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Province starts to enforce law on criminal liability in job accidents

By: Mia Rabson

Posted: 05/15/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

OTTAWA -- The provincial government is taking steps to start enforcing a federal law holding employers criminally responsible for workplace accidents.

Labour Minister Jennifer Howard and Justice Minister Andrew Swan told the Manitoba Federation of Labour last week the government has hired a new director of investigations. Among his missions is to sit down with police, prosecutors and workplace investigators to clarify roles in the event of a workplace accident. He is also reviewing all policies to ensure factors of criminal negligence are addressed during investigations.

MFL president Kevin Rebeck said it's a sign the province may finally be ready to enforce a nine-year-old federal law known as the Westray bill.

The bill was named after the Westray mine disaster in Nova Scotia. Last Wednesday, May 9, marked the 20th anniversary of the explosion, which killed 26 miners.

The bill passed in 2003 with support of all parties.

It has been used only six times since, and never in Manitoba, Rebeck said.

The Westray explosion was caused by a buildup of methane gas. Investigations later proved mismanagement and incompetence led to the disaster. Manslaughter and criminal negligence charges were initially brought against the company and two managers but were later dropped.

The Westray bill allows employers who don't take proper safety precautions to be charged criminally in a workplace fatality. The punishment includes jail time.

Manitoba has provincial laws that are normally applied in a workplace accident, resulting in fines up to $250,000 for a first offence and $500,000 for a second offence.

Rebeck said nothing makes people take workplace safety more seriously than the threat of jail time if the Westray law were applied here.

Since 2000, 243 people have died on the job in Manitoba. Motor-vehicle accidents account for most of the deaths, followed by being struck with an object, falls, contact with machinery and drowning. Agriculture and transportation together account for half the deaths. Construction is the third most deadly industry.

Rebeck said one of the problems is nobody is looking at workplace investigations with the Westray bill in mind. Through access-to-information laws, the MFL obtained documents showing the legislation isn't mentioned once in workplace investigation or prosecution protocols and the province hasn't done any analyses of the bill since it was passed.

Howard said the issue will be raised at the federal-provincial labour ministers meeting in September because many provinces believe the federal law may be the problem.

"The reality is it's very hard to prove criminal negligence. There may be things in the law that have to change."

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 15, 2012 A6

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