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The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) released a 10-point plan yesterday on how they would like to see workplace safety improved in the province just as the Alberta government unveiled a few more initiatives of its own.

The AFL's plan calls for sweeping changes to workplace safety in Alberta, including mandatory health and safety committees at businesses and worksites, increased resources for prosecutions, administrative fines for workplace safety infractions and more occupational health and safety officers to hand them out.

The government's announcement Friday included the addition of eight workplace health and safety investigators, a new process for family input in workplace health and safety prosecutions and a new program to look at occupational diseases.

AFL president Gil McGowan said with an economy rebounding it is urgent that the government bring in these new regulations so workers are protected during the next boom.

"We think we can and we must do more to keep Albertans safe."

McGowan said the ideas his group put forward are simple, would save lives and have been proven in other jurisdictions.

"These are not radical ideas, they are proven ideas."

McGowan and other members of the AFL delivered 2,500 postcards calling for joint workplace health and safety committees to Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk.

The committees, which involve employers and employees meeting regularly to discuss safety issues, are commonplace in most Canadian provinces, McGowan said, adding he can't understand why Alberta's government would not require them here.

"Every other province has workplace health and safety committees and the evidence shows that they work. I am baffled that the government hasn't introduced them here."

Lukaszuk said the government is studying many similar proposals to what the AFL put forward, but is doing it in a roundtable discussion with employers, labour unions and safety associations.

If new rules aren't created with input from these groups, enforcing them would be a huge uphill battle, he said.

"There could never be enough occupational health and safety officers to enforce them if the employers and employees did not buy into the message to begin with."

Lukaszuk said he is happy to receive the AFL's proposal, but plans to continue working with several different groups to come up with system changes rather than listening to only one set of proposals.

McGowan did applaud Lukaszuk for making several strides on this issue compared to previous ministers. He also said the new investigators are welcome, but not enough.

"Even with today's announcement about bringing eight new inspectors, I am not sure Alberta will have come up to the national average."

Lukaszuk said he is open to more inspectors if necessary, but he won't add them purely for political reasons.

"All of the initiatives of occupational health and safety are paid for by employers directly. This is not taxpayers bearing the cost, it is employers through WCB and I am not in the practice of hiring individuals just for the sake of hiring individuals."

St. Albert Gazette, Sat Nov 6 2010
Byline: Ryan Tumilty

According to the Alberta Federation of Labour Friday, unless the province improves workplace safety law, economic recovery will only bring an increase in workplace injuries and fatalities.

Announcing four new workplace safety initiatives on the same day, Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk also said eight new Occupational Health and Safety officers had been hired.

Gil McGowan, Alberta Federation of Labour President said, while it was good news that Alberta's economy was returning to health, it was not good to find unless aggressive action was taken, there would be an increase in the injury levels and fatalities in the province.

The red flag, McGowan noted was that last month three work related deaths had taken place at three different work sites on three consecutive days.

Lukaszuk was handed a 10 point plan for safe workplaces in Alberta by the federation Friday, which say the government needs to hire more inspectors and authorising them to impose fines, including providing more funds for prosecutions and protecting workers blowing the whistle on unsafe workplaces.

As well, the federation would like new laws to be introduced in the province, making it mandatory for all work sites to form joint worker-employer safety committees, considering Alberta is the only province without such a law, as McGowan informed.

Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk announced Friday, Alberta will be hiring more inspectors and taking steps for improving driver safety and disease prevention on Alberta work sites.

A new best-practices driving guide for workers has been released by the province, and the Employment and Immigration staff has been asked to establish an occupational disease prevention programme by Lukaszuk.

Alberta launched its own 10-point plan for Occupational Health and Safety in July, following the Calgary Herald publishing an investigative series showing the province of Alberta was the least likely to penalize safety offenders.

Since, the province has introduced a stronger compliance system since the launching of the plan, including creating a template for employer records, launching a website with records of companies and reviewing the Work Safe Alberta initiative.

TopNews, United Kingdom, Sat Nov 6 2010
Byline: Rasik Sharma

EDMONTON - Labour groups say more people will be killed and injured in Alberta if the province fails to make sweeping changes to improve safety at job sites.

The Alberta Federation Labour says the government should hire more safety inspectors and allow them to issue immediate fines and stop-work orders.

The federation says the Crown should be given more resources so it can prosecute more safety violations.

And it says farm workers should be be covered by Alberta safety and employment standards rules.

AFL President Gil McGowan says to drive the point home 2,500 postcards signed by workers have been sent to Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk (loo-KAS-zuck) that call on him to take action.

Lukaszuk says he is hiring eight new safety inspectors and will look at other ways to cut accidents, including an online safety education program.

Winnipeg Free Press, Fri Nov 5 2010

EDMONTON - Economic recovery will bring an increase in workplace injuries and fatalities unless the province improves workplace safety law, the Alberta Federation of Labour said Friday.

On the same day, Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk announced four new workplace safety initiatives, including the hiring of eight new Occupational Health and Safety officers.

"The good news is that the Alberta economy is returning to health," Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said. "The bad news is that unless more aggressive action is taken, we're afraid that we're also going to return to boom-style levels of injuries and fatalities in this province."

McGowan noted that last month there were three work-related deaths on three separate work sites on three consecutive days. "We think that should be a red flag," he said.

The federation on Friday handed Lukaszuk a 10-point plan for safe workplaces in Alberta, which calls on government to hire more inspectors, give them power to levy fines, put more money toward prosecutions and protect workers who blow the whistle on unsafe workplaces.

The federation also wants the province to introduce new laws that make joint worker-employer safety committees mandatory on all work sites. Alberta is the only province that does not have a law of this kind, McGowan said.

Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk on Friday announced the province will hire more inspectors and will take steps to improve driver safety and disease prevention on Alberta work sites.

"Work-related diseases and vehicle incidents are killing more workers than injuries are," Lukaszuk said in a news release. "It is time we took steps to reduce these work-related fatalities."

The province has released a new best-practices driving guide for workers, and Lukaszuk has asked Employment and Immigration staff to establish an occupational disease prevention program.

The government has also started formalizing the process that ensures family of workers who die on the job have input whenever creative sentences are considered by the courts.

The province's own 10-point plan for Occupational Health and Safety was launched in July after the Calgary Herald published an investigative series that showed Alberta is least likely to penalize safety offenders, even though workers here are more likely to die for their paycheques then almost anywhere else in the country.

Since launching the plan, the province has introduced a stronger compliance system, created a template for employer records, launched a website with records of companies and reviewed the Work Safe Alberta initiative.

The remaining six items are still underway.

Edmonton Journal, Fri Nov 5 2010
Byline: Karen Kleiss

Keeping Albertans Safe - We Can Do Better! Alberta does NOT have to be the Most Dangerous Place in Canada to be a worker: A 10-Point Plan for Safe Workplaces in Alberta

Alberta is still the most dangerous place in Canada to be a worker. We consistently post the highest number of workplace fatalities, while at the same time we have some of the most lax health and safety policies in the country.

Edmonton - The Alberta Federation of Labour today releases a 10-point plan for immediate action  (click here for full text of plan) to improve workplace safety in the province.

"The government has taken some steps in the right direction to improve health and safety at work, but Alberta can - and must - do better," says Gil McGowan, president of the AFL, which represents 140,000 workers. "As the economy picks up, especially in the oil patch and construction sectors, the government needs to take immediate action to improve health and safety. If simple changes aren't made today, Alberta will return to the highest number of workplace fatalities in Canada. Only last month, three workers died in workplace accidents in three days. These are the kinds of tragedies that Alberta must prevent," he says.

"The recession gave us a short reprieve. Now is our chance to lead the country, instead of consistently being the most dangerous place in Canada to be a worker," continues McGowan.

Representatives of the Ironworkers and Electrical Workers' construction unions joined McGowan for the release of the 10-point plan. The AFL also presented 2,500 signed postcards to the office of Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk, calling for health and safety improvements.

"Most of these ideas are not radical - they are policies that work very well in most other provinces," he says. "The minister begins a three-day Work Safe Alberta Minister's Forum on Monday. This is the perfect opportunity to adopt these simple but effective policies."

