https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2019/01/workers-health-and-safety-at-the-heart-of-discussions-between-federal-provincial-and-territorial-labour-ministers.html
Workers’ health and safety at the heart of discussions between federal, provincial and territorial labour ministers
News release
January 30, 2019 St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador Employment and Social Development Canada
Federal, provincial and territorial labour ministers met today in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, to discuss important workplace issues, including occupational health and safety harmonization, harassment and violence, mental health and wage gaps.
The meeting was co-chaired by the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, the Honourable Patty Hajdu, and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Labour, the Honourable Bernard Davis.
Collaboration was at the heart of the discussions. All governments recognized that working together will be especially important to implement harmonized occupational health and safety requirements nationwide, share information about preventing workplace harassment and violence, and explore different approaches to reduce wage gaps. Ministers also talked about progress on labour provisions in trade agreements and on the Federal–Provincial/Territorial Strategy on Canada and the International Labour Organization.
During the meeting, the principle of the National Occupational Health and Safety Reconciliation Agreement that aims to reduce or eliminate trade barriers within Canada was endorsed. Ministers agreed to reconcile important occupational health and safety standards for first-aid kits, head protection, eye and face protection, hearing protection, foot protection and personal flotation devices and life jackets. This agreement will simplify regulatory requirements for organizations, allowing them to work more seamlessly across multiple jurisdictions without compromising health and safety protections for workers.
Participants also examined various measures aimed at addressing inequitable pay practices in order to help reduce wage gaps, such as the recently passed federal proactive pay equity legislation and Quebec’s Pay Equity Act. Ministers believe that increasing women’s participation in the labour force and promoting equality will help boost economic growth. World Vision Canada and SHARE delivered a presentation on Canadian business linkages regarding forced and child labour in global supply chain and transparency considerations. Ministers also discussed engagement with Indigenous peoples.
Ministers committed to continue to work together and strong federal, provincial and territorial collaboration to create good‑quality jobs for Canadians and protect workers.
Quotes
“Today’s support for harmonized interprovincial occupational health and safety requirements is great news for workers and employers across Canada. Workers have the right to a safe and healthy workplace while employers benefit from the same standards to protect them across the country. We will continue to collaborate with provincial and territorial colleagues to deliver change that works for everyone.”
– The Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour
“Collaboration and cooperation are key to ensuring labour legislation is relevant and responsive to the needs of Canadians in workplaces across the country. The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is proud to host this meeting and work closely with our federal, provincial and territorial colleagues with support from the Canadian Association of Administrators of Labour Legislation.”
– The Honourable Bernard Davis, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Labour
Quick facts
- The meeting of labour ministers provides a key forum for the discussion of labour policy and related issues. It enables ministers to explore opportunities for cooperation on joint projects and initiatives.
- In July 2015, the Council of the Federation met and discussed internal trade and confirmed their commitment to working in areas of their own jurisdiction, such as occupational health and safety, to reduce technical barriers to trade. Following this commitment, at the federal, provincial and territorial meeting held in the National Capital Region in January 2018, the Ministers endorsed an Agreement-in-Principle document that clarified key principles and considerations associated with occupational health and safety harmonization. The National Occupational Health and Safety Reconciliation Agreement is being signed for the first time in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
- The federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for labour meet regularly to discuss issues of mutual concern that they can work together to address. Throughout the year, their work is supported by the Canadian Association of Administrators of Labour Legislation (CAALL). Established in 1938, CAALL is an association of federal, provincial and territorial departments of labour that provides a continuous forum for senior officials to develop strong and cooperative working relationships.
Associated links
Contacts
For media enquiries, please contact:
Véronique Simard
Press Secretary
Office of the Honourable Patty Hajdu, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour
veronique.simard@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca
819-654-5611
Ryan Crocker
Advanced Education, Skills and Labour for Newfoundland and Labrador
709-729-1795
RyanCrocker@gov.nl.ca
Media Relations Office
Employment and Social Development Canada
819-994-5559
media@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca
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What are the benefits of a cloud-based safety management system?
Responding is Kevin Richards, EHS director – North America, ProcessMAP, Sunrise, FL.
The traditional means of recordkeeping have become antiquated. Yet, organizations are slow to implement digital transformation tools such as cloud-based technologies, especially when it comes to safety. Many employers are resistant to cloud-based tools because of the possible learning curve for employees and concerns about the security of the data stored on the platform. However, they need to understand that “the standard way of doing things” often leaves their employees vulnerable, can severely hurt brand reputation and can result in noncompliance with OSHA standards.
