Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk called Tuesday a disappointing day, but one that will strengthen his resolve to achieve better numbers for workplace safety in Alberta.
A couple of months back Lukaszuk called for a campaign focused on forklift inspections and other “powered mobile equipment” inspections.
Since then 181 inspections have been carried out on 87 employers. The targeted campaign resulted in 214 orders being issued. Many were equipment-related, while others found fault with worker training and competency.
Of the 214 orders, 24 related to “requirements for proper inspection and maintenance,” 20 were for not conducting “proper visual inspections prior to operation,” 16 were for “hazard assessment requirements” and another 14 related to “worker training, competency and a proper supervision.”
Lukaszuk said the message is not getting through.
“There will be no excuse. If you’re operating that kind of equipment — frankly if you’re providing any type of employment to Albertans — you will make sure that your place of employment is safe,” he said. “And if you’re a worker, you will make sure that you’re working as safely as you can.”
Laurie Billings, executive director for the Alberta Safety Council in Edmonton, said too many companies operate under an assumption forklifts do not require training and hold no real danger.
“I wish that the government’s findings were not reflective of what we know is going on in industry. Unfortunately, as the provider of one of the largest forklift safety training programs in the province we know that it is,” she said.
With time — hopefully not too much — the minister believes this work culture of Alberta may be changed.
Progress is being made, he said.
Also released were numbers showing workplace injuries in Alberta are at a 20-year low.
In 2010 the lost time claim rate is 1.41 injuries for every 100 full-time jobs.
Last year, it was 1.53 for every 100 jobs while in 1995 it was 4.13. Lukaszak said the province has certainly come a long way over the last two and a half decades, and that information is promising. But he also feels there is a long stretch of road left to walk, to get to his goal of zero injuries and fatalities.
While injuries are down, fatalities are actually up for 2010 by 24 per cent.
Last year saw 136 workplace-related deaths — 43 in the workplace, 31 in vehicle collisions and 62 due to occupational disease. This is compared to 110 workplace-related deaths in 2009, which was down from 165 in 2008.
Billings said statistics could mean many things.
She noted the numbers have been slowly creeping up for a couple of years now, with a low about four years back.
“For better or for worse we have had boom times and we have slow times, and we are ramping back up by all appearances,” she said. “Any increase [in workplace fatalities] is cause for concern. I think it is a wakeup call for all business in this province.”
“It’s a small number of workers and employers that drive the statistics up,” said Lukaszuk. “We’ll have to keep reminding them that there is no such thing as a safe piece of equipment – every piece of equipment has inherent dangers if you’re not using it properly, or if you are not trained to use it properly.”
