tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/workplace-deaths-4497/articlesWorkplace deaths – The Conversation2023-04-26T19:38:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2042472023-04-26T19:38:05Z2023-04-26T19:38:05ZNational Day of Mourning offers Canada a chance to rethink worker health and safety<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522699/original/file-20230424-20-8nq93y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C326%2C5623%2C3820&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On April 28, Canadians remember and honour those who have been killed or suffered injuries or illness at work.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/national-day-of-mourning-offers-canada-a-chance-to-rethink-worker-health-and-safety" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Canadians go to work each day expecting to return home safely, but for too many workers and their families, this expectation is unrealistic. According to the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada, there were <a href="https://awcbc.org/en/statistics/">1,081 workplace fatalities in 2021 alone</a>.</p>
<p>Each year on April 28, Canadians remember and honour those who have been killed or suffered injuries or illness at work. This day, known as the <a href="https://www.ccohs.ca/events/mourning/">National Day of Mourning</a>, was established by the Canadian Labour Congress in 1984 and <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/w-11.5/page-1.html">made official in 1991</a>.</p>
<p>Four decades have passed since the National Day of Mourning’s first observance, and the annual toll from workplace fatalities in Canada continues to remain high. But just how deep and pervasive is the problem? And what can we do about it?</p>
<h2>Widespread suffering</h2>
<p>Those who consume news media can be forgiven for thinking the number of murders in Canada each year vastly exceeds the number of work-related fatalities. One reason for this is the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/does-the-news-reflect-what-we-die-from">excessive news coverage of murders</a> relative to other causes of death like workplace fatalities.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/workplace-fatalities-deaths-under-reported-study-1.4973495">The real numbers</a> tell a different tale. <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510006801">About 700 people</a> are murdered annually in Canada, while close to 1,000 people die at work each year. But one study from the <em>Journal of Canadian Labour Studies</em> argues <a href="https://www.lltjournal.ca/index.php/llt/article/view/5904">the actual number could be 10 to 13 times greater</a>.</p>
<p>The suffering goes well beyond the 1,000 workers who die each year. Within the workplace, <a href="https://www.ehstoday.com/safety/article/21905011/workplace-fatalities-the-impact-on-coworkers">colleagues who have witnessed horrendous tragedies</a> are affected, as are leaders who have to break the awful news to family members and motivate surviving employees.</p>
<p>Outside the workplace, the emotional and financial burden on family members has been ignored for too long. What if the news media devoted as much attention to workplace safety incidents as we did to murders? Would the public demand that management, workers and government authorities work together to enhance workplace safety?</p>
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<img alt="A young woman holds open a photo album to display photos of a man on a rope swing and the same man with a little girl sitting on his shoulders" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Alyssa Grocutt poses with pictures of her father who died in a workplace safety incident at Suncor Energy Inc. when she was 11 years old.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg</span></span>
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<h2>Myths about worker control</h2>
<p>The National Day of Mourning presents us with an opportunity to reflect on workplace fatalities and the enormous toll they take on affected families, co-workers and organizational leaders, and commit to making a difference. </p>
<p>We can start by dispelling some major misconception that are inhibiting progress in workplace safety and health. One misconception among managers is that, because workplace safety is so important, every aspect of employees’ work requires control. </p>
<p>Yet, based on extensive interviews with senior managers and employees and an analysis of documentation from 49 manufacturing firms in the United Kingdom, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2021.06.003">researchers found the opposite is true</a>. </p>
<p>Among the five key types of human resources approaches, only one was associated with fewer workplace injuries: higher levels of empowerment, which included autonomy and employee participation. Even managers that ceded small, incremental amounts of control to employees had a positive impact.</p>
<h2>Myths about safety costs</h2>
<p>A second common misconception is that government safety inspections can be costly; yet again research suggests otherwise. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1215191">a comparison of more than 400 workplaces</a> that were not targeted for safety inspections in California, and an equal number that were randomly selected for inspections between 1996 and 2006, random safety inspections work. </p>
<p>Five years after random inspections, companies saw a 9.4 per cent reduction in injury rates, and a 26 per cent reduction in costs associated with the injuries. </p>
<p>These gains in safety were achieved without any cost to employment numbers, sales, credit rating or likelihood of firm survival, which are frequent concerns in the face of government safety inspections. </p>
<p>Given this, policymakers should feel reassured that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-labour-ministry-enforcement-occupational-health-safety-inspectors-1.5936019">increasing the number of safety inspectors</a> is a wise investment in both injury reduction and cost reduction.</p>
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<img alt="A group of people in business attire stand with their heads down" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Members of Parliament take a moment of silence for workplace safety prior to question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
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<h2>Myths about sick leave</h2>
<p>The National Day of Mourning’s calls for reconsideration of workplace safety are particularly relevant in the era of COVID-19. The pandemic highlighted the misconception that paid sick leave hurts organizations. </p>
<p>Year-after-year, <a href="https://awcbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/National_Work_Injury_Disease_and_Fatality_Statistics-2019-2021.pdf">more people die at work from health-related issues</a>, such as respiratory diseases and occupational cancers, than from safety incidents. </p>
<p><a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/01/27/new-data-shows-some-people-with-covid-19-symptoms-still-go-to-work-in-peel-region/">A 2020 study</a> from Ontario’s Peel region revealed that 25 per cent of the employees surveyed went to work when they had COVID-19 symptoms; 88 workers even did so after being diagnosed with COVID-19.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-covid-19s-third-wave-were-far-from-all-in-this-together-159178">With COVID-19's third wave, we're far from 'all in this together'</a>
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<p>Why? Because they could not afford to lose any pay. If we are to protect employee health and limit the spread of infection, we need to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256740">de-politicize perceptions around basic workplace programs</a> such as paid sick leave. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/31/how-can-we-put-covid-behind-us-without-guaranteed-paid-sick-leave/">Worker health programs and policies</a> need to be implemented based on the best of evidence, rather than being a subject for negotiations between labour and management or the whims of the government. </p>
<p>Paid sick leave policies and programs are primary tools in preventing the spread of infections, thereby benefiting employees and protecting organizations and their communities. Employees should be reassured that they will not lose pay when they protect themselves and others by staying home when ill.</p>
<h2>A new approach is needed</h2>
<p>We need to change the widespread perceptions that workplace safety requires the tight grip of management, that random safety inspections hurt organizations and detract from profitability, and that paid sick leave is an expensive luxury. </p>
<p>On the contrary, employee autonomy and engagement, random safety inspections, and paid sick leave are some of the practices that management should welcome to develop safe and healthy workplaces.</p>
<p>Another small action that could have wide-ranging benefits is to change the very language of occupational safety. For too long, “workplace accident” has been the term used for any workplace safety incident or injury. </p>
<p>Why is this problematic? By definition, “accident” implies an event that is unpredictable, unplanned and uncontrollable. If that is indeed the case, we should be forgiven for not taking any action. </p>
<p>Yet post-injury and inquest reports tell us that the opposite is true: <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2021/07/19/many-workplace-accidents-are-preventable-stop-the-killing-and-start-criminal-investigations.html">these incidents are invariably predictable, preventable</a> and controllable. The time has come to change how we think about occupational health and safety.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204247/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Barling receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alyssa Grocutt receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>National Day of Mourning should be used to challenge misconceptions about occupational health and safety, and advance safer workplaces for Canadians.Julian Barling, Distinguished Professor and Borden Chair of Leadership, Smith School of Business, Queen's University, OntarioAlyssa Grocutt, PhD Candidate in Organizational Behaviour, researching workplace safety, at Smith School of Business, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1953172022-11-28T15:32:17Z2022-11-28T15:32:17ZWorkplace killers: people kill their colleagues for different reasons than other shooters<p>At 10.12pm on November 23, an overnight team leader at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, opened fire on colleagues in the crew room. The 31-year-old perpetrator <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/22/us/chesapeake-virginia-walmart-shooting/index.html">killed six and injured at least six more</a> before killing himself. </p>
<p>The violence was directed towards fellow workers – no customers were targeted – but it is not yet known if any were targeted specifically. This was the 606th gun attack in the US in 2022 where at least four others were <a href="https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/">shot in a single incident</a>.</p>
<p>Workplace mass shootings (WMS) are undertaken by attackers who either work or worked for an organisation where the attack occurs. They are different from mass shootings which occur at workplaces unrelated to attackers or where the perpetrators are (disgruntled) customers. WMS have happened in pretty much all sectors in the US: uniformed services, breweries, construction, distribution, offices, software engineering, education and power plants. </p>
