Nova Scotia labour minister wants special workplace safety prosecutor • Work most stressful part of day for many Canadians • Making safety committees work • Loblaw pledges to compensate families of Bangladesh collapse victims
Nova Scotia labour minister wants special workplace safety prosecutor
HALIFAX — Nova Scotia's labour minister is hoping to designate a special prosecutor for workplace safety violations. Making the designation will be a priority for the government, Frank Corbett said, adding he hopes to do so within a month.
Corbett’s comments come on the heels of two workplace fatalities in Halifax. A 47-year-old man died when he fell off a roof and a 39-year-old man died on May 21 after he was electrocuted at work.
Nova Scotia is working on a workplace safety strategy, says Corbett, but he is unable say when it might be complete.
Work most stressful part of day for many Canadians
TORONTO — Nearly one-half (47 per cent) of working Canadians find their job and their place of employment the most stressful part of their day, according to a recent survey by Ipsos Reid.
Sixteen per cent of working Canadians (excluding self-employed workers) find their place of work a “frequent” (11 per cent) or an “ongoing” (five per cent) source of feelings of depression, anxiety or other mental illness.
The survey also found 14 per cent of workers say their job or place of work causes these feelings “several times a year,” while another 33 per cent experience them “infrequently,” according to respondents of the survey, which was conducted on behalf of Partners for Mental Health, a national charitable organization looking to change the perception of mental health and mental illness in Canada.
Four in ten (37 per cent) working Canadians say their work or place of work has “never been the source of feelings of depression, anxiety or other mental illness.”
The online poll was conducted between April 18 and 24 with a sample of 1,058 working Canadians.
Making safety committees work
VANCOUVER — If utilized well, safety committees and workplace inspections can serve a bigger purpose for organizations than just for regulatory compliance.
This is according to health and safety experts speaking at this year’s Western Conference on Safety in May.
Workplace inspections serve as an opportunity to talk to workers and find out if there are any ongoing health and safety issues that may not come to light by any other means, Krueger said.
Worksite inspections will also allow the safety committee to confirm whether recommendations from accident investigations are getting implemented.
The key for any safety committees doing workplace inspections is to understand — from the beginning — the purpose of the safety inspection.
Loblaw pledges to compensate families of Bangladesh collapse victims
BRAMPTON, ONT. (Reuters) — Loblaw is promising compensation for the families of victims of the Bangladesh garment factory collapse that killed more than 1,000 people on April 24.
Loblaw, which had some of its Joe Fresh clothing line manufactured at Rana Plaza, followed British retailer Primark in offering to compensate victims of the South Asian country's worst industrial accident.
“We will be providing compensation for the families of the victims who worked for our supplier,” said spokeswoman Julija Hunter in an email.
Loblaw has said it regularly conducts audits to ensure its garments are manufactured responsibly, but focuses on labour practices and not building construction.
Loblaw said it would issue updates as it developed details of its compensation plan.
North American retailers are discussing the idea of forging their own Bangladesh safety agreement, an alternative to a legally binding accord that many European retailers have signed on to, though details of any alternative accord were still unclear.
May 14 discussions were the latest in a series of talks convened by large retail trade organizations and including retailers, such as Macy's, JC Penney and Sears Holdings, to develop a response to fatal fires.
