Canadian Safety Reporter

Safety Reporter Canadian www.safetyreporter.com January 2015 Ontario WSIB rewarding dangerous firms: Report Experience rating program in spotlight BY SABRINA NANJI DESPITE HISTORIES fraught with injury and even death, Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) has been financially rewarding dangerous employers through its rebate system — and in some cases, in the years immediately following the incidents — ac- cording to a new report by the NEWS BRIEF WSIB > pg. 7 HOW WOULD YOU REACT? Mental health prevention, intervention can help when someone is 'behaving strangely.' pg. 4 A VOICE FOR VICTIMS pg. 2 Unifor's Women's Advocate programs a resource for victims of harassment, violence PLANNING FOR RISK Health-risk assessments can be valuable benefi t for executives pg. 5 INSIDE OILSANDS OPERATION SAFETY Although injuries to workers in the oilsands have been declining, Viss- er Deloitte has released a report on the use of data analysis tools and cultural shifts to help make them even safer. Predictive Site Safety: People and Culture For Life, the fi rst of the Gaining Ground in the Sands 2015 series, says 2014 has been a diffi - cult year for the mining and petro- leum industry. Despite an overall 14 per cent decrease in accidents since 2009, Alberta Occupational Health and Safety's most recent study notes fi ve mining and petroleum industry fatalities in the fi rst nine months of this year. The author of the report, Geoff Hill, Deloitte's national oil and gas sector leader in Canada, said site safety begins with a culture of safety. "At any industrial site, there's really no such thing as having too much safety training." The report discusses how data analysis tools can be used to pre- dict the most likely places for ac- cidents to occur and what can be done to prevent them. Subsequent reports from the Gaining Ground in the Sands 2015 series will be released over the next few months. Credit: Mark Blinch (Reuters) DISRUPTION > pg. 6 Employees leave after a shift change at the General Motors Car assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont. BY LIZ FOSTER SHIFT WORKERS ARE at a higher risk for injuries when switching shifts — even when that change is from non-stan- dard work hours to regular day shifts, according to a recent study by the Toronto-based Institute for Work and Health (IWH). For Better or Worse? Changing Shift Schedules and the Risk of Work Injury Among Men and Women used data from Statistics Canada's Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics to examine work schedule patterns over a six-year period among a repre- sentative sample of about 19,000 Canadian workers. The study reviewed three of the survey periods — 1999- 2004, 2002-2007 and 2005-2010 — and collecting data surround- ing injuries leading to more than one week's absence from work or a receipt for workers' com- pensation. It concluded that while em- ployees working evening and night shifts are more likely to be injured on the job when compared to their counterparts working day shifts, employees switching between shift sched- ules are at an even higher risk. This includes employees who move from irregular evening or night shifts to a regular, daytime schedule. Beware the shift Shift workers are at a higher risk of injury when switching schedules: Report

• Cover