Budget bill endangers workers
The federal government has health and safety responsibilities for more than one million workers — approximately eight per cent of the Canadian workforce.
Yet embedded deep within the 308 pages of the Budget Implementation Act, Bill C-4, are a few short paragraphs that will roll the dice with the health and safety of these federal workers and vastly undermine the system of accountability and enforcement that keeps these workplaces safe.
The most alarming change shrinks the definition of danger in the Canada Labour Code, the linchpin of the legislation. The existing definition of danger set forth common sense criteria requiring employers to be responsible in their workplaces not only for hazards that had already caused injury but also a “potential hazard or condition.” Danger also included exposure to a hazardous substance that was likely to result in chronic illness or disease, and potential hazards or conditions “likely to result in damage to the reproductive system.”
This meant that a woman could withdraw from work she felt could potentially harm her ability to have healthy children — with full pay and benefits — until she consulted her doctor, and her employer could reassign her to another safe job or location until then. Long story short: neither workers nor their future offspring should be put in harm’s way because of the job.
This definition, established in the year 2000 after widespread consultation with injured worker representatives, unions, employers and government, aligned employer responsibilities with the objective of preventing workplace-related accidents and injuries, including occupational diseases.
The new proposal by the Conservative government deletes all references to potential hazards and exposure to hazardous substances. Workers would no longer have explicit protection from potentially dangerous conditions. It would make federal workplaces, including industries like railways, marine shipping, airports, pipelines, uranium mining and broadcasting, more dangerous. Eliminating protections for reproductive health puts future generations at risk and is breathtaking in its level of mean-spiritedness and irresponsibility.
Current legislation also outlines a key role for health and safety officers. They are charged with identifying potential hazards in the workplace, investigating accidents and ensuring that all parties were aware of their responsibilities. The authority of health and safety officers to monitor workplaces and issue directions helps to ensure that employers take their responsibilities seriously and don’t cut corners that could inadvertently harm their workers.
Bill C-4 chips away at the adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, by inexplicably deleting all references to health and safety officers in the Canada Labour Code. By replacing them with ministerial appointees, the changes would effectively dismantle a responsibility system designed to safeguard workers’ health and safety.
A neutral, trained, independent inspectorate of professionals will be sidelined and responsibility for this formidable job will be given to political appointees.
It’s worth asking why a government that has introduced an unprecedented number of Criminal Code amendments creating harsher penalties, stiffer sentences and longer jail time for offenders all in the name of safer communities, has abandoned this law and order agenda in the name of safer workplaces. How is it that people are worth protecting when they are on the street and in their homes but unworthy of protection in their workplaces where they are acting as productive members of society and contributing to our economy?
Perhaps the most frustrating is that these changes are not necessary. The empirical data confirms that the current regulatory framework is associated with a reduction in injuries: it works because it requires that employers take their responsibilities seriously and provides for a system of enforcement when they don’t.
This system of enforcement includes the “Westray Bill” of 2004, created as a result of the 1992 coal mining disaster in Nova Scotia where 26 miners were killed. The bill established new legal duties for workplace health and safety, and imposed serious penalties for violations that result in injuries or death. In contrast, Bill C-4 offers a master class in deregulation.
Dr. Kellie Leitch, MP for SimcoeGrey, has a lot to answer for. Not only is she the minister of labour responsible for the application of the Canada Labour Code and thus the health and safety of one million workers, but she is also the minister of the status of women and a medical doctor. Is she really proposing to do away with the ability of women to protect themselves from hazards to their reproductive health at work? If so, she had better produce the evidence and rationale to back up her proposals before it becomes law.
Healthy and safe working conditions are the right of every worker and a scheme that strips those rights away and puts workers in harm’s way is, in a word, deadly.