January 20, 2007

Speech by John Gordon, National President to the PSAC Health and Safety Conference

Sisters and Brothers, am I ever glad to see so many of you here!

These are interesting times to be a health and safety activist. Whether you look at the recent actions – I should really say inaction – of the Conservative government towards the environment, the continued promotion of Smart Regulations and contracting out, or the under funding of our public services, the challenges of protecting and improving our collective health and safety are many.

We have our work cut out for us, but when haven't we? Health and Safety is a PSAC priority. Membership engagement and solidarity is the key to tackling the challenges before us, and to building a better world.

I look forward to your focus group discussions and reports on Prevention, including Deregulation, Enforcement, Behaviour Based Safety Programs, and the Environment, as well as the debate on resolutions. I hope your reports will help to inform our Health and Safety work in the years to come, as there are many important areas deserving of our attention and solidarity.

I would like to touch on a few of these areas:

Deregulation is a major challenge for PSAC. Many PSAC members have been directly impacted by successive governments' dismantling of Canada's regulatory system. While formerly these members in the Regulatory and Inspection community were enforcing government regulations that protected the safety and security of Canadians, these members are now overseeing and encouraging compliance of regulations – regulations that have been weakened and made more flexible to suit the employer. Corporations both nationally and internationally continue to argue that regulations are not flexible enough, and that they are as burden to international competitiveness in today's global economy.

While this certainly illustrates the impact of globalization on Canada's internal governance systems, it's scary for a number of reasons. Why should the global market and desire for record corporate profits override our national sovereignty and human rights? Would we want other regulatory enforcement influenced by globalization? Do we want our police forces to have reduced enforcement capabilities, or adopt practices from other parts of the world that violate the human rights of our citizens? I think not.

The move to greater deregulation, whether it be in the form of Smart Regulations, Risk Management, or Canada bowing to pressure from the World Trade Organization is bad for workers, for Canadian communities and for public safety.

Privatization

It's bad because ultimately, deregulation leads to privatization and reduced quality public services. Removing jobs from the public realm means reduced pay, working conditions and job security, and a greater risk of injury or even death. These are no longer quality jobs, and they certainly do not provide a quality public service to Canadians. Privatization does not save money; nor does applying a business model improve public services.

Contract and precarious workers need our help. We need to build bridges to not only bring this work back into the public sector, but assist these workers with their working conditions. Statistics are clearly illustrating the effects of poor health and safety protections, longer working hours, no ability to have worker-management consultation and no union representation. Data collected by the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada reported a shocking 1,097 workplace deaths in 2005. On average, this means five work-related deaths per working day. According to the International Labour Organization, Canada had the fifth highest incidence of workplace fatalities; only Korea, Mexico, Portugal and Turkey had higher workplace fatality rates, and they are all at a lower level of development than Canada. We should be experiencing a decline in workplace deaths, not an increase.

The truly scary part is that these statistics do not tell the whole story. We all know that WCB statistics are not as inclusive as they should be, as not all claims are accepted and investigated. This can lead to further accidents and deaths. Also, who are the workers most likely to be working in contract and precarious jobs? The vast majority are young workers, women, workers of colour, recent immigrants, and peoples with disabilities. It's no coincidence that the rise of small business and the service sector occurs at the same time as one in seven young workers being injured on the job. This is wrong on so many levels. Workers need protection and real jobs; Canadians need a government that responds to the public, not corporate good; and we all need quality public services, performed by union members, with strong health and safety protections. This is our challenge – it's also our right.

Enforcement

Strong health and safety regulations are an essential component to a safer workplace, along with regular training, and union/management consultation. We need to enforce our right to a safe workplace via collective bargaining, union/management meetings, and challenging the government to do better. We need an obligation on government inspectors to write orders on all violations of health and safety regulations and have the ability to impose penalties on violators. The stronger the laws, and the stronger they are enforced, the better off workers will be. The government claims that it doesn't have the money to enforce the law like it used to. They fail to explain however that they have removed money from enforcement budgets as it's no longer a government priority. It shouldn't have to take a disaster to move employers and the government. How many more Westrays, Walkertons or Avian Flues do we need? Strong health and safety protections and enforcement can only strengthen our workplaces, our communities and our country.

Blame the Worker

Sadly, not everyone sees it that way. There are employers out there who think it's cheaper and easier to put posters up in the workplace reminding us to work safely, promoting how many days the office has been accident-free, or offering us prizes for avoiding accidents. This behaviour-based safety approach promoted the myth of worker carelessness. It presumes that workplace injuries and occupational illnesses result from “unsafe” actions of workers and not from the hazards found in the workplace. Instead of properly reporting, investigating and treating workplace injuries and illnesses, workers are just encouraged to work more carefully around the workplace hazard. All these incentives do is create an atmosphere of intimidation amongst workers. If a group of workers is competing for a safety prize, tremendous peer pressure is placed on individual workers not to report an injury. Using their sick leave rather than report the injury, an artificial picture of the workplace injury rate is created. Employers will then believe preventative measures, training, and consultation as being no longer required. Which would you rather have, a free meal at McDonalds or a truly safe workplace? Isn't your life, and those of your Sisters and Brothers, worth more than a bunch of gift certificates?