<p>Most notoriously, there were several attacks in the 1980s and 1990s on sites operated by the US Postal Service (USPS). More than 20 incidents of “workplace rage” by USPS workers occurred between 1970 and 1997 resulting in <a href="https://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps12068/33994.pdf">more than 60 deaths</a> although the commonly used term “going postal” was effectively debunked when it was found USPS staff were statistically no more likely to commit WMS than staff in other sectors. The most lethal USPS incident <a href="https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=ED003">was at Edmond, Oklahoma, in 1986</a>, when a disgruntled USPS employee shot and killed 14 colleagues before killing himself.</p>
<p>US workplaces <a href="https://guncite.com/varieties_homicide_research">became safer</a> in the 1990s and 2000s – workplace murder rates dropped by 50% over that period. But despite active policing measures, improved workplace security and improvements in public health and social care, workplace mass shootings are increasing.</p>
<p>A study of <a href="https://popcenter.asu.edu/sites/default/files/mass_homicides_by_employees_in_the_american_workplace.pdf">44 workplace shootings</a> from 1986-2011 shows such attacks often differ from other public mass shootings. They are rarely racially motivated, they are not motivated by desires for infamy and are rarely committed due to faith or ideology. </p>
<p>Workplace attacks are quite homogeneous in motive. They are mostly <a href="https://guncite.com/varieties_homicide_research">attributed to revenge</a> and often derived from attackers’ perceptions of being denied “organisational justice” and being treated unfairly. Figures show that more than half of WMS are <a href="https://popcenter.asu.edu/sites/default/files/mass_homicides_by_employees_in_the_american_workplace.pdf">perpetrated by current employees</a> with less than 25% of attackers having been in post less than a year. In almost 50% of cases, attackers left employment but returned months later to “settle scores”.</p>
<p>Many other mass shootings occur at commercial premises perpetrated by disgruntled customers or clients, rather than staff. Since 2006 there have been 25 mass shootings at US commercial locations that were not perpetrated by employees or former employees. The US <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cfoi/pdf/cfoi.pdf">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a> shows that in 2018 alone, 351 people were killed in workplaces by firearms. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/pre-attack-behaviors-of-active-shooters-in-us-2000-2013.pdf/view">FBI data</a> from 2000-13 showed 45% of US mass shootings occurred in commercial premises. That’s nearly twice as many as in schools and campuses (24%). This flies in the face of public perceptions – probably thanks to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5296697/">biases in media coverage</a> – that school shootings are the single biggest type of mass shooting incident.</p>
<p>Data on mass shootings from <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data/">Mother Jones magazine</a> covering 2006-22 (defining a mass shooting as a minimum of three deaths excluding the shooter, in public places) shows there were 35 WMS in the US, with 214 deaths. This accounts for roughly 26% of the 802 deaths from all mass shootings in the same period. In the same period, there were 152 deaths from 13 school shootings. </p>
<h2>Workplace heartbreak</h2>
<p>Workplace mass shootings are low-frequency yet highly impacting events that haunt companies and personnel for decades. John Furner, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/22/us/chesapeake-virginia-walmart-shooting/index.html">Walmart US president and CEO, said</a> the Chesapeake shooting “was exceptionally tragic because the assailant was an employee. We feel tragedies like this personally and deeply … The entire Walmart family is heartbroken.”</p>
<p>In workplace attacks, victims are generally indiscriminately chosen – although shooters have a bias for targeting people they had grudges with (managers, supervisors, human resources) before widening out to coworkers or customers who may be present. <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/pre-attack-behaviors-of-active-shooters-in-us-2000-2013.pdf/view">FBI data</a> shows such targeting happens in 60% of WMS cases. </p>
<p>Other studies found attackers to typically be <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/profiling-lethal-employee-case-studies-violence-workplace">white (70%) and male (95%-97%)</a>. Perpetrators were <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/fbileb64&div=34&id=&page=">equally likely</a> to be blue-collar or managerial workers, with an average age under 40 years. </p>
<p>Attackers tend to have antisocial tendencies, but they are <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/05/preventing-mass-shootings-myths-mental-illness-warning-signs-red-flags-uvalde/">rarely mentally ill</a> and the vast majority are free from drug or substance misuse habits. Some <a href="https://popcenter.asu.edu/sites/default/files/mass_homicides_by_employees_in_the_american_workplace.pdf">studies suggest</a> attackers may be uptight “grievance collectors” who find it hard to move on.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/pre-attack-behaviors-of-active-shooters-in-us-2000-2013.pdf/view">FBI records</a> of cases where attacker’s grievances were identified found the most common triggers (in 49% of cases) were interpersonal workplace difficulties, or disciplinary action being taken against the shooters. The data shows the presence of significant acute stressors is common in many shortly before committing their attacks. These often include financial strain, conflicts with friends or family, marital problems and – to a lesser extent – substance misuse, sexual frustration and criminal or civil problems.</p>
<p>Workplace attackers tend not to overarm themselves and take fewer weapons with them compared with other types of attackers – other types of mass shooters often take as many as 11 firearms on their attacks. These killers usually carry an <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-08219-003">average of three weapons</a>, which means that the resultant injuries and deaths may be lower than in other mass shootings. </p>
<p>But workplace shooters are similar to other mass killers in that they are as likely to display “<a href="https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/stats-services-publications-school-shooter-school-shooter/view">leakage behaviour</a>” – intentionally or unintentionally giving clues to any feelings that may signal an impending violent act. These are often subtle threats, boasts, innuendos, predictions or ultimatums either in person, via text messages or social media posts. In more than 60% of workplace attacks, at least one other coworker is usually <a href="https://drreidmeloy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2011_theconceptofleakage.pdf">aware of the attacker’s plans</a>.</p>
<p>Mass shootings reached an <a href="https://theconversation.com/mass-shootings-in-the-us-have-risen-sharply-in-2020-why-150981">unprecedented high in 2020</a> – as did firearm sales. And the precarious nature of employment and perceived <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/09/15/risk-of-global-recession-in-2023-rises-amid-simultaneous-rate-hikes">economic downturn</a> over the next two years for most economies, means the number of disgruntled and vengeful employees may increase. Worryingly, most workplaces remain soft targets, with little defence against attackers.</p>
<p>Research into the background characteristics of such attackers and the role of workplace interactions in their pathways to violence will help reveal more about this often overlooked classification of mass shooter. But fairer workplaces, where equitable treatment is visible for all staff, will save more working lives than any “<a href="https://www.smcm.edu/publicsafety/run-hide-fight-active-shooter-protocol/">run, hide, fight</a>” campaign could possibly do.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mass-shootings-in-the-us-have-risen-sharply-in-2020-why-150981">Mass shootings in the US have risen sharply in 2020 – why?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195317/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recession in the US would lead to more workplace shootings.Craig Jackson, Professor of Occupational Health Psychology, Birmingham City UniversityLaura Robinson, PhD Researcher in Psychology, Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1798142022-04-03T12:14:23Z2022-04-03T12:14:23ZCreative sentencing improves workplace safety: Why don’t we use it more?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455858/original/file-20220401-20-k19rhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C85%2C8108%2C5328&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Creative sentencing uses funds to promote better workplace safety, like better industry training, instead of paying punitive fines.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hundreds die each year from workplace-related incidents in Canada. Alberta, in particular, has seen its fair share of recent deaths, like <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8225483/cochrane-worker-death/">the man who was killed at a construction site</a> in Cochrane last September, and <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7927747/syncrude-employee-killed-aurora-oilsands-site-alberta/">the oilsands worker who was killed</a> in northern Alberta last June. </p>
<p>The most recent <a href="https://www.uregina.ca/business/assets/faculty_staff/2021-Report-on-Workplace-Fatalities-and-Injuries-2021-Oct-21.pdf">Report on Workplace Fatalities and Injuries</a> found that 590 workers in Canada died from occupation-related diseases, and 335 died from workplace injuries in 2019.</p>
<p>Besides the loss of life and environmental damage, these incidents are expensive; the associated production losses, absenteeism, medical costs and workers’ compensation payouts <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15459624.2013.863131">equate to four to five per cent of the annual global gross domestic product (GDP)</a>. </p>
<h2>Learning from past mistakes</h2>
<p>As researchers with an interest in workplace safety, we wanted to understand: How do companies learn from their mistakes? What motivates them, and their industries, to change their ways? Monetary penalties? Deeper reflection from analyzing the causes of the infraction? Public scrutiny? </p>
<p>To answer these questions, we (an engineering professor, an economics professor and a business professor) developed a testable model of how different types of regulations affect companies’ safety performance. We examined the injury rates of 87 Albertan employers found guilty and sentenced for environmental and occupational, health and safety infractions from 2005 to 2018. </p>
