Ontario’s occupational health and safety system is complex and includes many organizations. To have the most impact on health and safety in Ontario workplaces, it’s important that the partners work together towards the same goals. The following are some examples of ways the system collaborated in 2018-2019.

Safe At Work Ontario consultations

Safe At Work Ontario (SAWO) is a Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development Operations Division program to raise awareness of, and support compliance with, the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA). SAWO helps to direct the ministry’s efforts on the areas of greatest need through annual sector-specific compliance plans. These plans guide the work of inspectors and their proactive visits while providing additional transparency on their activities.

Ongoing stakeholder engagement is key to SAWO. It helps the ministry understand what is happening in workplaces, so it can respond to changes. The ministry uses the information gathered during stakeholder consultations as part of its planning processes.

In 2018, the ministry’s Operations division held two rounds of consultations to support Safe at Work Ontario, from January to March and in October. Co-hosted with the Health and Safety Associations, the consultations sought input from stakeholders on the ministry’s compliance strategy to help promote healthy and safe workplaces. For the first time, a consultation paper with links and resources was posted in advance for stakeholder review.

At the sessions, over 440 stakeholders were able to share ideas, best practices and resources with the ministry and each other. Stakeholders had the opportunity to advise the ministry on key health and safety challenges.

Issues identified by the stakeholders included:

  • mental/psychological health issues in the workplace
  • the use of substances that affect fitness for work
  • exposures to fentanyl
  • technological distractions
  • an aging workforce, and new workers entering the workforce
  • musculoskeletal disorders
  • understaffing, workers working remotely/alone, and contract work and piecework in industries that traditionally didn’t have these sorts of work arrangements

For more information on the Safe At Work Ontario sessions, please email SAWOConsultations@ontario.ca.

Construction

The construction sector is a priority because of its size, diversity and the seriousness of the health and safety hazards faced by its workers. At half a million workers, it is Ontario’s seventh largest sector, but more people die on the job from traumatic injuries in construction than in any other sector. Construction work includes specialized work on major infrastructure, industrial, commercial and institutional projects as well as general work on small-scale home renovation projects.

In 2018-2019, the health and safety system continued to implement the recommendations and activities of the Construction Health and Safety Action Plan (CHSAP), which was released in 2017. The action plan includes 16 recommendations and 41 activities designed to build a more knowledgeable and skilled construction sector, and to improve compliance with occupational health and safety laws. More than 90% of these activities are either completed or ongoing. The action plan, with the leadership of an advisory group composed of employer and labour representatives, also sets the foundation for the ministry and system partners to undertake new projects to support employers and protect workers.

Falls Awareness Week

Working towards the first goal of CHSAP – building a more knowledgeable and skilled system and sector – the ministry partnered with the Infrastructure Health and Safety Association (IHSA) to pilot Falls Awareness Week in Ontario. From May 7 to 11, 2018, construction workplaces were asked to stop work for 15 to 30 minutes to discuss falls hazards on the worksite.

Falls Awareness Week focused on how to create a strong workplace health and safety culture. The IHSA developed resource kits on fall prevention and working safely at heights to help workplaces hold discussions on hazards. The talks were aimed at helping workplaces build an environment where workers could feel safe to raise concerns about fall hazards. Importantly, Falls Awareness Week encouraged business owners, supervisors and workers to all participate and show their commitment to health and safety.

Small business

Over 95% of businesses in Ontario have fewer than 50 employees. These small businesses face many of the same health and safety challenges as larger businesses but may have more difficulty managing their risks. A common request from small business owners is that they need help that is affordable and available in multiple formats that are easier to understand.

The Small Business Action Plan Implementation Team (SBAPIT) is a committee made up of system partners who work to understand and improve health and safety in workplaces with fewer than 50 employees.

In the 2018-2019 fiscal year, the SBAPIT focused on helping the system to better understand the special healthy and safety needs of small businesses. To achieve this, the team released the Small Business Lens, a tool to help system partners plan programs and activities that work well for small businesses. This tool will be required when planning for many future system initiatives, leading to better designed programs and activities that help small businesses of all sizes.

The highlight of Small Business Week 2018 (October 22 to 26) was the release of the Small Business Toolkit. Developed by the SBAPIT, the toolkit is an easy-to-use, four-step guide for small business owners looking to start their health and safety journey. There are sector-specific versions of the toolkits available through the IHSA, WSPS, WSN and PSHSA.

