Canadian Occupational Safety

6 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com Ontario aims to prevent traumatic mental stress in high-risk workplaces O ntario has released the fi ndings from a roundtable that provides insights into ways to prevent traumatic mental stress, reduce the stigma associated with mental health dis- orders and help people who have suffered mental injuries in the workplace. The Roundtable on Traumatic Mental Stress brought together representatives from police, nursing, fi re services, emergency medical services and transit services to discuss how to pro- mote awareness and share best practices across sectors on work-related traumatic mental stress, which includes post-traumatic stress disorder. With a focus on prevention, response and support, roundtable members generated a range of proposed followup actions, such as: • ensuring traumatic mental stress is a priority for the chief prevention offi cer • working with various ministries to provide mental health supports in high-risk workplaces • organizing a workshop to share best practices across multiple sectors relating to traumatic mental stress. "We know that certain occupations have more occurrences of traumatic mental stress than others, and that some sectors have developed best practices that could be shared across the province," said Kevin Flynn, minister of labour. "Our goal is… to engage various sectors to fi nd effective methods to prepare workers and employers for potential stress, and to provide tools to help respond to potentially traumatic situations and re-integrate workers who have suffered from traumatic mental stress back into meaningful work." Mental health problems and illnesses typically account for about 30 per cent of short- and long-term disability claims. To help implement these ideas and continue the work of the roundtable, Ontario will host a conference in 2015 on work-related traumatic mental stress that will bring together representatives from a wide range of impacted sectors to share experiences, concerns and best practices, and learn from innovators in this fi eld. "It is essential that, together, we end stigma, break down bar- riers and ensure our fi rst responders, and all workers, get mental health care and accommodation at work," said Yasir Naqvi, minister of commu- nity safety and correctional services. The Canadian Mental Health Commission has reported that, in any given year, one in fi ve people in Canada experience a mental health problem or illness, with a cost to the economy of more than $50 billion. WORKPLACE NEWS pHoto: KennetH ArmStrong (reuterS) Final report on Elliot Lake mall collapse makes 71 recommendations By Sabrina Nanji T he public inquiry into the fatal Algo Centre Mall collapse in Elliot Lake, Ont., has released its fi nal report, putting the blame on "human error." Led by Justice Paul Belanger, the public inquiry delved into the roof collapse at the shopping mall that killed two women in 2012. In his report — which clocks in at 1,394 pages — Belanger noted that, despite the incontrovertible evidence pointing to severe rusting between a beam and column causing the roof to buckle, human error is unequivocally to blame. "Many of those whose calling or occupation touched the mall displayed failings," Belanger said. "Some of these failings were minor, some were not. They ranged from apathy, neglect and indifference, through mediocrity, ineptitude and incompetence to outright greed, obfuscation and duplicity." As part of his 71 recommendations, Belanger said there should be a province-wide requirement that buildings be maintained to a minimum standard to ensure safety. As such, all buildings should be properly inspected by qualifi ed structural engineers when a building is sold and, at a minimum, at a frequency that is commen- surate with the risk of harm from a failure to meet that standard. Those charged with determining the safety standard of the buildings, including professional engineers, municipal offi cials and Ministry of Labour inspectors, should also be appropriately trained and certifi ed, and their conclusions should be made readily and publicly available and accessible, he added. This incident focused the microscope on accountability when it comes to safety. Because there were many players involved — designers, builders, owners, architects, engineers and provincial and municipal offi cials — the question has been asked: Where does the responsibility lie? "One thing that is striking is that there are so many hands on this thing, so many fi ngerprints," said David Law, a partner at Gowlings law fi rm in Ottawa. "There is a lot of contributory neg- ligence from a lot of different places." The Algo Centre inquiry also discussed the merits of internal responsibility systems, something Law said everybody involved should consider. "It's a really powerful weapon, this notion of internal respon- sibility," he said. "Powerful because it empowers individuals and it also has a legal and moral accountability which it imposes on everybody to take care of each other. That's ultimately a far more effective mechanism than waiting for the authorities." Though the public inquiry is separate from ongoing criminal, regulatory or civil proceedings, Belanger's report will not go unno- ticed, said Roger Oatley, the lawyer representing the families of the deceased in a civil lawsuit against the City of Elliot Lake and its mayor, Ontario's Ministry of Labour, the engineering fi rm and the mall's owners at the time. "It certainly creates atmosphere and any judge will be very aware of what Justice Belanger (said). It's a very public condemnation of everyone who we have alleged is responsible," Oatley said. Belanger ended his report by urging the government to provide a snapshot of its progress on his recommendations within one year. 'Patchwork' OHS laws leave co-op students, unpaid learners vulnerable By Mallory Hendry I n the past year, Ontario lost two unpaid workers to on-the-job accidents — a university campus security guard and a co-op student at a recycling plant. Part of the problem, experts say, is Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) specifi cally defi ned workers as receiving "monetary compensation." That meant it was unclear if the students were legally entitled to receive the same training and protections as paid employees. But on Nov. 6, the Ontario legislature passed the Stronger Workplaces for a Stron- ger Economy Act, which extends coverage under the OHSA to co-op students and other unpaid learners. This will give them the same protections as paid employees, such as the right to know about workplace hazards and the right to refuse unsafe work. Legislation on what kinds of workers are protected varies across th e country, said Claire Sea- born, president of the Canadian Intern Association, who refers to it as a "patchwork." Andrew Langille, a Toronto-based labour lawyer, believes the gaps in the law boil down to an oversight when the legislation was drafted because common methods of experiential learning seen today were mostly unheard of at the time. "The laws are simply not designed for the realities of the 21st century labour market in Canada," he said. "We're only starting to see some legislative and policy responses to the exponential growth in the last year or so." There has been a push — and recent tangible movement — towards more clear and inclusive language in legislation so there is less ambiguity when it comes to experiential learning on the job.

• Cover