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<img alt="Workers in construction uniforms stand at a railing overlooking a steel factory" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455336/original/file-20220330-6008-cafgv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455336/original/file-20220330-6008-cafgv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455336/original/file-20220330-6008-cafgv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455336/original/file-20220330-6008-cafgv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455336/original/file-20220330-6008-cafgv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455336/original/file-20220330-6008-cafgv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455336/original/file-20220330-6008-cafgv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A Regina steelmaker was fined $935,000 last year for breaking Saskatchewan health and safety rules linked to two serious workplace injuries. Evraz Inc. pleaded guilty on Feb. 9, 2021, to two charges in Regina provincial court.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell</span></span>
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<p>Our work is among the earliest to quantitatively examine the effect of incidents and sentencing type on companies’ safety performance, for two reasons. First, is a lack of data access, which we overcame by connecting with several forward-looking government ministries: Alberta Justice and Solicitor General, Alberta Environment and Parks, Alberta Labour and Immigration.</p>
<p>Second, our approach is interdisciplinary, meaning it combines research from several fields. There are a few assumptions each field tends to make: economists expect companies to maximize expected profit, management researchers expect companies to avoid incidents that create public scrutiny and engineers expect companies to adopt the best technical solutions. </p>
<p>Individually, all these perspectives have blind spots. For example, economists might fail to see the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2011.05.006">hidden costs associated with incidents, such as reputational impact</a>, or management researchers might overlook how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1613211">incidents are under-reported</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1179/2049396715Y.0000000003">unevenly covered by media</a>. Together, our research is able to overcome these shortcomings.</p>
<h2>Fines are not (always) the way to go</h2>
<p>Our results suggest that <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/environmental-compliance-creative-sentencing-overview.aspx">creative sentencing</a> provided more effective and longer lasting deterrence for offending companies. Instead of paying fines, creative sentencing <a href="https://www.ohscanada.com/opinions/creative-sentencing-penalties-can-improve-workplace-safety/">uses funds to promote better workplace safety</a>, like better industry training.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Bar graph illustrating the compensation claims rates for creative sentences versus traditional sentences." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455077/original/file-20220329-19-1g7a647.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455077/original/file-20220329-19-1g7a647.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455077/original/file-20220329-19-1g7a647.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455077/original/file-20220329-19-1g7a647.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455077/original/file-20220329-19-1g7a647.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455077/original/file-20220329-19-1g7a647.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455077/original/file-20220329-19-1g7a647.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Worker’s compensation claims rates for creative sentences versus traditional sentences before the incident, between the incident and sentencing and after sentencing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Lianne M Lefsrud)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When a serious incident happened, we found a small reduction in a company’s injury rate, even before they were sentenced. This suggests that incidents motivate companies to change their practices prior to prosecution and sentencing. </p>
<p>With traditional sentencing, like <a href="https://www.thesafetymag.com/ca/topics/convictions/alberta-employer-fined-for-workers-fatal-injury/326030">fines</a> or <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/new-mex-canada-directors-jailed-over-workplace-death-1.2900982">imprisonment</a>, companies’ injury rates rebounded within two years. With a creative sentence, companies’ injury rates remain lower for at least two years. In other words, our research suggests that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cjce.23813">creative sentencing and case-study learning improves performance</a>, while economic fines do not. </p>
<p>A possible explanation for this is that major incidents focus managerial attention on improving company practices, while creative sentences reinforce these improvements. </p>
<h2>Why isn’t creative sentencing used more often?</h2>
<p>This begs the question: If creative sentencing improves company behaviour, why don’t more jurisdictions use it? The answer is that fines are easy — justice departments collect money from offending companies and it goes into government general revenues. Fines are simpler for companies too — they just need to write a cheque. </p>
<p>In comparison, creative sentencing requires much more work. There needs to be a detailed examination of the incident’s root causes, agreement on the right creative fixes to put in place and appropriate follow-through to hold the company accountable for those changes. </p>
<p>The root causes, and subsequent fixes, are often complicated. Workers feel rushed and take shortcuts, or they might be contractors who don’t have access to their company’s work procedures. Perhaps work procedures are overly detailed, complicated and difficult to follow. Or only one specific person knows and they’re home sick that day. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Diagram of the workplace organizational system" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455078/original/file-20220329-25-qdzrxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455078/original/file-20220329-25-qdzrxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455078/original/file-20220329-25-qdzrxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455078/original/file-20220329-25-qdzrxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455078/original/file-20220329-25-qdzrxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455078/original/file-20220329-25-qdzrxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455078/original/file-20220329-25-qdzrxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Solutions to workplace incidents are complicated because the organizations themselves are very complex.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Lianne M Lefsrud)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>A justice department has to monitor a company (sometimes for years) while it unravels the causes and enacts fixes, then check the company’s homework. </p>
<p>Our firsthand experience working with companies and creative sentencing is that this is time-consuming, technically and organizationally complicated and emotionally exhausting. Company operations are messier than our model portrays. </p>
<p>This work is incredibly important to do, despite how tedious and difficult it can be. Only by examining these complexities, and enacting creative solutions, can we learn from incidents and fix the causes. While a workplace fatality is a tragedy, an even greater tragedy is not learning from it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lianne M Lefsrud receives data from the Government of Alberta Workers' Compensation Board and funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, Alberta Justice and Alberta Occupational Health and Safety.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:heckert@ualberta.ca">heckert@ualberta.ca</a> receives funding from The Government of Alberta, Ministry of Labour and Immigration.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Gehman is a co-investigator with Lianne M Lefsrud on grants related to this research program.</span></em></p>While a workplace fatality is a great tragedy, an even greater tragedy is not learning from it.Lianne M Lefsrud, Associate Professor, Engineering Safety and Risk Management, University of AlbertaHeather Eckert, Associate professor, Department of Economics, University of AlbertaJoel Gehman, Professor of Strategic Management & Public Policy, George Washington UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1483352020-10-20T06:54:16Z2020-10-20T06:54:16ZAnother building-site death adds to demands for industrial manslaughter laws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364368/original/file-20201019-23-1p6t94q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C14%2C5000%2C3308&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The death of 23-year-old apprentice Jonnie Hartshorn on a Perth university building site is the 23rd workplace fatality among construction workers in Australia in 2020.</p>
<p>Hartshorn was killed on October 13 after falling 20 metres when the glass canopy of the building he was working on at Curtin University collapsed. Two co-workers were seriously injured. </p>
<p>The causes of the collapse, and any legal liability, are yet to be determined. But Hartshorn’s death highlights a tragic record of construction fatalities. </p>
<p>Today several hundred workers rallied at Western Australia’s Parliament House to demand new laws to make workplace manslaughter a criminal offence, as Labor governments have done in Queensland, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory. </p>
<p>Western Australia’s Labor government has already introduced such legislation into parliament. But it has stalled in the upper house, where Labor members hold only 14 of the 36 seats. With the Liberal and National parties opposed to higher penalties, passage depends on four Greens, two One Nation members, one Liberal Democrat and one Shooters, Fishers and Farmers representative.</p>
<p>Criminal penalties may well help. But my research into the history of deaths on West Australian construction sites (for a paper to be published in the journal <a href="https://www.labourhistory.org.au/journal/about/">Labour History</a> next month), highlights a range of issues contributing to past workplace deaths. </p>
<p>These include unskilled workers in insecure jobs, insufficient training, and the marginalisation of unions. These systemic problems also need to be addressed.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/killed-in-the-line-of-work-duties-we-need-to-fix-dangerous-loopholes-in-health-and-safety-laws-107355">Killed in the line of work duties: we need to fix dangerous loopholes in health and safety laws</a>
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<h2>Workplace fatalities in Australia</h2>
<p>The 23 deaths <a href="https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/statistics-and-research/statistics/fatalities/fatality-statistics">on building sites</a> account for about 19% of the 122 workplace deaths in Australia so far this year. Just two industry sectors have had more deaths – transport, postal & warehousing (38 deaths) and agriculture, forestry & fishing (25 deaths) – with vehicle accidents being the main cause. </p>
<p>The most recent <a href="https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/book/work-related-injury-fatalities-key-whs-statistics-australia-2019">statistics from Safework Australia</a> (the federal agency that develops national work health and safety policy) show the highest fatality rate is among machinery operators and drivers (6.2 deaths per 100,000 workers). This is followed by labourers (2.9 per 100,000) and technicians and trades workers (1.5). By comparison, the rate for clerical and sales workers is 0.1 per 100,000.</p>