And don't we all have enough stress in our lives already – who wants more? Workplace-related stress is a growing disease, and feeds into the increases in absenteeism, sick leave, illness and injury. The cost of stress in the billions – due to lost time at work, loss of income, reductions to healthcare and social services and the high cost of medications and other forms of treatment. The cuts to our social safety net have downloaded additional responsibilities onto the backs of workers – often women. The ability to balance work and life, caring for children and elderly parents, is a real struggle. This is made even more difficult if you have little flexibility with your job or have to juggle more than one job. Combating the causes of stress will be challenge for all of us, as they run so deep and are at the core of many workplace practices.

PSAC Activity

I have spent a lot of time outlining some of the challenges we face as health and safety union activists. We are tackling these challenges on many fronts, with membership commitment and solidarity paving the way. Some of the ways PSAC members are furthering a progressive health and safety agenda are:

Via the Defending Quality Public Services framework passed at Convention, members are engaged in fighting to improve our public services. This activity is taking many forms, whether it is fight back campaigns, lobbying, working with our social partners, political action, or collective bargaining. Negotiations for Treasury Board and the major Agencies are resuming this year, and demands that protect and promote quality public services and health and safety include: no contracting out, whistleblower protection, protective reassignment for pregnant and nursing workers, human rights, the Social Justice Fund and improved workforce adjustment language. We know that the changes we make at these large units impact the bargaining for other groups and can help to shape public policy, so we all need to be mobilized and ready to fight for the protections and benefits that all workers deserve.

Legal action is another avenue we are using to push health and safety issues. In April 2006, the PSAC filed a challenge to the structure of the Canada Appeals Office on Occupational Health and Safety. Many of you are familiar with this Office: this is the forum for appeals from decisions of health and safety officers investigating complaints of danger and investigating work refusals. The Appeals Officers who sit in judgment on these appeals are public sector employees who are hearing appeals from decisions of the health and safety officers who work in the same department and are subject to the same Minister.

And what is more troubling perhaps, is the fact that one of the parties who frequently comes before the Appeals Officers, is the government of Canada. When the PSAC comes before the Appeals Officer, as we are right now in the case of border service officers, the respondent is Treasury Board. This means that these Appeals Officers are adjudicating their employer's interests, the employer who pays their salary and makes pension contributions on their behalf and who has control over their tenure as Appeals Officers.

We have challenged this structure as lacking independence, as lacking the protective structure that is present in the judiciary and that essentially ensures that the decision makers on matters as important as health and safety appeals are shielded from their employer's influence.

It's an important case with sweeping implications for both tribunal independence and health and safety, and a legal challenge which we, as the PSAC, can be proud to have raised. We couldn't have done so however, without the consent of a border services officer, Katie Bartakovic because we needed a case onto which we could piggyback this challenge, and so we thank Katie for her courage and tenacity as we proceed through the legal system.

Until this legal challenge has been decided, we are suspending our participation in matters coming before the Appeals Office. For obvious reasons, we are reluctant to participate in legal proceedings before a tribunal which, as I have said, lacks important structural independence.

Another legal challenge is that of the Park Wardens. This case has been ongoing since 2000. We are still in the courts, as well as lobbying MPs, providing compelling evidence that the current law enforcement work of Park Wardens put them at significant risk for grievous bodily harm or death, and that the employer's current risk mitigation strategies do not sufficiently keep our Park Wardens out of harm's way.

There can be no rational explanation for requiring Park Wardens to wear bulletproof vests, but not provide them with adequate protection in the form of a sidearm.

PSAC argued the case over 8 weeks, 20 witnesses, 187 exhibits ... we put in a very comprehensive case. While the decision is pending, a lobbying strategy is currently underway to explain to MPs and Cabinet ministers the benefits to Park Wardens and to the public of properly equipping our Park Wardens. This case speaks to our commitment to quality public services and regulation, and the health and safety of our members performing enforcement duties.

We also continue to work on providing Health and Safety protections to our Sisters and Brothers working on Parliament Hill. If the Charter of Rights guarantees equality for all, then the legislated right to a healthy and safe workplace must be a right for all workers on Parliament Hill. A Charter challenge is currently underway to make this a reality.

Equality for all also means equal access and the right to work. That's why PSAC members advocate so strongly for human rights in the workplace, including the duty to accommodate. While this work involves collective bargaining and union / management consultations, it ultimately requires members to stand up and defend the rights of their Sisters and Brothers. We all have the right to a safe workplace.

Environment

We also have a right to a healthy environment. We have just heard excellent speakers inform and inspire us. I can't overstate how important this subject is for all of us, and for the future. I criticized the government at the beginning of my presentation for their inaction on the environment, and I have to say that their announcement this week didn't do much to change my mind. The government has systematically dismantled environment programs and replaced them with rhetoric and little substance. We need a comprehensive climate change plan, not more empty promises. We need the political will to create a national environmental plan, to turn Canada into a world leader in sustainability and environmental protection.

PSAC members are active in protecting the environment and our natural resources, and we encourage everyone to take action on the environment. While we will be identifying more ways for members to increase their environmental activism, our defending quality public services framework certainly guides us in this work. We know that a strong public service is needed for the enforcement and protection of the environment. We must demand the government to stop the chronic under funding of environmental programs. The Union of Environment Workers' Fish Campaign does this and more. Working with community and coalition partners, UEW members are making the link between funding, quality public services and environmental protection, now and into the future.

In closing, I want to wish all of you an enlightening conference. I hope you leave here charged and ready to fight even harder to improve the health and safety of your Sisters and Brothers, your communities and your country. We all have a role in building membership solidarity and action around health and safety issues. Let's all work together to make our future safer and greener.