Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Union safety effect confirmed in Ontario construction industry

The Institute for Work & Health (IWH) recently released a follow-up study about the union safety effect in the construction industry. Based on data from 2012 to 2018, the report confirms that unionized construction firms had a 31% lower rate of lost-time claim injuries.

This report did not confirm earlier findings that unionized construction firms also reported more no-lost-time injury claims. It appears a more refined methodology is responsible for this non-finding. When the more recent data was analyzed with the older methodology, the older finding returned.

Company size was found to matter. The union effect on lost-time claims was larger for larger companies. No union effect was found for companies with 0 to 4 full-time equivalent employees. The vast majority of construction firms fall into the 0-4 FTE category.

-- Bob Barnetson



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