The AFL 10-point plan for occupational health and safety includes:

• More occupational health and safety (OH&S) inspectors performing more inspections.
• Empowering inspectors to issue on-site administrative fines and stop-work/stop-use orders, addressing health and safety issues before they become an injury or fatality.
• More resources for Crown Prosecutors to pursue charges.
• Reform at the WCB: ending bonuses for employees who deny claims and restoring employer premiums to reasonable levels.
• Including farm workers in health and safety and employment standards legislation
• Working-alone legislation: Alberta is in a minority of provinces without special protections for those working alone, especially at night.
• Protection for workers who blow the whistle on unsafe worksites, equipment, or practices.
• Posting employer safety records online: the government's current practice leaves out 85 per cent of injuries. Reforming this system includes posting stop-work/stop-use orders, actual injuries or deaths on a job site, and inspection reports.
• Giving Certificates of Recognition only to safe workplaces.
• Mandatory joint health and safety committees for workers and employers.

- 30 -

Media Contact:

Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour @ 780-218-9888 (cell)

An Alberta employee has died after suffering serious head injuries at an oilfield site, the third workplace fatality in the province in as many days.

At about 9 am on October 16, the employee of Bearing Oilfield Services Ltd - located in Elk River, Alberta - was working at an oilfield yard in the town of Bonnyville when the accident happened, says Alberta Employment and Immigration (AEI) spokesman Chris Chodan. The worker, in a yard owned by Tuboscope Canada, was tasked with moving oilfield pipes with a crane known as a knuckle boom picker, Chodan explains.

While setting up the crane to offload the piping, the 58-year-old worker's head was crushed between the knuckle boom picker and an outrigger.

AEI has issued a stop work order on the knuckle boom picker while the investigation continues.

Shannon Ostapovich, president of Bearing Oilfield Services, declined comment on the incident, but said that "this is a difficult time for everyone. Right now, our focus is on being there for and supporting the family and everyone affected."

The accident occurred less than a day after another worker was killed when he fell off a ladder at the Canadian Forces Base (CFB) in Edmonton. Chodan reports that at about 12:45 pm on October 15, the employee of WD Contractors Group Ltd was performing construction work on a building at CFB Edmonton when he fell.

Worker passed away later in the evening

The worker suffered a serious head injury and was transported to the city's Royal Alexandria Hospital, where he passed away later in the evening. It is unclear how far the worker fell, and no orders had been issued at COHSN press time.

The first of the three accidents occurred on October 14 at a Canadian Natural Resources Limited site near Fort Chipewyan, north of Fort McMurray, Chodan says. The employee of Ellen's Contracting Inc in Boyle, Alberta, was fatally struck by another worker backing up a vehicle, Chodan says, adding that no orders have been issued in this case either.

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, says that the latest accidents show that more needs to be done to combat workplace injuries and fatalities. Charging that "Alberta is one of the most dangerous places in Canada to be a worker," McGowan argues that there is a greater percentage of workers in dangerous occupations.

He adds that there have been 76 workplace fatalities in the province as of July 31st of this year, compared to 58 reported fatalities at the same time last year.

Canadian OH&S News, Tues Oct 26 2010

Three workplace fatalities occurred in Alberta last week and that has drawn the ire of at least one union leader.

These incidents, which included a man falling off a ladder while doing construction work at CFB Edmonton, are being held out as proof that the government needs to take more action to save lives in the province.

"The man was doing work on a ladder and fell off," said Alberta Occupational Health and safety spokesperson Chris Chodan. "He sustained serious injuries and passed away later that evening."

A 71 year-old man was working on a building at the Edmonton military base on Oct. 15. He sustained a serious head injury and was taken to an Edmonton hospital, but later died from his injuries.

The man was an employee of WD Contractors Group Ltd. The company was contracted to do some work at the military base.

This was the second fatality on a jobsite in Alberta in less than a day. A 42-year-old contractor was killed on Oct. 14, after he was backed over on a Canadian Natural Resources Limited site near Fort Chipewyan.

