Occupational health and safety in Ontario April 2016 - March 2017

Message from the Chief Prevention Officer

This annual report outlines some of the work done in 2016-17 to deliver on the vision, goals and priorities articulated in Healthy and Safe Ontario Workplaces – A Strategy for Transforming Occupational Health and Safety. Development of this strategy was led by former Chief Prevention Officer, George Gritziotis, who is now pursuing a new opportunity. His leadership significantly contributed to the achievements outlined in this report, and to the strong Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) system in Ontario that will help us meet future challenges.

With our transformational strategy as a guide, system partners are undertaking innovative approaches on prevention awareness, training and enforcement activities. Those in the OHS system must be innovators because programs and services must keep pace with workplaces where technology is advancing, employment arrangements are changing, businesses are forming, new workers are being hired and research is uncovering new understandings of workplace harms and solutions. System partners are driven by a continuing commitment to make working in Ontario safe for all workers – while being flexible in exploring new approaches, tools and partnerships.

Changes in the economy, society and workplaces mean we are challenged to reach a wider and more diverse audience than ever before with prevention messages, and safety skills training. Yet, it’s important to remember that, we also have more communication channels than ever before. Occupational health and safety organizations are leveraging unprecedented opportunities to speak directly to workers, employers and all Ontarians about the importance of health and safety at work, and to deliver training in ways that are easier to access. In fact, in this report you’ll read about programs and competitions that leverage the creativity and credibility of young people in telling their own compelling stories about why safety matters to them. Mobile technology helps put safety training and information, literally, into the hands of workers and employers, when and where they need it.

It’s not only in getting a message out that we have new opportunities. Access to new and better sources of data is also helping to identify solutions to longstanding challenges, and to understand emerging challenges.

This annual report also describes progress in implementing legislation, regulations and strategies that advance occupational health and safety. This includes new and continuing initiatives under the Construction Health and Safety Action Plan and the Occupational Disease Action Plan.

This report identifies strategic priorities and specific areas of focus. In each of these priorities, a combination of activities include enforcement, awareness, research, training. In many of these activities, various partners inside and outside the system are collaborating to achieve the best possible results. In the OHS system, activities are intersecting, interacting and complementing each other. Enforcement blitzes, for example, ensure the law is followed and that compliance is promoted. At the same time, others in the system use that valuable data to see where more awareness and training may be needed. Others, in turn, look at how that training can be made more accessible. Yet more partners may consider how to evaluate the effectiveness of that training to support further improvement and additional gains in worker safety. Communicators use the online space to raise public awareness of all these resources. Those conducting research not only produce knowledge, they often engage workers and employers in gathering data, which also supports awareness. The valuable work undertaken by each of Ontario’s health and safety associations drives progress in the sector they represent, and it can also pioneer new practices that the other system partners can apply in their sector.

In short, these incremental and complementary efforts create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s contributing to a growing culture of workplace occupational health and safety in Ontario. In the years ahead, we must build on the collaborative spirit and cultural approach that’s been established to continue progress – so that Ontario is a place where health and safety at work is everyone’s responsibility, and everyone is safe at work.

Sincerely,
Marcelle Crouse
Interim Chief Prevention Officer

Executive summary

All Ontarians should be safe at work, and Ontario is making consistent progress in improving occupational health and safety. The commitment, expertise, skill and collaborative approach of Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety system (the system) ensures that research, prevention awareness and training programs reach workers and employers in a variety of ways. Their work is directed by the requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) and its associated regulations. To facilitate collaboration and deliver on the legislated mandate, Healthy and Safe Ontario Workplaces – A Strategy for Transforming Occupational Health and Safety identifies shared priorities and specific strategic objectives for each of those priorities.

Vulnerable workers

Some workers are more vulnerable than others to injuries, illnesses and fatalities. A vulnerable worker may be a newcomer to Ontario, a temporary worker, a young person new to work or someone re-entering the workforce after many years. Factors that can make workers vulnerable in the workplace include limited language ability, informal arrangements in the “underground economy”, and precarious work. Vulnerable workers have a greater exposure to occupational hazards and limited ability to mitigate these hazards due to job and workplace factors. They may not be aware of their rights and responsibilities, have access to adequate occupational health and safety policies and procedures or feel disempowered to participate in injury prevention.

Key statistic: Young workers accounted for 12.7 per cent of all allowed lost-time injury claims from Schedule 1 and 2 employers.^{footnote 1[1]}

Activities: Ministry inspectors conducted 1,144 visits to 905 workplaces, and issued 3,113 orders under the OHSA and its regulations, with a focus on new and young workers. Workplace violence and harassment accounted for 14.5 per cent (451 orders) of the orders issued. Results indicate that new and young workers continue to be exposed to hazards.