<p>Work health and safety laws are the responsibility of state and territory governments. They mandate employer’s duties to provide a safe work environment, with penalties for non-compliance. The Australian Capital Territory was the first jurisdiction to introduce industrial manslaughter laws, in 2004. Queensland did so in 2017, and <a href="https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/victorias-new-workplace-manslaughter-offences">Victoria earlier this year</a>. Elsewhere employers found culpable for worker deaths face only fines. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-and-why-do-construction-plant-related-fatalities-occur-10949">How and why do construction plant-related fatalities occur?</a>
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<h2>Would higher penalties prevent deaths?</h2>
<p>Under existing West Australian laws, body corporates can be fined up to A$3.5 million for negligence causing a worker’s death. Between 1999 and 2019, though, the highest fine imposed was A$160,000, on trucking company Axedale Holdings in 2018 over the <a href="https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/axedale-holdings-cops-160000-fine-for-workers-deaths-ng-b88839662z">deaths of two construction workers</a>, Joseph McDermott, 24, and Gerard Bradley, 27, who were crushed by concrete panels being unloaded from a trailer in November 2015. </p>
<p>Whether higher penalties create safer work places is a matter of debate. </p>
<p>Unions and others have campaigned for criminal penalties, believing the prospect of a prison sentence for employers might serve as an incentive to improve safety.</p>
<p>But international research shows the success rate of corporate manslaughter prosecutions against corporations and individual officers has been poor, because attributing <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2348530">physical fault is difficult</a>.</p>
<h2>Lines of non-responsibility</h2>
<p>One of the problems on construction sites is the prevalence of sub-contractors and workers hired through labour-hire companies. This muddies clear lines of accountability. According to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/42622341_Australian_Health_and_Safety_Inspectors%27_Perceptions_and_Actions_in_Relation_to_Changed_Work_Arrangements">safety inspectors</a>, labour-hire firms, sub-contractors and even construction companies are often ignorant of their duty of care to employees. </p>
<p>Some building companies are notorious for employing unskilled, poorly trained foreign nationals on casual contracts. Workers in precarious employment fear to speak out about safety breaches. Steve McCartney, the West Australian state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, which represents maintenance workers on building sites, told me of cases of workers being sacked for speaking out about safety issues.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/killed-in-the-line-of-work-duties-we-need-to-fix-dangerous-loopholes-in-health-and-safety-laws-107355">Killed in the line of work duties: we need to fix dangerous loopholes in health and safety laws</a>
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<p>In these circumstances, responsibility for safety is often left to the individual worker, rather than the employer as <a href="https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/main_mrtitle_650_homepage.html">work safety laws mandate</a> </p>
<h2>Pushing out unions</h2>
<p>The casualisation of labour and emphasis on individual responsibility for safety is concurrent with the marginalisation of unions. Since July 2019, for example, <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2019L00377">changes to the federal Fair Work Act</a> pushed through by the Morrison government require union officials to <a href="https://www.fairwork.gov.au/how-we-will-help/templates-and-guides/fact-sheets/rights-and-obligations/right-of-entry">give 24 hours’ notice in writing</a> before entering a work site.</p>
<p>The federal government has argued such amendments are necessary to curb unlawful union behaviour, particularly by the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union. </p>
<p>Its war against the union has included a establishing a royal commission into the building industry in 2014, reinstating the Australian Building and Construction Commission in 2016 (first established by the Howard government in 2005), and several attempts to pass its Ensuring Integrity Bill, concentrated on reducing union power.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/louts-thugs-bullies-the-myth-thats-driving-morrisons-anti-union-push-123688">'Louts, thugs, bullies': the myth that's driving Morrison's anti-union push</a>
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<p>Whatever the merits of addressing “rogue unionists”, a wide-ranging body of research indicates work sites with an active union presence are safer than non-union sites. For example, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26335767/">a 2015 Canadian study</a> analysing data from more than 40,000 construction firms concluded unionised workers were “almost 30% less likely to suffer critical injuries”.</p>
<p>Workers must, of course, take responsibility for their own safety, but this can only be effective in an environment where reporting safety breaches is encouraged and rewarded. </p>
<p>Employees are empowered when they have a voice through safety committees and union representatives. Secure work and adequate training are also empowering. Too many workers have neither.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148335/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bobbie Oliver is affiliated with the Australian Labor Party. </span></em></p>Insecure jobs, insufficient training and the marginalisation of unions have contributed to a tragic record of construction fatalities.Bobbie Oliver, Honorary Research Fellow, Humanities, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1264272019-11-06T22:20:20Z2019-11-06T22:20:20ZThe end of dangerous working conditions starts with informed consumers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300353/original/file-20191105-88419-156urqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C4888%2C3246&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bangladeshi child labourers work at a balloon factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Consumers must demand products made under favourable working conditions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/A.M Ahad)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Halloween has just passed and your kids are probably still polishing off this year’s candy haul. As recently reported in the <em>Washington Post</em>, there’s a good chance that some of those chocolate <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/business/hershey-nestle-mars-chocolate-child-labor-west-africa/">treats were made using child labour</a>. Would knowing that change your mind about purchasing that product?</p>
<p>What about reports of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/bangladesh-factory-lululemon-1.5321405">beatings and abuse</a> of Bangladeshi textile workers sewing clothes destined for our closets? Should companies that produce goods responsibly be identified? How can consumers make the right choices?</p>
<p>Work causes more than <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/safety-and-health-at-work/lang--en/index.htm.">2.1 million deaths globally every year</a>, whether it’s due to the child labour used in the production of cacao or electronics, or <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/09/25/labour-ministry-investigating-fatal-industrial-accident-at-fiera-foods.html">contract food preparation workers dying on the job in Canada</a>. The costs of work-related injuries account for about <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/safety-and-health-at-work/lang--en/index.htm.">four per cent of the total world GDP</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300357/original/file-20191105-88414-pwgrgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300357/original/file-20191105-88414-pwgrgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300357/original/file-20191105-88414-pwgrgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300357/original/file-20191105-88414-pwgrgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300357/original/file-20191105-88414-pwgrgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300357/original/file-20191105-88414-pwgrgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300357/original/file-20191105-88414-pwgrgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Children living in a cocoa-producing village walk back from the fields on the outskirts of the town of Oume, Ivory Coast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP/Photo Schalk van Zuydam, File)</span></span>
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<p>In fact, studies have shown that the costs of workplace injuries are on par with those of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0009.2011.00648.x">all cancers combined</a>. A survey of more than 5,000 workers in Québec has found that <a href="https://www.inspq.qc.ca/pdf/publications/1356_EnqQuebCondTravailEmpSanteSecTravail_VA.pdf">one in five are suffering</a> from work-related musculoskeletal pain, particularly shoulder and back pain, with women being affected in greater numbers than men. </p>
<p>Workplace injuries also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20324">erode companies’ profits</a>. And this doesn’t begin to address the cost of mental health issues associated with work. Working environments should not cause pain and injury in employees — it’s bad for business.</p>
<h2>Consumers also to blame</h2>
<p>Bad work environments, and their associated burnout, injury, pain and fatalities, plague workplaces around the world. While it’s tempting to blame companies for egregious working situations, consumers should also look in the mirror.</p>
<p>Companies will provide you with goods according to your demands. If you don’t demand products made under good working conditions, then the all-too-common status quo — dangerous, dirty and demeaning conditions — is what you are supporting with your purchases.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2014.917203">Our research</a> has shown that consumers, when asked, would prefer goods made in favourable working environments. When we interviewed millennials, they expressed a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2016.1193634">willingness to pay 17.5 per cent more</a> on a $100 product for goods made under healthy conditions than those that are not. The main barrier noted in this research is access to trustworthy information about the working environments in production.</p>
<p>When we examined how 100 companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange are currently reporting on their working environments, we find almost <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.081">900 different indicators</a> reported, with almost no organizations using the same indicators in their reports. This makes it virtually impossible for a responsible consumer, or a company seeking a responsible supplier, to compare practices and make informed choices. A standard for reporting is needed.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/governments-know-work-and-living-conditions-can-kill-us-its-time-to-act-96518">Governments know work and living conditions can kill us -- it's time to act</a>
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<p>Recently the Canadian Standards Association has begun to lay the groundwork needed <a href="https://www.csagroup.org/article/exploring-the-need-for-a-work-environment-reporting-standard/">to create a standard providing advice and guidance</a> to help companies report on their working environments in a consistent and comparable manner. </p>
<p>When you consider the complexity of characterizing all of the physical, mental, environmental and social dimensions of a workplace, it’s clear that creating a consistent reporting approach remains a challenge. Further work is needed.</p>
<h2>Demonizing not enough</h2>
<p>Demonizing companies with poor working conditions and operational practices is not enough. We also need to support companies with good track records and work to foster favourable environments in our own workplaces. For companies trying to communicate the quality of their workplaces, <a href="https://www.csagroup.org/article/exploring-the-need-for-a-work-environment-reporting-standard/">there is a need for clear guidance</a> of what and how to report. </p>
<p>Without good reporting, consumers won’t trust companies, and the potential for consumers to become socially responsible disappears. Furthermore, a reporting standard would give companies with stellar workplaces a credible means to demonstrate their leadership to clients and customers.</p>
<p>There is a growing awareness that we, as consumers, can influence broad issues like climate change just by making smarter choices about where we spend our money. This is equally true for the working conditions of the people who produce our food and manufacture our products. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300355/original/file-20191105-88372-8mqkek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300355/original/file-20191105-88372-8mqkek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300355/original/file-20191105-88372-8mqkek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300355/original/file-20191105-88372-8mqkek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300355/original/file-20191105-88372-8mqkek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300355/original/file-20191105-88372-8mqkek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300355/original/file-20191105-88372-8mqkek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this 2014 photo, a Honduran boy assembles an ice cream cart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Esteban Felix)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But we have not yet reached the tipping point of public opinion — and employees around the world are still literally <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/books/dying-paycheck">dying for a paycheque</a>.</p>
<p>Work shouldn’t hurt. The food we eat and the products we use should not be made in pain or contribute to human misery. While companies hold some blame, so do consumers who wilfully avoid dealing with the consequences of their purchasing decisions. </p>
<p>Access to reliable information on working conditions needs standardized reporting, and Canada is well-positioned to show leadership on this issue.</p>
<p>Without clear reporting, how are we to know about the conditions our food and goods are made in? Let’s make sure the chocolate we buy leaves no bitter aftertaste.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Neumann receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Funding for part of the research discussed in this article was provided by the Canadian Standards Association (operating as CSA Group).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cory Searcy receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Funding for part of the research discussed in this article was provided by the Canadian Standards Association (operating as CSA Group). </span></em></p>The food we eat and the products we use should not contribute to human misery. While companies hold some blame, so do consumers who avoid dealing with the consequences of their purchasing decisions.Patrick Neumann, Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityCory Searcy, Professor & Interim Vice-Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1163782019-05-07T11:08:27Z2019-05-07T11:08:27ZFarmers have Britain’s most lethal job – here’s how to make them safer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272895/original/file-20190506-103063-g482dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cows are the most common cause of death.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Jones Jr / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Britain’s farmers are almost 18 times more likely to be killed on the job than the average industrial worker, and the fatality rate is increasing. Look through the government’s summary of the <a href="http://www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture/pdf/agriculture-fatal-injuries-1718-summary.pdf">33 fatal farm, forestry and fishing accidents</a> in 2017/18 and there were a number of types of fatalities such as falls, crushes, electrocutions and equipment malfunctions. Most people (but not farmers) might be surprised to learn that work with cows is particularly dangerous – “crushed by a bull” was the single most common cause of death.</p>
<p>So what can be done? There’s no doubt that farming is a hard and relentless occupation and workers endure long hours and heavy workloads. For many farmers, it is more a way of life than a hobby or a job, and farms are often passed down from generation to generation, with families following the customs and traditions of their ancestors. </p>
<p>With increasing financial pressures, weather considerations and hard workloads, farmers are often forced to work long hours and cut corners in relation to safety. A number of jobs are required to be carried out on the farm and it has long been tradition among farmers to be a “Jack of all trades” instead of wasting money on specialist tradesmen or contractors. As such, it has become part of the culture of farming to <a href="http://www.historyofosh.org.uk/resources/HMAI50.pdf">turn your hand to anything</a>, which begs the question of whether farmers actually realise farming is unsafe.</p>
<p>This traditional mindset, combined with ever-increasing fatalities from farming incidents, demonstrate an urgent need for change. The sector does not appear to be learning from mistakes made.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273041/original/file-20190507-103085-18o699a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273041/original/file-20190507-103085-18o699a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273041/original/file-20190507-103085-18o699a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273041/original/file-20190507-103085-18o699a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273041/original/file-20190507-103085-18o699a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273041/original/file-20190507-103085-18o699a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273041/original/file-20190507-103085-18o699a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tractors were involved in three deaths in 2017/18.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fotokostic / shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>If farmers themselves won’t take the lead then the government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which regulates safety at work, must change its approach to the industry. Things aren’t simple enough to be solved by top-down action alone, however, and change will also require a more collegiate approach across the sector. Either way, cultural change will be hard and will take time.</p>
<p>Farming is one of the most dangerous industries, yet was a latecomer compared to other industries in terms of regulation. Although regulation and enforcement has increased over time, accidents and fatalities continue to rise and the same types of incidents reoccur time after time, demonstrating a <a href="http://www.nuffieldinternational.org/live/Report/UK/2016/james-chapman-mbe">failure in the system</a>. </p>
<p>While we understand that agricultural incidents can happen and will continue to happen, there is no legal requirement for farm workers to undertake any form of health and safety course or training. Regulations are in place, but they will only work if farmers understand them and take their time to put measures in place to prevent or at least reduce such horrific incidents.</p>
<p>People have been highlighting these issues for a long time. Back in the 1960s, a government researcher named GS Wilson compiled a report on <a href="http://oem.bmj.com/content/23/1/1">farm safety</a> and concluded that, “although men have readily adapted themselves to new machines and methods, they have not proved as able to recognise new dangers and learn how to guard against them”.</p>
<p>The types of agricultural accidents Wilson looked at are still the main causes of injury and death today. It seems there has been little progress over the past five decades, and lessons are not being learned. </p>
<p>The HSE does provide a number of leaflets and booklets to help agricultural workers understand their obligations to comply with the law and work safely. The problem is ensuring that all those who are working on farms, whether that be employed, self-employed or the employer, have engaged with such advice.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/764286/farm-inspection-regulatio-review-final-report-2018.pdf">HSE</a> and the <a href="https://www.nfuonline.com/cross-sector/farm-business/farm-safety/farm-safety-news/is-the-way-we-view-health-and-safety-in-farming-changing/">National Farmers Union</a> are both trying to raise awareness of safety issues, and run various education campaigns. These initiatives are important as there is no legal requirement for farmers to attend any health and safety courses.</p>
<p>Farmers do require certification for insurance purposes and for compliance with hazardous substances. Perhaps implementing similar certification for farm safety would be a good step forward.</p>
<p>At the turn of the century, it was the construction industry that had more fatalities per worker than any other sector. It then implemented a continued professional development programme, which ensures that workers undertake training at set intervals to enable them to carry on working on sites. If it worked for construction, then surely it could also work in the sector that has now adopted the “most fatal” mantel – farming.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sallyann Mellor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The industry relies on traditional family knowledge so it has been resistant to a culture of health and safety.Sallyann Mellor, Senior Lecturer in Law, Staffordshire UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1073552019-02-11T19:14:49Z2019-02-11T19:14:49ZKilled in the line of work duties: we need to fix dangerous loopholes in health and safety laws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256234/original/file-20190130-108364-1236fd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why welding in a confined space is so dangerous: argon gas, used commonly in welding, is 38% denser than air. It can displace oxygen close to the ground. Being undetectable, this can lead to loss of consciousness and asphyxiation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dillon Wu died alone inside a metal tank. It is believed he was asphyxiated by argon gas, used in arc-welding steel.</p>
<p>He is the youngest employee to die in a recent run of deaths in confined spaces.