The man, who was employed by Ellen's Contracting Inc., but not a construction worker, has not been identified.

These incidents were followed by a third fatality on Oct. 16.

A man working for Bearing Oilfield Services in Bonnyville died after suffering head injuries, while using a crane to offload piping.

According to the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), these fatalities are much too frequent.

"Unless concrete steps are taken to improve workplace safety in the province, more and more Albertans will die at work as the economy picks up," said Gil McGowan, president of the AFL. "Alberta is one of the most dangerous places in Canada to be a worker. We have more people working in dangerous industries than other provinces and we have a workplace fatality rate that's much higher than the national average."

Alberta Immigration and Employment recently reported that 20 fatalities occurred at worksites in the province in the first seven months of 2010. During the same period in 2009, there were 16 workplace fatalities in the province.

This year's increase is being driven by the construction industry, which accounted for 11 of the fatalities or 55 per cent of the total.

In the first seven months of 2009, there were four workplace fatalities related to the construction industry.

The AFL has called on the provincial government to improve workplace safety by posting the full safety records of employers online and stepping up the prosecution of employers with unsafe worksites that cause injury and death. The provincial government launched a website on Aug, 31 that allows people in Alberta to see information about worksite injuries and fatalities involving most WCB insured employers.

Minister of Employment and Immigration Thomas Lukaszuk said the website is part of a ten-point plan for achieving greater transparency and accountability for occupational health and safety in Alberta.

The information available for each employer on the web site includes:

• Number of lost-time claims;
• Estimated number of employees;
• Lost-time claim rate;
• Number of fatalities;
• If the employer holds a Certificate of Recognition (COR);
• Industry and province wide lost-time claim rates for comparison purposes.

According to McGowan, the government's ten-point plan is weak because it is based on a safety-records website, which offers little information of any use to workers.

In contrast, the AFL recommends that the government hire new inspectors, increase the number of worksite inspections, give inspectors the power to issue tickets for violations during inspections and introducing mandatory worksite health-and-safety committees that include workers.

Lukaszuk did launch a new safety initiative on Oct. 8 that is ramping up safety inspections at commercial construction sites five storeys tall and higher across Alberta. The safety blitz is being conducted like traffic safety spot checks on drivers.

No new inspectors were hired by Alberta Occupational Health and Safety and ten inspectors out of a total of 94 are dedicated to the campaign. Despite this new initiative, OHS inspectors still don't have the power to issue fines for infractions.

Journal of Commerce, Mon Oct 25 2010
Byline: Richard Gilbert

Health care advocates have called on the province to shelve plans to overhaul Alberta's existing health care legislation and introduce a new health act later this fall.

On Tuesday, the health care lobby group Friends of Medicare held a press conference in Edmonton where executive director David Eggen said that Alberta's current health framework is sound and not in need of an overhaul.

"There might be need for improvements but there is no need to jump the whole system," said Eggen.

Friends of Medicare said the new legislation could make it easier for the government to de-list health services from medicare coverage.

Last month, Alberta Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky received the final report prepared by Edmonton-Rutherford MLA Fred Horne, and an eight-member advisory committee. The report, which is intended to guide the future of Alberta's publicly funded health system, was the result of a four-month long public consultation earlier this year.

The report was divided into two parts, the first of which, Putting People First - Recommendations For An Alberta Health Act, provided 15 recommendations in areas such as guiding principles, a health charter and future public engagement. The second part of the report, Putting People First - A Summary of Views, summarized the input provided by Albertans during public consultations.

Some of the recommendations in the report include establishing principles in the Alberta Health Act that clearly put people first; mandating a health charter that acknowledges that health and health care are a partnership between individuals, families, communities, health providers and the government; establishing a health advocate, and making a commitment in the health charter that all Albertans have access to primary care through primary care teams.

According to the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), a legal opinion they commissioned from Gwen Gray of Chivers Carpenter LLP, found that current laws do a good job of protecting the publicly funded, publicly delivered health care systems.

"Consolidation of existing legislation under a new Alberta Health Act is far from mere administrative housekeeping. It has the potential to be something much closer to radical reform," said Gil McGowan, AFL president, on Tuesday.