Using the right safety management tools, safety managers can rest assured they will reduce safety issues and remain in compliance. Cloud-based safety management systems provide a streamlined platform to maintain real-time data in a secure location. When evaluating a safety management system, safety managers should ask three important questions before implementation begins:
Does it provide accurate record keeping?
A safety management system should provide a user-friendly dashboard to report and track employee injuries and incidents on the job. With a cloud-based platform, every employee is held accountable for workplace safety, and issues can be easily recorded in real time. These up-to-date metrics – such as near misses and lost-time accidents – then can be reported to relevant stakeholders at any given moment.
An effective safety management system also can calculate various incident rates so safety managers can gain a holistic view of organizational performance. With safety training being key to preventing injuries, organizations can manage training for new employees as well as ongoing refreshers to ensure compliance with ever-changing OSHA standards. With data analytics built into the system, safety managers also can ensure the organization is on track to meet safety goals and milestones.
Is it saving time?
A cloud-based safety management system should be user-friendly and configurable to meet unique business needs. Using detailed incident reporting, the platform should be able to determine the contributing factors in an incident – such as not wearing the right personal protective equipment. The safety manager then will conduct an investigation to pinpoint the root cause of the incident, and these details and results can be saved directly in the system for increased efficiency. Corrective and preventive actions can be sent to key individuals in an organization to prevent reoccurrences. Action items can be sent as email notifications with regular reminders until the task is completed and the effectiveness of the corrective action is verified.
With a robust system, safety managers have complete control to track employee health and well-being in real time. If an incident occurs, a cloud-based system allows for seamless integration with third-party administrators for claims management. Data exchange between the organization and TPA is easily managed to eliminate duplicate processes.
Is it secure?
Data security threats are always a concern for employers. When it comes to using a cloud-based safety management system, it’s important that safety managers understand where the data is stored, how data transfer occurs, who can access and modify data, what happens when the data is deleted, and how a backup is performed. A clear understanding of these security measures ensures data risks are mitigated and safeguarded from malicious attacks.
A safety management system should have an information classification scheme of four-level authentication to increase the confidentiality and reliability of the data. At this authentication level, data is private, sensitive, critical and confidential. Proper security controls such as authentication, encryption, monitoring, archiving, recovery, business continuity and physical security all should be considered to ensure compliance.
Employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthy work environment for all employees. With the right safety management system, safety managers can ensure workplace conditions are constantly being examined and issues are being addressed immediately. Using best-in-class cloud-based tools, organizations can ensure OSHA compliance and provide precise records in a streamlined way during an inspection or audit.
Editor’s note: This article represents the independent views of the author and should not be construed as a National Safety Council endorsement.
Vancouver, BC (July 25, 2018) – Technical Safety BC today released its Investigation Report into the ammonia release at Fernie Memorial Arena on October 17, 2017, which tragically resulted in three fatalities, as well as the evacuation of 95 residents from 55 nearby homes.
The report provides an overview of the incident, the scope of the investigation, and key findings regarding contributing factors. Technical Safety BC also made 18 recommendations to further improve safety in ice rink refrigeration systems, and discussed a number of regulatory actions taken in recent months to prevent similar incidents.
The Fernie incident is believed to be the first of its kind, in which a leak of ammonia into a secondary coolant – in this case brine – led to pressurization in a pipe that resulted in the pipe coupling separation and a rapid release of ammonia into an enclosed room.
“Our report is focused on understanding the factors that led to the incident and providing recommendations to improve safety and prevent a similar tragedy,” said Janice Lee, Director of Safety Oversight at Technical Safety BC. “Since the incident occurred last year, Technical Safety BC has taken decisive action to advance the safety of ammonia refrigeration facilities in the province. We issued a province-wide Safety Order requiring all public occupancy ammonia refrigeration plants – including arenas – to test for ammonia leaks and shut down the system if necessary. All 185 facilities in British Columbia have fulfilled the obligation and are compliant.”
The incident report is based upon the evidence presented and available at the time of the investigation, which took place between October 2017 and June 2018. The investigation explored pre-incident and post-incident factors that may have contributed to the ammonia leak at Fernie Memorial Arena. Technical Safety BC analyzed equipment and its condition and reviewed inspection reports and the results of systems testing. The team also examined relevant organizational and operational decisions that may have contributed to the incident, and inspected and tested the alarm, ventilation and discharge systems.
