The workplace safety and health laws in Manitoba have had quite a few changes in the last five years. Most of these changes have been good for workers. One major improvement is with the joint workplace safety and health committee (WPS&H Ctte). The new laws protect workers better and require much more involvement from committees. This means workers have more ability to influence health and safety practices in their workplaces.
New laws now require employers to develop, in consultation with the joint WPS&H Ctte, a written workplace safety and health program. The program must address a lot of different issues that are important for workers.
For example the employer must identify all hazards and risks to injury that are in the workplace and they must develop a plan to eliminate, reduce or control these hazards. The program must also develop a regular schedule for committees inspecting the workplace and a plan for committees to investigate accidents. This program must be reviewed, at minimum, once every three years by the joint WPS&H Ctte to assess how effective it has been at reducing injuries and if it hasn’t been effective enough, to make changes to the program.
This new law is very crucial because it requires that all hazards be identified and that something be done about them. It requires that all of this be written down with input from the joint WPS&H Ctte and made available to them for the purpose of monitoring the program.
Another improvement is the requirement to deal with ergonomic hazards in each workplace. Injuries due to poor workplace design are the most frequent kind of injury that UFCW members experiences.
The new regulation on ergonomics requires employers to assess every work activity that creates a risk of an injury due to repetitive strain or overuse activities or due to awkward positions while working. Each employer must then develop a plan to eliminate or change these activities so that there are fewer musculoskeletal injuries. The plan must be monitored to see if it has been effective at reducing these injuries and if it hasn’t achieved this objective then that plan needs to be adjusted so that it does result in improvements.
These are substantial improvements for worker health and safety but they won’t be effective unless our workplace safety and health committees are effective at making them work. That’s why Local 832 has developed a procedure to support the committees and to ensure that they are able to do the things they should be doing.
1. Meeting at least every three months. In
most of our workplaces they should be meet-
ing every month.
2. Making regular inspections of the work
place.
3. Getting a copy of the minutes from each
committee meeting and then sending a
copy of the minutes to Rob Hilliard.
4. Receiving and monitoring the workplace
safety and health program and ergonomics
plan.
5. Getting the two days of paid education leave
every year that each committee member is
entitled to and should have.
Some of our committees have already been doing these things and others are not yet aware of these things and they will need assistance.
The union representatives will be checking on their committees each month to see if they are doing the things they should be doing and helping them if there are any problems. If there are issues that are more difficult, the union rep will discuss them with Rob Hilliard in an effort to find solutions.
If any committee members or other members are having health and safety problems they should bring them to the attention of their union rep, who will either deal with the problem in the workplace or discuss the problem with Rob Hilliard before returning to the workplace to problem solve with the committee members.
The new laws are a big improvement for workers and they do require a lot more joint WPS&H Ctte involvement. We need to find a way to make sure that the committees have the know-how and support to do their jobs effectively.