According to a statement issued by Friends of Medicare, changes proposed by the Minister's Advisory Committee on Health would scrap all existing health care laws - including protection against privatization - and replace them with "enabling legislation."

McGowan said this would only provide broad outlines and directions of intent without real details. Under this format, he said, the minister can make new health care laws without first having a debate in the legislature.

Alberta's current health care legislation includes 30 separate laws and more than 100 regulations. Most of the legislation dates back to the 1960s.

"The health care system in those days was basically access to doctors and services were provided in hospital and sure enough, today our legislation still lets us do things very easily when it comes to the doctor providing the service or when we want to offer the service in a hospital," said Edmonton-Rutherford MLA Fred Horne, earlier this year.

"But when we want to do things in the community, or when we want to have more providers involved in delivering the care, our legislation has no place for that. There is no place in our legislation for nurse practitioners."

The minister will review the consultation report and is expected to present a formal response later this month.

St. Albert Gazette, Wed Oct 13 2010
By Lauren Den Hartog

A group of University of Alberta janitors spelled out their complaints against Bee-Clean Building Maintenance in front of a crowd of about 80 concerned students, professors, and labour group members on Tuesday.

Bee-Clean is the contractor responsible for janitorial services at the U of A, but many of the complaints brought forward by the janitors have been disputed by the company.

Justice for Janitors, a movement within the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is seeking to represent the janitors at the U of A who work under Bee-Clean. One former Bee-Clean employee who spoke at the meeting, Gilbert Coy, was working at the U of A as a janitor to send money back to his family in the Philippines. Coy claims that Bee-Clean fired him for supporting the unionization of U of A janitors, along with another former Bee-Clean employee, Tarik Accord.

"The first time they saw my picture [in a union brochure], my supervisor called me and said 'is this your picture.' I said yes, and he said 'I'll give you time to think a bit, and if I were you, I'd quit the union,' " Coy said. "They gave me a chance to quit, but I didn't quit."

"The pressure is really difficult. That's why I'm here, I need to provide the needs for my family. I have three kids."

Outside the meeting, two Bee-Clean representatives passed out letters explaining the company's concerns with what was termed "misinformation [that] has been circulated about the employment of Bee-Clean service workers at the University of Alberta."

One of the complaints that had previously been raised was that Bee-Clean had neglected to pay their employees for overtime work. According to the letter, this was not intentional.

"Due to an administrative error, some employees were not paid properly for overtime work, some were underpaid, and some were overpaid," the letter read, which was signed by Bee-Clean President Brian Gingras.

The representatives at the meeting wouldn't comment further on the matter and asked that all matters be referred to higher management. When contacted, Robert Scott, the Regional Director of Bee-Clean, said that the allegations against Bee-Clean were "categorically untrue" and that the company was suing the union for defamation.

"We absolutely did not fire any of our employees for joining a union, [or] for making contact with a union," Scott said. "It's really important to note, I think, that there are two independent reasons that those employees are no longer with us. First, one employee unfortunately was involved in a physical altercation on campus."

"The second employee had only been working with us for two days and didn't show up for work one day [...] She asked for a different workload at the time and we couldn't offer her one. Unfortunately, we had nothing else to give her, and that's why she no longer works for us."

When previously contacted by The Gateway, the U of A said that they wouldn't get involved in an ongoing labour dispute.

Some university staff who attended the event voiced their displeasure with the administration's current stance.

Marco Katz, a doctoral student and an English and Film Studies instructor, called the university's position "extraordinary."

"We scream for justice everywhere in the world, but we're not going to talk about justice for the people who are in our offices and in our hallways?"

Terry Inigo-Jones, from Alberta Federation of Labour, echoed Katz's sentiment. He attended the meeting and was impressed by what the workers were doing given the situation, and had particular praise for the Temporary Foreign Workers.

"It's remarkable that people who are only here for a short period of time will make this commitment, take this risk, and fight for the rights of people who will come after them for very little benefit for themselves. They're not going to be here that long, so that's just a remarkable stand."

Gateway Online, Thurs Oct 21 2010
Byline: Simon Yackulic