A student video contest is helping high school students learn and talk about health and safety on the job. Another competition, for postsecondary students, was won by a student who is developing a gaming application for health and safety training programs. ^{footnote 2[2]} Other digital and social media initiatives were aimed at targeting the parents and support networks of young workers, including a dedicated health and safety website for adult influencers and a newsletter for teachers.

To reach newcomers and temporary foreign workers, the ministry has partnered with federal departments and consular officials to raise awareness of health safety rights and responsibilities in Ontario. The ministry also conducted inspections in the agriculture sector, sometimes accompanied by consular officials to help facilitate communication and prevention awareness.

Small business

Small businesses face unique challenges in developing effective workplace health and safety practices. They often lack the resources or knowledge to meet occupational health and safety requirements. Developing clear, accessible and low-cost resources, programs and services for small businesses will make a meaningful difference in reducing workplace injuries and fatalities.

Key statistic: Small businesses employed about 29 per cent of Ontario workers^{footnote 3[3]} but they accounted for 62 per cent of all fatalities in 2016. Among Schedule 1 small business employers, the number of lost-time injury claims was 13,610 in 2016. ^{footnote 4[4]}

Activities: Reaching small business means going into the community with messages and supports that promote and enable improved workplace safety. For example, one system partner set up a booth at 15 Home Depot locations in summer 2016 to educate small businesses about their health and safety obligations and the resources that are available to them. The Ministry of Labour sent summer students to 6,168 workplaces, distributing 4,461 kits, and receiving 3,683 completed surveys. Recognition programs are highlighting small business leadership and evaluation tools are being developed for mobile applications. To help small businesses meet the requirement to have a health and safety training representative, the system has established a working group to develop training guidelines and programs, and support will roll out in 2017-18.

Address the highest hazards

Highest hazards are the types of work that have a greater frequency or severity of work-related injuries, illnesses or fatalities, which then become a focus of system-wide planning and action.

Key statistics: In 2016, 208 people died from a work-related injury or illness in Ontario. This number includes 72 traumatic fatalities and 136 occupational disease fatalities. Over the 10-year period from 2007 to 2016, the industry sectors that accounted for the highest occupational disease fatality percentages were construction (29 per cent), manufacturing (20 per cent) and primary metals (12 per cent); the diseases with the highest occupational disease fatality percentages were mesothelioma (34 per cent) and lung cancer (29 per cent).

Activities: To support the Construction Health and Safety Action Plan, three blitzes were conducted. They targeted falls, mobile cranes and material hoisting, and electrical hazards. The three blitzes included 4,165 field visits. A web tool and mobile application is providing plain-language summaries, in both official languages, on 50 key topics to help small- and medium-sized construction employers and workers understand legislative and regulatory requirements. In 2016-17, several important regulatory amendments that were suggested in the action plan regarding the use of suspended access equipment were implemented and supported with new training programs.

To improve health and safety in the mining sector, three mining sector blitzes were aimed at reducing fall hazards, promoting safe material tramming in mines and following safe work processes at mine plants. The three blitzes included 170 field visits. Regulation 854 (Mines and Mining Plants) came into effect, with requirements to identify, assess and manage the risks of workplace hazards, including water management, traffic management and the recording of seismic events. Mine rescue teams were invited to share best practices and system partners collaborated on the world’s first computer simulation tool for underground mine rescue training. A new mining exposure data base contains 120,000 measurements of potentially hazardous substances in Ontario mines.

To prevent occupational disease, partners began implementing Ontario’s first Occupational Disease Action Plan. An Occupational Disease Response Team has been created to improve coordination of system resources. Regulation 833 (Control of Exposure to Biological or Chemical Agents) was extended to apply to workers on construction projects to protect against hazardous exposures in their workplace. New guidelines were developed to support compliance with requirements in the Noise Regulation (O. Reg. 381/15). Regulation 860 (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System) now incorporates international standards for workplace chemicals in Ontario.

To improve safety for workers at heights, 197,550 workers received working at heights training, an increase of 86 per cent from the previous year. The effort was supported by a radio campaign that contributed to a 335 per cent increase in visits to the Working at Heights training registration page. Inspectors visited construction, industrial and mining workplaces — with a focus on those known to have a high frequency of injuries involving falls, those where complaints have been received, those where previous incidents have occurred and those where there was a history of non-compliance. This included 3,961 field visits to 3,343 workplaces.