The investigation identified three areas where evidence indicates contributing factors leading to the incident and the impact to the arena and surrounding community:
- Failure of refrigeration system equipment;
- Operational decisions that contributed to the incident; and,
- Impact of inadequate ventilation and discharge systems following the incident.
Based on the findings of the investigation, the incident resulted from practices that were common in the industry at the time.
It is imperative that industry and owners of refrigeration systems learn a number of lessons from this incident, but two in particular stand out,” said Jeff Coleman, Director of Risk and Safety Knowledge with Technical Safety BC and leader of the investigation team. “First, maintenance programs for refrigeration systems must address and alleviate the risks presented by aging equipment. And second, even very small leaks of refrigerant can indicate extremely hazardous situations.”
Technical Safety BC has made 18 recommendations to prevent a recurrence of this type of incident and improve safety in ice rink refrigeration systems throughout BC. These recommendations seek improvements to:
- owner maintenance programs, especially in relation to aging equipment;
- identification of leak hazards and professional disclosure of such hazards;
- training of owners’ representatives, operators and mechanics; and,
- secondary coolant system configuration and construction.
“This has been a terrible loss for the families of the three workers and had a deep impact on the whole community of Fernie,” said Quinn Newcomb, Interim Vice President of Human Resources, Learning and Engagement. “We will work with stakeholders to enhance the safety system to prevent a similar tragedy from ever happening again.”
“Technical Safety BC believes safety is a shared responsibility and will take a leadership role in meeting with stakeholder groups including plant owners, maintenance contractors, training providers, municipalities, and the Canadian Standards Association to present and discuss the recommendations and improve facility maintenance procedures and programs,” added Newcomb.
Full report is available here: https://www.technicalsafetybc.ca/fernieincident
The world’s much anticipated International Standard for occupational health and safety (OH&S) has just been published, and is set to transform workplace practices globally.
ISO 45001:2018, Occupational health and safety management systems – Requirements with guidance for use, provides a robust and effective set of processes for improving work safety in global supply chains. Designed to help organizations of all sizes and industries, the new International Standard is expected to reduce workplace injuries and illnesses around the world.
According to 2017 calculations by the International Labour Organization (ILO), 2.78 million fatal accidents occur at work yearly. This means that, every day, almost 7 700 persons die of work-related diseases or injuries. Additionally, there are some 374 million non-fatal work-related injuries and illnesses each year, many of these resulting in extended absences from work. This paints a sober picture of the modern workplace – one where workers can suffer serious consequences as a result of simply “doing their job”.
ISO 45001 hopes to change that. It provides governmental agencies, industry and other affected stakeholders with effective, usable guidance for improving worker safety in countries around the world. By means of an easy-to-use framework, it can be applied to both captive and partner factories and production facilities, regardless of their location.
David Smith, Chair of project committee ISO/PC 283 that developed ISO 45001, believes the new International Standard will be a real game changer for millions of workers: “It is hoped that ISO 45001 will lead to a major transformation in workplace practices and reduce the tragic toll of work-related accidents and illnesses across the globe.” The new standard will help organizations provide a safe and healthy work environment for workers and visitors by continually improving their OH&S performance.
Smith adds: “World standards writers have come together to provide a framework for a safer workplace for all, whatever sector you work in and wherever you work in the world.” More than 70 countries were directly involved in the creation of this important document, developed by ISO/PC 283, Occupational health and safety management systems, with the British Standards Institution (BSI) serving as the committee secretariat.
Because ISO 45001 is designed to integrate with other ISO management systems standards, ensuring a high level of compatibility with the new versions of ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 14001 (environmental management), businesses that already implement an ISO standard will have a leg up if they decide to work toward ISO 45001.
The new OH&S standard is based on the common elements found in all of ISO’s management systems standards and uses a simple Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model, which provides a framework for organizations to plan what they need to put in place in order to minimize the risk of harm. The measures should address concerns that can lead to long-term health issues and absence from work, as well as those that give rise to accidents.
ISO 45001 will replace OHSAS 18001, the world’s former reference for workplace health and safety. Organizations already certified to OHSAS 18001 will have three years to comply with the new ISO 45001 standard, although certification of conformity to ISO 45001 is not a requirement of the standard.
The International Accreditation Forum (IAF) has developed the migration requirements to help certified organizations, certification bodies, accreditation bodies and other interested parties prepare. For more information, see the IAF Website.
ISO 45001:2018 can be purchased from your national ISO member or through the ISO Store.