Aged just 20, he was in the second week of his apprenticeship. He should not have been alone or unsupervised, particularly in a confined space. </p>
<p>All such deaths raise questions about workplace safety. But Wu’s death, at a factory in Melbourne’s western suburbs on October 4 last year, also raises particular questions about responsibility in workplaces where traditional definitions of employment and employer obligations have been unwound.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dying-for-work-the-changing-face-of-work-related-injuries-40328">Dying for work: the changing face of work-related injuries</a>
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<p>Wu’s apprenticeship was with Australian Industry Group (Ai Group or AiG) but he died at the Melbourne factory of “host employer” Marshall Lethlean Industries. </p>
<p>Both federal and state workplace health and safety laws say responsibility for a worker’s death lies with an employer. Four months on from Wu’s death no one has accepted that responsibility. </p>
<h2>Prior safety concerns</h2>
<p>The Australian Industry Group (AiG) is an employer organisation representing more than 60,000 businesses employing more than a million workers. It runs a major training and apprenticeship scheme (called the AiGTS) for its member organisations. It recruits, trains and pays apprentices, who learn their trades working at “host” companies. </p>
<p>One of those is Marshall Lethlean Industries, which builds and repairs road tankers to transport milk, oil, gases and the like. </p>
<p>AiG says the health and safety of apprentices and trainees “is <a href="https://www.aigroupapprentices.com.au/apprentices/safety-info-and-policies">our highest priority</a> at all times”. But Wu’s death raises questions about the effectiveness of this commitment in practice. </p>
<p>Even before he died, AiG had reason to be concerned about safety at the Marshall Lethlean factory. The ABC Investigations unit obtained a copy of a safety audit conducted by AiG at the factory about a month before Wu began working there. That audit identified 11 high-priority safety hazards, including the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-14/ai-group-apprentice-dillon-wu-dies-in-unsafe-worksite/10429356">lack of procedures for staff working in confined spaces</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256241/original/file-20190130-108355-1m0tfud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256241/original/file-20190130-108355-1m0tfud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256241/original/file-20190130-108355-1m0tfud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256241/original/file-20190130-108355-1m0tfud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256241/original/file-20190130-108355-1m0tfud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256241/original/file-20190130-108355-1m0tfud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256241/original/file-20190130-108355-1m0tfud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The type of tank Dillon Wu was left alone in to weld at Marshall Lethlean.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.amwu.org.au/vic">AMWU</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>AiG’s chief executive, Innes Willox, has downplayed any organisational culpability in sending Wu to work at a site with known dangers. The safety hazards identified by the audit, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-15/worksafe-inspector-visited-factory-minutes-before-dillon-wu-died/10472368">he said</a>, would be common in most workplaces: “All our indications were and continue to be that it was a safe place of work, but what occurred was a terrible tragedy, the details of which we don’t know.”</p>
<p>Wu’s death is being investigated by Worksafe Victoria. The agency is not well resourced and its investigations are routinely very slow. So its report could take months or even years. </p>
<p>Until then, it is unlikely either AiG or Marshall Lethlean will take responsibility. AiG, despite being Wu’s direct employer, has so far said it cannot be responsible for answering any questions. AiG had “very limited information relating to the circumstances of Dillon’s passing,” it <a href="https://safetyatworkblog.com/2018/11/14/ai-group-responds-to-media-report-on-apprentices-death/">said in a statement</a>. “We have sought this information from Marshall Lethlean Industries, however it has not been forthcoming.” </p>
<p>Marshall Lethlean, meanwhile, has made no public statements.</p>
<h2>Agreement, but only in principle</h2>
<p>The issue of workplace deaths was investigated by a recent <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/IndustrialdeathsinAus">Senate committee inquiry</a>, which issued its <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/IndustrialdeathsinAus/Report">report</a> less than two weeks after Dillon’s death.</p>
<p>One problem the report highlights is the need for more clarity and consistency in work health and safety laws. </p>
<p>Workplace health and safety regulation in Australia is a hotch-potch. Constitutionally the power to make such laws rests with the states and territories. Each has developed its own standards. </p>
<p>Governments, state regulatory agencies, employer organisations and unions all agree, at least in principle, on the need for greater consistency – a process known as harmonisation. In practice, however, there is disagreement on what the benchmark standards should be. </p>
<p>An example is what penalties should be imposed on negligent employers.</p>
<p>Queensland has the most severe penalties as a result of its “industrial manslaughter” law. The new law was passed in 2017, following some grievous workplace deaths. It makes employing organisations and individual senior officers of those organisations liable for workplace deaths through omission or fault. Penalties include fines up to A$10 million or even prison. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-industrial-manslaughter-laws-are-unlikely-to-save-lives-in-the-workplace-97459">Why industrial manslaughter laws are unlikely to save lives in the workplace</a>
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<p>In most states, employer failure is dealt with under criminal legislation where penalties are lower (maximum A$3 million) and legal processes less onerous for employers </p>
<p>The Senate committee inquiry has recommended the Queensland legislation become the national benchmark. Employer groups including the AiG strongly opposed this. So too did the four Coalition members of the Senate inquiry. In a dissenting report <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/IndustrialdeathsinAus/Report/section?id=committees%2freportsen%2f024170%2f26691">they expressed concern</a> that such laws “would expose employers and managers to the risk of lengthy prison terms even where they are unjustly accused of being responsible for incidents in the workplace”. </p>
<h2>Who is responsible must be clear</h2>
<p>But what penalties should apply is moot if laws provide no clarity on who can be held accountable as the employer. </p>
<p>There is a pressing need to define employer responsibility when there is a “triangulated” employment relationship – such as between a worker, labour hire organisation and a host employer. </p>
<p>There have been cases in Australia where the labour hire company <a href="https://www1.hays.com.au/HaysOnline/Help/Labour_hire-Duties_of_PCBU.pdf">has been deemed the employer</a>. But in other cases the host organisation <a href="https://www1.hays.com.au/HaysOnline/Help/Labour_hire-Duties_of_PCBU.pdf">has been deemed the employer</a>. </p>
<p>This is an area where unions have rightly been calling for greater clarity and specificity.</p>
<p>Current legislation appears to give both shared and non-delegable responsibility. But the lack of clarity about who is responsible for what has created the very real danger that either will leave it to the other to take full responsibility in ensuring workers are kept safe. </p>
<p>We don’t need the conclusions of the Worksafe Victoria investigation into Dillon Wu’s death to tell us that. </p>
<p>The grief of his family, left without answers or acknowledgement of an employer’s responsibility, makes that point clear enough.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107355/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diana Kelly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The death of apprentice Dillon Wu at a Melbourne factory raises questions about employer responsibility when a traditional employment relationship doesn’t exist.Diana Kelly, Associate Professor, School of History and Politics, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/951862018-04-23T22:33:18Z2018-04-23T22:33:18ZThe National Day of Mourning is a reminder workplaces should be safe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215941/original/file-20180423-133859-4v87wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The railway at the centre of the 2013 Lac-Megantic explosion, Montreal Maine and Atlantic, was recently ordered to pay fines totalling $1.25 million after being convicted of violating the Fisheries Act due to crude oil leaking into nearby bodies of water. Employers and companies are increasingly being held responsible for workplace accidents.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever had a loved one killed or maimed on the job? What about a co-worker or someone you knew? It happened to me in the mid-1970s, when one of my bosses at a smelter where I worked in northern Ontario was killed on the job. Six months from retirement and a careless mistake cost him his life. </p>
<p>This April 28th — National Day of Mourning — it’s worth remembering that every day in Canada and other countries, thousands of employees go to work expecting to return home safely to their families. But the reality is that too many workers will never return to their loved ones, and multiple others’ lives will be changed forever, maimed by inexplicable unsafe workplace incidents that, for the most part, could have been prevented. </p>
<p>Consider these incidents. </p>