Integrate service delivery and system-wide planning

When Ontario workers and employers need information and services to improve workplace health and safety, it should be easy to find, regardless of which system partner they first contact. Integrated service delivery is about ensuring that all workplaces receive accessible, affordable, consistent programs and services that meet their needs.

Activities: Implementing the Occupational Disease Action Plan requires a variety of partners, from both inside and outside the system, to work together. For example, partners collaborated on campaigns to raise awareness of the hazards of noise in the workplace and strategies to prevent it. A Health and Safety Index will track yearly change in Ontario’s overall workplace health and safety, and will be updated annually. Hundreds of instructors and worker advocates gathered at a conference focused on adult education.

Build collaborative partnerships

Ontario’s economy, population and workplaces are changing. This means the occupational health and safety system must continually seek new partnerships to understand the challenges, reach more workers and employers and keep pace with a changing province.

Activities: A distracted driving pavilion at the Partners in Prevention trade show used an interactive 400-foot driving course to show how easily drivers can become distracted by focusing on things other than the road. Regionalized fire health and safety training used existing fire department training sites across Ontario to provide accurate, consistent, certification-based training for high-hazard rescue operations in a safe, localized environment. Resource guides were designed to help primary and secondary school teachers bring health and safety education into their classrooms by identifying learning expectations in Ontario’s Kindergarten to Grade 8, and Grades 9 to 12 curriculumsgional offices of the Ministry of Labour collaborated with system partners and stakeholders to increase the impact of enforcement activities. Continued promotion of a National Day of Mourning, and the organizing of worker memorials in Ontario communities ensure remembrance of workers who have been killed, injured or suffered illness by work-related incidents.

Promote a culture of occupational health and safety

Every Ontarian can play a role in preventing workplace injury and health impacts. An occupational health and safety culture is one where workers, employers, family members, mentors and OHS system partners share values, beliefs and attitudes. Strong internal responsibility systems (IRS) are essential to this effort.

Key statistic: In 2016-17, health and safety associations responded to 78,003 requests for information by phone or email – 8.9 per cent decrease from 2015–16.^{footnote 5[5]}

Activities: A pilot Climate Assessment and Audit Tool is helping workplaces to develop a full picture of organizational health and safety. The CEO Health + Safety Leadership Network developed white papers offering insight on job mindfulness, workplace mental health, and integrating health and safety into the board agenda. Rural volunteers are being trained as Stop Think Act ambassadors, a simple, effective message that was shared with thousands of farmers. A joint health and safety committee assessment tool is now being used to evaluate the effectiveness of joint health and safety committees in hospitals.

Key accomplishments

• In 2016, approximately 200,000 workers received the Working at Heights training in 21,420 classes offered by the approved training providers, an increase of 86 per cent from the previous year.
• Amendments to the Ontario Regulation 213/91 (Construction Projects) requirements related to the operation of suspended access equipment came into effect on January 1, 2017.
• Various amendments to Regulation 854 (Mines and Mining Plants) under the Occupational Health and Safety Act came into effect on July 1, 2016 and January 1, 2017. Many of these amendments implement key recommendations from the Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review Final Report.
• The Legislature passed Bill 132, the Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act (Supporting Survivors and Challenging Sexual Violence and Harassment). The Bill made changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act that came into effect on September 8, 2016.
• Effective July 1, 2016, amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) and Regulation 860 (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System) came into force. These amendments incorporate international standards for workplace chemicals in Ontario set out in the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS).

Furthermore, from April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017, the Ministry and its system partners undertook important work which led to the following key accomplishments:

• The development of the Construction Health and Safety Action Plan scheduled for release in May 2017, which contains 16 recommendations to create a more knowledgeable, skilled sector and to increase the sector’s compliance with occupational health and safety laws.
• A progress report summarizing the findings from phase one of the Workplace Violence Prevention in Health Care Leadership Table. The Leadership Table endorsed 23 recommendations as well as 13 tools and resources that hospitals can use to implement effective workplace violence prevention programs.
• Worked towards passing legislation to include amendments to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997. The legislation expands the entitlement for injured workers by allowing compensation for work-related chronic mental stress.
• Ontario’s health and safety system partners joined together in preparation for the first ever International Noise Awareness Day, which was held in late-April 2017.

About this report

This report highlights April 2016 – March 2017 fiscal year activities that support the goals of the integrated strategy. It incorporates available performance data to measure progress in achieving the vision of healthy and safe workplaces. It also includes statistics for both proactive and reactive enforcement initiatives. Appendix A provides statistical charts. Appendix B provides a glossary of terms.