ability to comprehend health and safety policies, than the workers themselves, and this is creating a gap that can increase the risk for workplace injuries.

The Industrial Accident Prevention Association has urged employers to promote greater awareness on mental health in the workplace, particularly in these trying times of an economic downturn.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The U.S. National Safety Council kicked off its annual congress and expo this week with a call to safety professionals to take on the issue of illegal drugs in the workplace, communities and homes. 

Canada’s health care sector is always struggling to make ends meet. Whenever they do have money to invest, health executives tend to devote spending on new hospitals, better medical equipment or surgical suites, to help improve patient care.

 
What that means, says Cameron Mustard, President of the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), is that “over the last 15 years there hasn’t been a lot to spare for investments in efforts to protect the health of workers in the sector.” 

Self-employment is on the rise in our country, and is the second fastest growing employment demographic in Canada, with approximately 16 per cent of 17 million workers freelancing for their income. The problem is that while self-employment is rising, safety awareness for this group of Canadians is not.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Heath and Safety (CCOHS) has developed a web survey aimed at getting feedback from Canadians on health and safety issues related to the changing workplace.

A new bill has been introduced in the Ontario Legislature that sought to amend the provincial Occupational Health and Safety Act to include provisions dealing with workplace harassment and violence.
 
Andrea Horwath, MPP for Hamilton Centre, filed the proposed legislation following the release of the recommendations from an inquiry into the death of Lori Dupont, a Windsor, Ont. nurse reportedly killed by an ex-boyfriend who is a doctor at the same hospital where Dupont worked.

Improving the safety of employees working alone or in isolation was the focus of recent amendments to British Columbia’s Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, which came into effect this February.
 
The new changes to the regulation include mandatory pre-payment of fuel at all gas stations across the province, in a bid to reduce gas station employees’ exposure to safety risks, according to a statement from WorkSafeBC, which led a series of multi-party consultations and public hearings across B.C. between 2006 and 2007.  
 

Workers exposed to violence
on the job in Canada, study finds

A new Statistics Canada study finds that almost 20 per cent of all incidents of violent victimization, including physical assault, sexual assault and robbery occurred while the victim was at work in 2004.

The study: Criminal Victimization in the Workplace, was the first such study conducted in Canada, and used self-reported data from 24,000 households that took part in the General Social Survey. The report’s authors say the vast majority of these workplace incidents, 71 per cent, were classified as physical assaults.

As part of its four-year plan designed to strengthen workplace safety, Ontario appointed Tony Dean as chair of an Expert Advisory Panel to conduct a comprehensive review of the province's occupational health and safety prevention and enforcement system.