‘Progress made’: Province given C+ grade on workplace health and safety

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This article was published 26/11/2024 (625 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba Federation of Labour is giving the province a passing grade on workplace health and safety — but there’s still plenty of homework to do.

The organization released its “report card” Tuesday, giving the provincial government an overall C+ grade on its workplace health and safety track record. The report was its first since 2022, which awarded a D grade to the previous Progressive Conservative government. The federation said this year’s report card evaluates the last year of the previous government and the first year of the current NDP government.

“It’s refreshing to have a government that’s interested in working with unions, employers and health and safety experts to make our workplaces safer and bring those injury rates down, instead of a government that wants to forge ahead on its own without listening to anybody,” federation president Kevin Rebeck said Tuesday morning.

Despite some improvements — Rebeck pointed to the re-establishment of the workplace health and safety advisory committee, cut by the previous government in 2018, as an example — other issues persist.

According to data from the federation, nearly 50 per cent of all claims from Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba sent to an independent appeal commission were overturned, the highest amount since 2018.

The appeals process is used when a worker disagrees with the WCB’s decision on their claim. A final decision takes an average of 30 weeks.

Labour and immigration minister Malaya Marcelino said a review into the WCB’s existing legislation is coming in the next year, and that it may take up to a year to get done — but, ideally, it will provide insight into “decades” of issues within the WCB that have been brought to her desk in the past year.

“There’s lots of different little and big items from the WCB that have been brought up, from the WCB’s legislation from decades and decades ago, and there are concerns that that needs to be updated,” she said.

The federation gave the province B- on prevention, C+ on enforcement, C on workplace health and safety laws, and C on workers’ compensation.

Marcelino described the overall C+ mark as “not a great grade, but it shows that there’s been progress made” compared to the previous government.

Data on violence and injuries in the workplace remain high, according to the federation’s report.

There were 1,824 injuries caused by workplace violence that resulted in a claim filed and accepted by the WCB in 2023, the highest number in more than a decade. There were 462 workplace violence claims in 2014.

The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505 took to city hall Tuesday to rally for improved safety efforts for bus drivers and passengers.

There were 257 reports of security incidents on Transit buses in 2023, compared to 130 in 2022 and 88 in 2021. There have been 201 reported incidents in 2024 so far.

Around 160 of the union’s 1,065 bus drivers are currently off the job due to workplace injuries or stress.

Union president Chris Scott said the province needs to find ways to fund safety programming and incentivize employers to utilize safety tools.

“It’s got to be something that’s broad, that will also help with government employers, such as the City of Winnipeg, they need the resources to make workplaces safer, especially in challenging workplaces such as Transit,” he said. “It’s a mobile workplace, how do we make things safer?”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca