By Thor's Hammer... reality check on workplace health and safety

Last Friday, the government released 2013 workplace-fatality totals. The number of fatalities accepted by the WCB was up significantly in 2013.

Year	Fatalities
2005	143
2006	123
2007	154
2008	166
2009	110
2010	136
2011	123
2012	145
2013	173

These 173 fatalities are only those accepted by the WCB for compensation. These numbers do not report fatalities not accepted, fatalities in industries not covered by WCB (e.g., agriculture) and fatalities not reported. In short, these numbers under-report the true level of work-related death in Alberta. 

To these totals you must also add 15 delayed fatalities (fatalities that occurred in 2013 but were caused by an event in a previous year). This brings the total number of workplace-related deaths to 188.

  

In a follow-on story, the Calgary Herald reports that the government has not issued any administrative penalties (which came into effect on October 1, 2013) or workplace tickets (which came into effect on January 1, 2014).

This sits uneasily with then-Minister of Human Services Dave Hancock’s promise when the legislation was enacted:

There will be no more slaps on the wrist in Alberta; a worker or employer who puts health and safety at risk, or is misleading or unfair in their business dealings, will be held accountable.

Confronted with this, now-Minister of Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour Thomas Lukaszuk told the Calgary Herald:

"Am I disappointed? I had a very strongly worded conversation with my department today.” 

"I definitely have an expectation that any and all tools that are available to enforcement officers are used to ensure our workers are safe." 

Lukaszuk pointed out he introduced administrative fines and ticketing, vowing at the time to drop the hammer on dangerous job sites. 

"The hammer is out again," he warned.

It is pretty hard to take Lukaszuk’s bluster seriously. Have a look at the last 9 years of prosecutions under the OHS Act in Alberta.

Year	Fatalities	Prosecutions
2005	143	12
2006	123	10
2007	154	12
2008	166	22
2009	110	7
2010	136	11
2011	123	20
2012	145	9
2013	173	5

As you can see, with the exceptions of 2008 and 2011, the trend is downward. Ratios provide a useful, albeit crude, measure of enforcement. In 2005, there was one prosecution for every 12 fatalities. In 2013, there was one prosecution for every 34 fatalities. Some hammer.

Part of the issue, according to the government, is that only 8 of 151 OHS officers have received the training necessary to qualify as peace officers—status that is required to hand out tickets. Given the government’s virtually infinite resources, this bottleneck reflects a lack of will (or perhaps poor planning) rather than some sort of insurmountable barrier.

It is interesting to step back from the fatality totals and consider how the government has handled workplace regulation since 1993. With a few exceptions, Tory politicians have generally maintained (and occasionally even toughened) the health and safety and employment standards rules. But minister after minister has starved (and otherwise discouraged) enforcement to the point where the rules are meaningless—behaviour which is shameful.

-- Bob Barnetson