<p>In 1992, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/westray-remembered-explosion-killed-26-n-s-coal-miners-in-1992-1.1240122">26 miners were killed at Westray Mines</a>, a coal mine in Plymouth, N.S. . No one was charged despite known infractions by the owners. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215832/original/file-20180423-119528-1u3j7hv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215832/original/file-20180423-119528-1u3j7hv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215832/original/file-20180423-119528-1u3j7hv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215832/original/file-20180423-119528-1u3j7hv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215832/original/file-20180423-119528-1u3j7hv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=638&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215832/original/file-20180423-119528-1u3j7hv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=638&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215832/original/file-20180423-119528-1u3j7hv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=638&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Relatives of trapped miners console each other in Plymouth, N.S., in May 1992. Twenty-six miners died in the Westray coal mine after an explosion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO/Ryan Remiorz)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But public outcry and petitions <a href="http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1288&context=scholarly_works">brought about changes to Canada’s Criminal Code</a> in 2004. Employers and others could finally be sent to jail for negligence causing serious injury or death in the workplace. </p>
<p><a href="https://kgss.ca/2014/06/05/on-march-31-2014-bill-c-45-celebrated-its-10th-anniversary/">Canada has among the toughest workplace laws</a> in the Western world, and over the past several years, negligent managers and supervisors <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2016/01/11/construction-manager-gets-prison-in-scaffold-deaths.html">have been receiving jail sentences</a> or fined heavily.</p>
<p>Recently, the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team’s bus <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/rcmp-humboldt-broncos-crash-update-press-conference-1.4625017">collided with a semi-trailer in Saskatchewan</a>, where 16 members of the team, mostly teenagers, as well as the bus driver, were killed. While it was a devastating and tragic traffic accident, it was also a workplace incident as both the bus and truck driver were on the job.</p>
<p>In 1979, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/once-upon-a-city-archives/2017/11/16/1979-train-derailment-became-known-as-the-mississauga-miracle.html">a train derailment in Mississauga, Ont.,</a> caused an entire city to be evacuated for a week. No one was hurt, but workers were exposed to unknown dangerous chemicals that were being hauled. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216015/original/file-20180423-94132-1kv049e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216015/original/file-20180423-94132-1kv049e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216015/original/file-20180423-94132-1kv049e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216015/original/file-20180423-94132-1kv049e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216015/original/file-20180423-94132-1kv049e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216015/original/file-20180423-94132-1kv049e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216015/original/file-20180423-94132-1kv049e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The scene in Mississauga, Ont., on the night of a major train derailment in 1979.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Deborah McPhee</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Public safety was front and centre. This incident brought about increased emergency procedures, detailed chemical cleanup and improved safety of rail cars. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the major train derailment at <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/01/19/lac-megantic-disaster-trial-jury-to-deliberate-for-ninth-consecutive-day.html">Lac-Mégantic, Que., that resulted in 47 deaths</a> and decimated half the downtown some 34 years later show there’s still <a href="https://www.mississauga.com/news-story/7051732--culture-of-secrecy-surrounds-transportation-of-hazardous-materials/">so much more work to do on workplace safety.</a></p>
<h2>Daily occurrences</h2>
<p>Other workplace incidents may not be at the top of the newscasts. </p>
<p>The fisherman who slips and hits his head working on a trawler who faces a lifetime of disability. The manufacturing employee working on a machine without proper guards whose limb gets caught and is now facing life with only one arm. The young temp worker <a href="https://www.thespec.com/news-story/8381418-this-temp-worker-was-being-strangled-by-a-machine-her-co-worker-didn-t-know-how-to-help/">whose hijab gets caught in a machine</a> and strangles her to death. Unfortunately, many of these sorts of incidents are daily occurrences somewhere in the world. </p>
<p>A number of them have had a major impact on how the public views employers, employees and the legislative responsibility to keep employees safe at work. </p>
<p>Health and safety is everybody’s responsibility, and it’s this mantra that forms <a href="https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/legisl/irs.html">the Internal Responsibility System (IRS)</a>. IRS means that everyone in the workplace has a role to play in keeping workplaces safe and healthy. </p>
<p>Not only has Canada led the way on the legislative front, we commemorate the workers who have faced death on the job or life-altering events because of workplace incidents. April 28 is known as the Day of Mourning.</p>
<p>In 1984, labour unions in Sudbury, Ont., known as the Nickel Capital of the World, <a href="http://threadsoflife.ca/get-involved/national-day-of-mourning-april-28th/">adopted this day to publicly acknowledge workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths.</a></p>
<h2>Flags at half-mast</h2>
<p>On April 28, 1991, Canada as a nation officially marked its first National Day of Mourning for persons killed or injured in the workplace. Flags now fly at half-mast and ceremonies are held in recognition of senseless workplace deaths, illnesses that go undetected for years and injuries that change the lives of individuals and their families forever.</p>
<p>Since 1991, 100 other countries have also adopted the observance known widely as Workers’ Memorial Day and as International Workers’ Memorial Day by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215833/original/file-20180423-75126-167ki22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215833/original/file-20180423-75126-167ki22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215833/original/file-20180423-75126-167ki22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215833/original/file-20180423-75126-167ki22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215833/original/file-20180423-75126-167ki22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215833/original/file-20180423-75126-167ki22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215833/original/file-20180423-75126-167ki22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this April 28, 2016 photo, construction workers listen on International Workers Memorial Day as the names of the 16 victims of construction accidents in New York City over the previous year are read during a memorial mass in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Have we done enough? Clearly we have not. </p>
<p>The Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada (AWCBC) <a href="http://awcbc.org/?page_id=14">most recent statistics</a>, for the year 2016, recorded 905 workplace deaths. Among those dead were six young workers aged 15 to 19 and another 20 workers aged 20 to 24. </p>
<p>Add to these fatalities the 241,508 claims accepted for lost time due to a work-related injury or disease, including 29,588 from workers aged 15 to 24 — and the fact that these statistics only include what’s reported to and accepted by compensation boards — and it’s safe to say that the total number of workers impacted is even higher. </p>
<p>What these numbers don’t show is just how many people are directly affected by workplace tragedies. </p>
<p>Each worker death has a profound impact on the loved ones, families, friends and co-workers they leave behind, changing all of their lives forever.</p>
<p>So on April 28 when you go to work or drive down the street and see the flags at half-mast, take a moment to remember those who have lost their lives on the job. </p>
<p>Health and safety is everybody’s responsibility and we still have a very long road ahead of us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95186/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deborah McPhee is affiliated with Minerva Canada, where she sits as a Board Member. The goal of Minerva Canada is for all business schools and engineering schools to teach health and safety at the post secondary level. </span></em></p>Every day people around the world go to work expecting to return home safely to their families. But the reality is that many never return due to workplace accidents that could have been prevented.Deborah McPhee, Associate Professor, Human Resources Management and Occupational Health and Safety at The Goodman School of Business, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/628472016-08-16T15:45:30Z2016-08-16T15:45:30ZHow work can lead to suicide in a globalised economy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131475/original/image-20160721-32600-1vxs8fg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The pressure is often too much.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Paris prosecutor <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/07/former-france-telecom-should-stand-trial-for-harassment-of-worke/">recently called for</a> the former CEO and six senior managers of telecoms provider, France Télécom, to face criminal charges for workplace harassment. The recommendation followed a lengthy inquiry into the suicides of a number of employees at the company between 2005 and 2009. The prosecutor accused management of deliberately “destabilising” employees and creating a “stressful professional climate” through a company-wide strategy of “harcèlement moral” – psychological bullying. </p>
<p>All deny any wrongdoing and it is now up to a judge to decide whether to follow the prosecutor’s advice or dismiss the case. If it goes ahead, it would be a landmark criminal trial, with implications far beyond just one company. </p>
<p>Workplace suicides are sharply on the rise internationally, with increasing numbers of employees choosing to take their own lives in the face of extreme pressures at work. <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/03/workplace-suicides-are-on-the-rise/387916/">Recent studies</a> in the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, India and Taiwan all point to a steep rise in suicides in the context of a generalised deterioration in working conditions.</p>
<p>Rising suicides are part of the profound transformations in the workplace that have taken place over the past 30 years. These transformations are arguably rooted in the political and economic shift to <a href="https://theconversation.com/britain-fails-to-understand-the-nature-of-globalisation-at-its-peril-61392">globalisation</a> that has radically altered the way we work. </p>
