Making work safer for immigrants

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Manitoba wants to attract 20,000 immigrants to the province by 2016, but with newcomers the most at-risk group for workplace accidents, their employers will need special tools to keep them safe, experts say."They're almost twice as likely to be injured or disabled in the workplace," said Mike Waite, president of Safety Services Manitoba.

The non-profit organization, formerly known as the Manitoba Safety Council, has come up with a multilingual "tool kit" with information to help both workers and employers make sure people are working safely.

Waite said the Manitoba Immigrants Safety Initiative materials will bridge the gap of differences that make newcomers more vulnerable to being hurt on the job.

"For the immigrant worker, it's language, culture," and doing kinds of work they're not used to, he said.

"A lot of people who are coming are fairly highly skilled in their own countries and are used to doing office work in their chosen field," he added.

"When they come here to the province of Manitoba, guess what? They don't meet our standards (for professional certification) and fall into categories of general labour, housekeeping and hospitality," he said. "You immediately have that as an increased risk."

Last week, Waite unveiled the initiative in Steinbach.

"They had manuals printed for employers to give us a greater understanding of some of the cultural differences that factor into the safety of workers, and what resources are available," said Linda Burdett with the Steinbach Chamber of Commerce.

"It's a great benefit to our business community," said the chamber's office manager. "We have such strong immigration settlement in this area," she added. "Our growth is rivalling Winnipeg in the number of immigrants choosing to settle through the (provincial nominee) program."

Newcomers may have very different ideas about on-the-job safety, she said. The story of a worker who used a knife in his work illustrates the point, Burdett said.

"In the performance of his duties, the knife broke. His co-workers told him to go to his boss and get another. He felt that was impossible for him to do. So he taped the knife up and ended up cutting himself," she said.

"He just didn't understand it was his responsibility to make sure he was operating with safe equipment," she said.

"Rather than showing his injury to his employer, he determined that this is something he caused himself to do. He wrapped up the wound with paper towels and proceeded to try to work.

"This is an example of different cultures looking at work differently than we do," Burdett said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 29, 2009 A5