During the Summer of 2018, the ministry visited small businesses across Ontario through the ministry’s Summer Student Outreach Campaign. Summer students visited over 10,000 small businesses in St. Catharines, Windsor, Ottawa, Kitchener and the Greater Toronto Area, providing information packages about legislative requirements and compliance tools from multiple ministries and agencies. During the campaign, visits to the ministry’s Small Business webpage increased by 47%.

The work done throughout the system in 2018-2019 has strengthened the system framework to support health and safety for small businesses across Ontario.

Health and safety representatives

Health and safety representatives (HSRs) play an important role in supporting the internal responsibility system at small workplaces across Ontario. To be effective in their duties, HSRs need a broad foundational knowledge in occupational health and safety.

To meet the needs of employers and HSRs, the ministry worked with health and safety system partners to develop a voluntary basic training program guideline and an accompanying basic training provider guideline, which were released in 2018. These resources were custom-made to help employers and training providers develop and deliver HSR training programs.

In 2018, the ministry also released a voluntary one-day e-learning program to help HSRs understand legislative requirements and how to carry out their duties. The e-learning program was developed in collaboration with health and safety system partners. The training is available through the IHSA, PSHSA, WSPS and WSN.

Workplace vulnerability

Some groups are more vulnerable to injuries and illnesses than others. To learn more and to develop an approach for future activities that relate to this complex issue, the Prevention Office hosted a forum on workplace vulnerability in April and May 2018. The event gathered one of the widest cross-sections of stakeholders in government and from the community since the Vulnerable Worker Task Group completed its work in 2015. The result was a five-year vision to address the issues of vulnerable workers.

Work, Migration and Health Forum

The system’s work on vulnerability continued with the Work, Migration and Health Forum, held at the University of Toronto from May 7 to 9, 2018. This conference was the result of a unique collaboration between OHCOW and the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, in partnership with the Global Migration and Health Initiative. Many system partners presented and participated at the conference, including the ministry’s Prevention Office, OHCOW, WSPS, IWH and representatives of the Changing Workplaces Review, as well as academics, advocates and service providers from across the country.

The forum brought people together to learn and reflect on the experiences and challenges facing temporary foreign workers in all sectors across Canada, as well as newcomers, refugees, working international students, undocumented migrants and other groups. It also addressed the global forces that affect work and mobility, often resulting in unstable and insecure working situations.

Over 200 people attended the forum, which was an opportunity for migrant workers, community organizers, care providers, advocates, policy makers, and scholars to meet and learn from each other. The conference’s plenary presentations are available for viewing on OHCOW’s website.

Young workers

Young workers experience more injuries than older workers. While young workers make up only 13% of the workforce, about 16% of all allowed schedule 1 WSIB lost-time injury claims come from workers aged 15 to 24.

In 2018, the system partners worked together to review all their youth programs and initiatives. Based on the review and additional research, the system shifted its focus to targeting areas that would have the most impact, by analyzing data about young workers in Ontario to identify the greatest issues and possible changes. The research done this year will help to direct programs in the coming years.

Having young people participate in initiatives directed at them have been found to be an effective way to make change. To give a voice to current and future young workers, the ministry held its annual video contest, “It’s Your Job,” which invites youth to create videos about the importance of workplace health and safety. In 2018, the winning video was “Training Works,” produced by students from the Honourable W.C. Kennedy Collegiate in Windsor. The video went on to win first place in the national competition. The video has also been shared on various social media platforms to get the message out to other young workers.

Mental health

Every year about 1 in 5 Canadians experience a mental illness or addiction problem. Mental health issues cost businesses an average of about $1,500 per worker per year. The system partners have collaborated for nearly four years of improving workplace mental health through the Workplace Mental Health System Working Group. The working group’s main goals are to encourage activities that prevent mental injury in the workplace, and raise awareness of the need for early recognition and expanded support for mental illness. The group has helped to increase knowledge on workplace mental health throughout the system providing resources to workplaces and training to frontline HSA staff, while improving communication and collaboration between system partners.Members of the group have also worked on projects with partners outside of the system, including the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, the Canadian Mental Health Association and the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

The working group has supported the development of training programs and free resources, and the sharing of research and best practices. This year, the group focused on using strong evidence and data to achieve their goals. For example, the group used data collected through the workplace mental health survey MIT-COPSOQ to guide their work. The MIT-COPSOQ is a Canadian adaptation of the internationally recognized Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ). A baseline survey was done in 2017, and the survey was repeated in 2019. The survey was included as part of the StressAssess web app in 2018, which was also released for Android and iOS in 2019. Putting the survey in the app allows individuals to do their own assessments and compare their results over time. The apps also include tips and suggestions, putting health and safety in the hands of workers.

