Workplace Challenges
Workplace injuries, fatalities unacceptable: WSIB campaignThe Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) has rolled out its boldest public awareness campaign to date. The theme: There Really are No Accidents. The message: Workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities are unacceptable, intolerable and 100% preventable. LINDA WHITE |
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 [ 2006-11-01 ] |
WSIB chair
“The campaign is designed not to blame employers, not to blame employees and not to take sides. There’s enough responsibility to go around for everyone,” says WSIB chair Steve Mahoney.
Last year in Ontario, close to 100 workers lost their lives due to traumatic workplace injuries and other immediate causes. Another 250 died from occupational disease and 277,000 suffered workplace injuries or illnesses. Across Canada, 928 people lost their lives as a result of workplace injuries.
The WSIB administers no-fault workplace insurance for employers and their workers and provides disability benefits, monitors the quality of healthcare, and assists in the early and safe return to work for workers injured on the job or contact an occupational disease.
“There’s a business case to doing this (campaign), in addition to our morale responsibility,” Mahoney says. When an injury occurs, benefits and costs paid out by the WSIB are charged to an employer’s rate group, forcing the base premium to go up. Higher premiums and possible surcharges mean higher costs and lower profits for a business. A company will pay the lowest amount possible by performing better than their rate group average.
The most common causes for WSIB claims, serious injuries, illnesses and fatalities: falls, electrical hazards, machinery, explosions and fires, moving vehicles, confined space, overexertion (such as lifting, carrying and repetitive motion), hazardous chemicals, falling objects, collapsing platforms or equipment, workplace violence and burns.
“Our goal is 0% accidents and 0% fatalities. I’ve been told that’s not realistic, but I’ve asked, ‘What number is acceptable? Fifty? Twenty?’ There is no other answer but zero,” Mahoney says.
He encourages employers to stress and promote workplace safety and to do more than what they’re currently doing. His message to employees: “When you’re in the trenches, look to the left and look to the right and make sure each person is working safely.”
As part of its commitment to the prevention of workplace injuries and illnesses, the WSIB campaign includes TV commercials, print ads, transit shelter and billboard ads, and Internet advertising. In addition to English and French, the print ads will run in Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, Punjabi and Spanish.
“We will push hard with these advertisements,” Mahoney says. “One that is coming out is of a funeral scene and it is shocking. I hope it upsets people. If they want to call me, I’ve got a message back for them: We’re losing people every year and that’s not acceptable.”
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