| Twice as many people have been killed in workplace accidents so far in 2004 as the same time period last year, and the provincial government and union leaders are scrambling to come up with reasons and quell the toll.
"So far this year there’s double what there was last year. We’re struggling to find answers," says Alberta Human Resources and Employment Minister Clint Dunford. "Any fatality is of grave concern to us."
In 2003, the Alberta Workers’ Compensation Board reported a record 127 workplace fatalities, which will be surpassed this year if current trends continue. Alberta Federation of Labour president Les Steel says that number doesn’t include deaths on family farms, which aren’t included in worker’s compensation statistics.
Meanwhile Alberta’s Workers’ Compensation Board dealt with more 150,000 work-related accidents.
"The stats have been going up over the last few years," says Steel. "A lot of the work we have in this province is dangerous work."
April 28 is an international day of mourning for workers who have been killed or injured on the job and various events will be held around the province.
Steel says the oil and gas and construction industries, which employ thousands of Albertans, are particularly dangerous.
Part of the reason there are more injuries and deaths in the workplace is because the number of people in the workforce is growing.
However, Steel says workers have to be taught more about safety on the job and he says the provincial government’s Occupational Health and Safety branch could be "a little more proactive."
"If anyone could be spot-checked at any time there things wouldn’t be so lax," says Steel.
Dunford says the government has been "fighting aggressively" to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities in the workplace. He says he doesn’t consider accidents on the job to be inevitable.
"I don’t want to take the attitude that accidents just happen," he says. "That denotes some cosmic randomness. We know every incident is preventable. Somebody or something was responsible for that incident. We’ll be investigating each and every one and we won’t be shy of prosecuting."
Chris Chodan, spokesperson for Alberta Human Resources and Development, says occupational health and safety inspectors currently conduct random inspections on worksites and focus on employers with past records of safety problems.
As well, Chodan says there have been more court prosecutions of companies that don’t meet occupational health and safety guidelines in recent years.
As of April 30, a new safety code will be in effect, which increases fines up to $500,000 for a first offence.
Chodan says, despite the increase in fatalities this year, the number of serious injuries has been declining due to new safety initiatives that have been introduced.
Steel, however, says Alberta still doesn’t have high enough standards. "They’re trying," he says. "It’s becoming a concern for the government because more people are dying."
Steel says workplace safety should be taught in schools and the province has to increase workplace inspections and more rigorously enforce existing legislation.
Chodan says the government acknowledges that more needs to done to prevent fatalities.
"Alberta is getting to be a safer place to work but it’s not there yet," he says. |
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