OHCOW hosts an annual symposium called Mayday, Mayday, which gathers experts to share knowledge and best practices on workplace mental health from within Ontario and beyond. The 2018 event included presentations from Dr. Hanne Berthelsen, a COPSOQ researcher from Sweden, safe Work Manitoba CAO Jamie Hall and system partners. Videos of the event are available online.

Ergonomics

Poor ergonomics in the workplace can lead to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). MSD is an umbrella term for several injuries and disorders of the muscles, tendons, ligaments, bone and nerves. MSDs cause pain and disability for workers and lead to high costs for workers and businesses. According to the WSIB, MSDs make up about one-third of all allowed lost-time claims.

On October 1, 2018, the Centre of Research Expertise for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (CRE-MSD) launched Ontario’s new MSD Prevention Guideline along with an accompanying website, msdprevention.com. To develop the guideline, CRE-MSD worked for over two years, collaborating with system partners and seeking input from Ontario businesses of all sizes and sectors, and from Ontario workers.

The guideline gives employers free information and tools to prevent MSDs in their workplace. As part of the guideline, the Quick Start Guide supports small business owners by providing a simple tool to improve the health and safety of their workers.

Risk assessments

Risk assessment workshops are used by the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development to help industry sectors identify high-risk events and hazards in their workplaces. This allows the ministry, health and safety partners, and workplaces to work together to reduce those risks and prevent workplace injury, illness and deaths.

The ministry’s risk assessments bring together experts – employers, workers, academics, enforcement and Health and Safety Association staff – to identify, discuss and analyze the leading risks in their respective sectors. While the ministry and HSAs facilitate the sessions, it’s the workers and employers who have final say in identifying and ranking the hazards. In the 2018-2019 fiscal year, the ministry held workshops on sawmills and logging in the forestry sector, mobile equipment and water management in mining, and general freight in transportation/trucking.

An important part of the ministry’s process is recognizing that a single organization or individual can’t provide all the perspectives needed for an accurate understanding of a risk. Bringing workers and employers from a variety of workplaces in a sector together allows them to share different perspectives and reach a consensus of the top health and safety risks in the sector. This agreement on what the risks are allows system partners to focus their resources on those priority hazards. Having the highest risk hazards identified by the sector also allows the ministry to collect and analyze the most relevant data to make decisions.

These workshops have been recognized by industry and system partners as an effective way of collecting insight on issues being faced in workplaces and as a best practice for engagement and collaboration. By coming together, system partners and workplaces can better understand the issues and develop more effective prevention strategies.

Occupational disease

In Ontario, more workers die from occupational diseases than injuries. In 2018, there were 143 deaths from occupational disease allowed by the WSIB, compared with 85 deaths from traumatic injuries. Occupational diseases have high financial costs to workers, businesses and the compensation system. Between 2009 and 2018, the WSIB allowed about 134,000 occupational disease claims, leading to over $920 million in benefit costs. Occupational diseases, specifically work-related cancers, are often not recognized or reported, so the real numbers may be much higher.

The Occupational Disease Action Plan (ODAP) is a project that brings together system partners and those from the broader network — such as Public Health Ontario and the Lung Association – to focus on occupational disease prevention. In 2018-2019, ODAP helped continue to align the work of the system partners to reduce hazardous exposures in Ontario workplaces and decrease the incidence and burden of occupational disease.

In June 2018, the ODAP Diesel Working Group worked with carex Canada to produce a webinar on the dangers of diesel engine exhaust in workplaces and how to control and assess the hazard. The system partners promoted the webinar through their social media and shared educational resources. The video of the webinar helps to raise awareness and educate workplaces in Ontario and across Canada.

In February 2019, OHCOW and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety launched Prevent Occupational Disease, an online source of current and reliable occupational disease resources from Canada and around the world. A first of its kind in Ontario, the website was built to help employers, supervisors, safety and health practitioners and workers learn about and prevent occupational diseases. The system is working together to make sure that Prevent Occupational Disease will be continually updated with new content. It also welcomes submissions of free, accessible, non-commercial resources from around the world.