November 2014 3
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November
PPE
Workers' compensation
Environmental safety
OHS Legal Update
Flu season
The Canadian Centre for
Occupational Health and Safety
offers ve top tips to help
employers minimize the impact
of an infectious disease
outbreak:
www.cos-mag.com/
disease-outbreak.html
What not to do
Guest columnist Leo
Vroegindewey outlines the
10 things successful safety
professionals won't do. Among
them, 'Don't act like a cop' and
'Don't be afraid to ask tough
questions':
www.cos-mag.com/
leo10things.html
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Safety Tip: Psychological safety
How to help a co-worker who
is grappling with mental health
issues in the workplace
Supervisor to safety leader
Greg Swan, PSHSA, discusses ways
a good supervisor can be moulded
into a great safety leader
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FROM THE EDITOR
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Cream of the crop
T
he November issue is one the Canadian Occupational Safety team
looks forward to every year. It is special for us because we get to
formally announce and celebrate the winners of Canada's Safest
Employers Awards. Now in its fourth year, the awards recognize com-
panies from coast to coast that are making outstanding contributions
to occupational health and safety.
The awards boast 10 industry categories — ranging from retail
and services to building and construction — and two additional
awards for wellness and psychological safety. The psychological
safety award is new for this year and was launched because it is
clearly a topic that is becoming more and more top of mind for
employers. Almost all jurisdictions — except New Brunswick,
Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon — have legislation
about workplace violence and harassment.
It is encouraging to see companies are starting to realize psy-
chological injuries can be just as damaging as physical injuries.
This award was set up to applaud those companies who are
adopting the voluntary National Standard for Psychological
Health and Safety in the Workplace.
At this point, it is only the most progressive companies working on implementing this, but it is
something all employers should at least take a look at. If it seems too involved for your organization at this point,
there might be some elements you can take and implement. See page 22 to fi nd out how this year's inaugural winner,
the County of Wellington, made mental health a top priority.
Winning a Canada's Safest Employers Award is not just about giving the safety function the recognition it deserves,
it is also about spreading the word to other companies on how to foster a culture of safety. The winners that grace
the pages of this magazine (pages 14 to 22 to be exact) have countless tips, tricks and best practices that earned them
this coveted award, and they want to share those with you.
To facilitate this, COS conducts panel discussions with winners at some of the top health and safety conferences
across Canada, including Ontario's Partners in Prevention, the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering's professional
development conference and the Alberta Health and Safety Conference. And we will be presenting at even more
conferences in 2015. If you are attending any OHS conferences, I encourage you to take a look at the program for
the Canada's Safest Employers panel so you can learn from the safest companies in the country, and how you might
be able to win this coveted award in years to come.
We know that celebrating safety achievements is not just important to us here at COS, but it is also important to
you and your employees. According to our recent subscriber survey on Canada's Safest Employers Awards, many of
you said both internal and external recognition of positive safety behaviours is important to your workers. Winning a
Canada's Safest Employers award helps cement your commitment to your employees of keeping them safe on the job.
We will be launching the 2015 contest in January. Please visit www.safestemployers.com in the New Year for
information on eligibility, the nomination form and more details.
I'd like to take a moment to extend a special thank you to our judges. They take a lot of time out of their busy
schedules to judge the numerous nomination packages and we could not do it without them. This year's judges are
Ian Arnold, Todd Carstairs, Andrew Cooper, Michael Dodd, Phil Germain, Kristina Hidas, Glyn Jones, Norm Keith,
Derly Maxis, Mike McKenna, Elizabeth Mills, Jackie Norman, Douglas Rourke, Linda Scott, Martin Shain, Maureen
Shaw, Warren Shepell, Nora Spinks and Thomas Tenkate.
Amanda Silliker, Editor
amanda.silliker@thomsonreuters.com
team
looks forward to every year. It is special for us because we get to
formally announce and celebrate the winners of Canada's Safest
Employers Awards. Now in its fourth year, the awards recognize com-
panies from coast to coast that are making outstanding contributions
