(Originally published in the July 2011 issue of the Nova Scotia Business Journal - Nova Scotia Construction Safety Association Awards feature)
There are people in this province who share a passion for making Nova Scotia a safer place to work.
For three decades now, that need to make Nova Scotia safer has been pressing. Historically, the province has faced challenges when it comes to workplace safety, reporting one of the highest injury rates in the country.
Many people have been working hard to change this terrible legacy of injury, from employers, workers, and labour groups to trade associations, key government departments and more.
Creating a safety culture in Nova Scotia is a complicated task. No single organization or policy can make it happen. It takes many people working together to turn around Nova Scotia’s safety performance and reduce the human impact of workplace injury overall.
The Workers’ Compensation Board has been privileged to support, and to partner with, a growing number of safety associations — industry-based safety champions driven to create safer outcomes for their industry peers.
Over the years, safety associations have demonstrated that when like-minded industry experts think about how to make the work they do safer, they can make a real difference in the lives of Nova Scotians. Construction, forestry, retail gas, and trucking have in recent years been joined by automotive dealers, fishing, and health care in industries supported by dedicated safety associations.
“Safety associations contribute to creating a safety culture,” says Stuart MacLean, vice-president of service delivery. “The fact that we are seeing this kind of industry-led approach to workplace safety is a further example of employers realizing both the human and economic value of creating safer workplaces.”
The Nova Scotia Construction Safety Association (NSCSA) was formed out of the necessity to reduce injuries specific to the construction industry. They have been highly successful through the training programs, loss control audit services and other safety interventions they offer to members of the construction industry.
On average, in the construction industry in Nova Scotia, the injury rate has come down steadily for a number of years even though there are many more people working (assessable payroll for the industry has increased by over $100 million since 2006). As a result, employers have also seen a reduction overall to their WCB rates for over a decade.
Since adopting a new industry-based approach to working with large workplaces in the province since 2009, the WCB’s Wholesale, Utility, Resource, and Infrastructure Integrated Service Team has enjoyed working closely with the NSCSA and many of its construction company members. Recently, the NSCSA gave this WCB team the “safety champion” award which recognizes organizations who show leadership in advancing the objective of reducing the human and economic losses resulting from workplace injuries.
This successful partnership and others showed real progress was made in 2010 toward a Nova Scotia safe and secure from workplace injury, where fewer workers were hurt while making a living. The number of people injured continues to decline, and the number of days lost to injury is fewer.
This progress is the result of many initiatives among partners in creating a workplace safety culture, including education, enforcement, and on-the-ground promotion of safety in workplaces.
There is no doubt that workplace injury in Nova Scotia is a serious issue. Just over 28,000 workers were injured on the job last year — almost 10 per cent of the workforce covered by the WCB.
However, it’s encouraging to report that the number of serious injuries in Nova Scotia workplaces is at its lowest level in 15 years at 6,921. That number has decreased, on average, five per cent per year since 2005, representing 2,125 fewer serious injuries over that time.
For the second year in a row, 95 per cent of workers who lost time from work due to an injury returned to work at 100 per cent of their pre-injury earnings.
But while there is good news happening in workplaces across the province, we cannot forget that 23 people died at work in Nova Scotia in 2010. And nearly 120 people have died at work over the past five years. This is unacceptable, and we have much work to do.
There is evidence to suggest that attitudes are changing. For several years we have asked Nova Scotians whether they believe workplace injuries are an inevitable part of life. The number of people who agree with this is steadily declining. Now it’s 43 per cent, down from over 60 per cent a few years ago. We think this means that Nova Scotians recognize that workplace injuries can be prevented. But it’s disturbing to know that two out of every five of us still think it’s part of the job.
Overall, Nova Scotians are coming to the realization that getting hurt is not part of the job. We are realizing that we don’t need to accept workplace injuries.
Together, we’re making a difference. We are more than the sum of our parts when we work together.
Read more "NSCSA Awards" stories at: http://www.ns.dailybusinessbuzz.ca/Industry-Spotlight/Nova-Scotia-Construction-Safety-Association-Awards-20551
