Canadian Safety Reporter

THE WORKPLACE SAFETY SOURCE FOR OHS MANAGERS AND HR PROFESSIONALS Ontario nurses asking for increased safety Workplace violence occurring in all sectors: OPSEU | BY ZACHARY PEDERSEN | laying charges." There were no criminal charges laid THE ONTARIO NURSES Association (ONA) against the individual in the Southlake is asking Ontario's premier and the Minattack, according to the ONA. istry of Health to meet with the union Training must also be improved, Buto develop strategies to keep nurses safe jna says. on the job. "At a training session of approxiThe decision to appeal to the highmately 300 ONA health and safety reps est level of government was spurred by in May, I asked participants if they are an incident at Southlake Regional Health consulted on training and only a few Centre in Newmarket, Ont., when a hands went up," she says. "Our memnurse was attacked by a patient who bers tell us that, more often than not, also injured three others. they get some e-learning on the violence "Our members have reported bepolicy, but few are getting real training ing verbally harassed, and education on the pinched, scratched, types of measures and "In health care and having feces thrown procedures that should at them, being physibe contained in the developmental services, cally beaten, sexuworkplace violence such as group homes, ally assaulted, having program." we know people don't their hair pulled out of Violence at the their head, their necks workplace is a univerreport as they should." wrenched in violent sal problem, according attacks," says Erna Buto Lisa McCaskell, sejna, occupational health and safety exnior health and safety officer with the pert at the ONA in Toronto. Ontario Public Service Employees Union There has been an escalation of vio(OPSEU) in Toronto. lent incident reports from members and "There's workplace violence all the a lack of response from the Ministry of time in every sector," she says, notLabour (MOL), according to the ONA. ing the frequency of incidents leads to "We see lots of MOL orders to write under-reporting. "In health care and policies and to do a risk assessment, but developmental services, such as group these are paper-pushing exercises that homes, we know people don't report as do little to protect our nurses," Bujna they should. And, if they don't report, says. "The MOL needs to fully enforce then there's no cause for action and then the OHSA (Occupational Health and we don't know what's going on." Safety Act) when employers and superMcCaskell works with members from visors are not compliant with legislation. Continued on page 6 They need to set deterrence and start SEPTEMBER 2013 IN THIS ISSUE EMPLOYEES KEEN ON DISEASE PREVENTION Health screenings a popular option in the office: Survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 NEWS BRIEFS Engineering regulator concerned over recent manufacturing accidents • Yukon introduces new mobile live fire training unit for firefighters • Website provides fatigue management for North American commercial drivers • Bangladesh struggles to check garment factories are safe . . . . . . . . . . .4 UNDERSTANDING ALBERTA'S NEW WHISTLEBLOWER LEGISLATION Legislation protects employees who disclose employer misdeeds . . . . . .11 Encouraging lone worker safety compliance Quebec rail disaster leads to questions about safety protocol | BY ZACHARY PEDERSEN | TWO MONTHS AFTER the train derailment in Lac-Mégantic, Que., Canadians are still trying to make sense of what went wrong. Some blame the rail industry for increasingly relaxed safety regulations, while others blame Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) — the company Continued on page 8

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