Canadian Safety Reporter

Safety Reporter Canadian www.safetyreporter.com September 2014 Rethinking safety incentives What are better ways to recognize workers? By Liz Bernier It's an Issue that's seen much debate over the past decade: Safety incentive programs are designed to incent workers to create a strong safety culture — yet often, traditional "milestone" incentive programs can have un- intended consequences. Peer pressure, resentment, disengagement and — most im- portantly — non-reporting of in- juries and incidents are common byproducts of these incentive programs, said Jamie Wright, a News Brief EMPLOYERS > pg. 6 ontario's Ministry of labour faces negligence suit The Ministry of Labour and its investigator are under the microscope pg. 2 is sitting bad for business? pg. 3 Employers could see significant cost savings by getting employees out of their chairs developer, site superintendent acquitted in construction worker's death Subcontractor company pleads guilty after workers failed to follow safety procedures pg. 7 InsIde extreme obesity a disability? a european unIon law barring job discrimination against the disabled may apply to obese people, an advi- sor to Europe's top court said recently. The non-binding opinion concerns the dismissal of Karsten Kaltoft, a child-minder, by a Danish City Coun- cil in 2010, according to Reuters. Kaltoft said losing his job in part be- cause of his obesity amounted to un- fair discrimination, an allegation city council denies. He weighs about 350 pounds and reportedly required as- sistance to tie shoelaces for children. Writing on his blog, Brian Kreissl, a product development manager for Carswell, said some commenta- tors suggest courts and tribunals in Canada may follow the decision. "Now that we have become more enlightened and we realize it's not acceptable to discriminate against people... it's time we realized that overweight and obese people are also deserving of dignity and re- spect," wrote Kreissl. If obesity becomes a protected ground in Canada, employers will only be able to not hire obese work- ers for bona fide occupational re- quirements, such as reasons related to worker safety. Read Kreissl's blog at www.hre- porter.com. Credit: Todd Korol (Reuters) CFL > pg. 8 Bruce Arland III, a receiver for the B.C. Lions, misses a pass for a touchdown in a CFL football game against the Calgary Stampeders in this file photo from 2012. He's suing the league over a concussion he received that year. By SaBrina nanJi arland Bruce III, former British Columbia Lions receiver, is suing the Canadian Football League (CFL) for not doing its due diligence after he suffered a concussion. Filed in mid-July at the B.C. Supreme Court, Bruce's state- ment of claim alleges the CFL, B.C. Lions and CFL commis- sioner Mark Cohon (all of whom are named as defendants) did not do their part in treating or recog- nizing his head injury following a 2012 game against the Saskatch- ewan roughriders. according to his counsel, robyn Wishart at Slater Vecchio LLP in Vancouver, after Bruce was cleared to play another game about seven weeks after the ini- tial injury, he was still suffering Former football player sues CFL over concussion suffered in game Wide receiver says latest safety technology not made available to him the effects of the concussion, which was made worse by his premature return to the field. Bruce is seeking general, pu- nitive and aggravated damages for lost wages and medical bills, both past and future — but a spe- cific dollar amount has yet to be made. "The pleadings allege that the defendants knew more about the link between multiple con- cussions and degenerative brain disease than what they told the CFL players," Wishart explained. "The pleadings also allege that the defendants published and publicized a research paper that mislead and misinformed CFL players about the link between

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