<p>In the post-war <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fordism">Fordist era of industry</a> (pioneered by US car manufacturer Henry Ford), jobs generally provided stability and a clear career trajectory for many, allowing people to define their collective identity and their place in the world. Strong trade unions in major industrial sectors meant that employees could negotiate their working rights and conditions. </p>
<p>But today’s globalised workplace is characterised by job insecurity, intense work, forced redeployments, flexible contracts, worker surveillance, <a href="https://theconversation.com/zero-hour-contracts-the-dark-side-of-flexible-labour-markets-16500">and limited social protection and representation</a>. Zero-hour contracts are the new norm for many in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/zero-hours-and-temp-jobs-are-no-help-to-hardworking-people-42453">hospitality and healthcare industries</a>, for example. </p>
<p>Now, it is not enough simply to work hard. In the words of Marxist theorist Franco Berardi, <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/soul-work">“the soul is put to work”</a> and workers must devote their whole selves to the needs of the company. </p>
<p>For the economist Guy Standing, the <a href="http://www.guystanding.com/research/current-projects">precariat</a> is the new social class of the 21st century, characterised by the lack of job security and even basic stability. Workers move in and out of jobs which give little meaning to their lives. This shift has had deleterious effects on many people’s experience of work, with rising cases of acute stress, anxiety, sleep disorders, burnout, hopelessness <a href="http://www.guystanding.com/files/documents/The_Precariat_final_summary_GCPH_Nov_11.pdf">and, in some cases, suicide</a>.</p>
<h2>Holding companies to account</h2>
<p>Yet, company bosses are rarely held to account for inflicting such misery on their employees. The suicides at France Télécom preceded another well-publicised case in a large multinational company – Foxconn Technology Group in China – where 18 young migrant workers aged between 17 and 25 attempted suicide at one of Foxconn’s main factories in 2010 (14 of whom <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/05/woman-nearly-died-making-ipad">died</a>). </p>
<p>The victims all worked on the assembly line making electronic gadgets for some of the world’s richest corporations, including Samsung, Sony and Dell. But it was Apple that received the most criticism, as Foxconn was its main supplier at the time. </p>
<p>Labour rights activists <a href="http://saq.dukejournals.org/content/112/1/172.abstract">argue</a> that corporations such as Apple and their contracted suppliers should be jointly responsible for creating the working conditions and management pressure that might have triggered workplace suicides. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ntwe.12007/full">Extensive interviews</a> with one of the Foxconn survivors, a woman called Tian Yu who was 17-years-old when she attempted suicide, detailed a harsh production regime. She said she had to work 12-hour shifts, skipped meals to work overtime and often only had one day off every second week.</p>
<p>Apple published a set of standards for how workers should be treated in the aftermath, but its suppliers continued to be dogged by accusations that these were breached. In December 2014, for example, the BBC ran a documentary called <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vs348">“Apple’s Broken Promises”</a> which showed how the company had failed to improve working conditions four years after the crisis. Undercover filming showed exhausted workers falling asleep on 12-hour shifts and workers being yelled at repeatedly by managers at new supplier, Pegatron Shanghai, where the latest iPhones are assembled. </p>
<p>Pegatron said in response to the BBC investigation that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30532463">it would investigate the reports</a> and take necessary action if any deficiencies were found in their factories. Apple maintains that it does do all it can to monitor its supplier’s practices with its annual <a href="http://www.apple.com/uk/supplier-responsibility/">supplier responsibility reports</a>. Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/report/109">labour rights activists</a> and <a href="http://sacom.hk/campaign/apple/">researchers</a> continue to allege abuse of workers in the company’s supply chains. </p>
<p>Writing at the end of the 19th century, French sociologist Emile Durkheim <a href="http://durkheim.uchicago.edu/Summaries/suicide.html">suggested</a> that suicide was a kind of mirror to society that revealed the fundamental nature of the social order at a given historical juncture. France Télécom and Foxconn are at different ends of the globalisation spectrum – one employs white-collar workers in high-tech service occupations and the other recruits young rural migrants to work on the assembly line. Yet suicides in these two places reveal the common face of a global economic order that too often allows profit to take precedence over all else. </p>
<p>Meanwhile it continues to be business as usual for many of the richest multinational corporations in the world. But it’s high time that all corporations across the spectrum took responsibility for their own abuses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62847/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Waters receives funding from Wellcome Trust. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Chan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rising suicides form part of the profound transformations in the workplace that have taken place over the past 30 years.Sarah Waters, Senior Lecturer in French Studies, University of LeedsJenny Chan, Departmental Lecturer in Sociology and China Studies, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/335532014-10-29T14:27:36Z2014-10-29T14:27:36ZHard Evidence: are work-related deaths in decline?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63178/original/4s4rxf9w-1414582020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Occupational hazards.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dmitry Kalinovsky via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the regulatory agency with primary responsibility for enforcing health and safety law across British workplaces, has released its latest annual statistics. According to their break down of the <a href="http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/index.htm?ebul=postats14">key figures</a>: “The statistics show that, in 2013-14, there were 133 fatal injuries – a fall from 150 the previous year.”</p>
<p>On the face of it, a decline in the numbers of people who go to work never to return is good news. But, whether or not there actually is a year-on-year fall, the figure of 133 “deaths at work” is one category that obscures the tens of thousands of fatalities caused by working for a living. </p>
<p>Even in terms of deaths resulting from injuries at work, anyone who determinedly trawls the HSE site may chance upon a much fuller document: <a href="http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/pdf/fatalinjuries.pdf">Statistics on fatal injuries in the workplace in Great Britain 2014</a>. Here it is reported that: “There were 264 members of the public fatally injured in accidents connected to work in 2013-14. Of these deaths, 194 (73%) related to incidents occurring on railways.”</p>
<p>Let us be clear about what is happening here. We have a press release that contains the headline figure of 133 deaths. Then, it is possible to find a further 264 fatal injuries recorded by HSE but which do not make it into its own press release.</p>
<p>As the HSE acknowledges, there are significant categories of deaths – at sea, or associated with the airline industry, for example – which are occupational but recorded by other agencies. But by far the biggest omission are the deaths of those who die while driving as a normal part of their work: another 800 to 1,000 deaths a year. This includes those who deliver “meals on wheels”, district nurses, postal workers and lorry drivers, but because such deaths are recorded as “road traffic” rather than occupational fatalities, they don’t make the figure recorded in the annual statistics.</p>
<p>Then there are the numerous deaths that result from working conditions and diseases contracted as a result of work. If we follow the link from HSE’s press release to their <a href="http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overall/hssh1314.pdf">Health and Safety Statistics 2013-14</a>, it reveals: “Around 13,000 deaths each year from occupational lung disease and cancer are estimated to have been caused by past exposure, primarily to chemicals and dust at work.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63174/original/d9mwycz4-1414580987.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63174/original/d9mwycz4-1414580987.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63174/original/d9mwycz4-1414580987.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63174/original/d9mwycz4-1414580987.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63174/original/d9mwycz4-1414580987.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63174/original/d9mwycz4-1414580987.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63174/original/d9mwycz4-1414580987.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63174/original/d9mwycz4-1414580987.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The thousands of deaths from work-related diseases.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overall/hssh1314.pdf">HSE</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This immediately makes the press released figure look rather like an under-estimation of the scale of death as a result of working in contemporary Britain. The end result of this trawl through official, albeit buried, data takes us from 133 deaths to almost 13,400 deaths in 2013-14.</p>
<h2>Underestimating fatal illness</h2>
<p>Still, these additions do not capture the full scale of the problem of work-related deaths. Indeed, the HSE’s data on fatal occupational illness is a gross underestimation when compared with data from other sources.</p>
<p>For example, researchers from the <a href="https://osha.europa.eu/en/press/articles/global-trend-according-to-estimated-number-of-occupational-accidents-and-fatal-work-related-diseases-at-region-and-country-level">European Agency for Safety and Health at Work</a> calculated, in 2009, 21,000 deaths per year in the UK from work-related fatal diseases, while accepting both that such data “might still be an under-estimation” and that deaths from work-related diseases are “increasing”.</p>
<p><a href="http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/18085056/reload=0;jsessionid=w5Br2IiYp2NkaKsv83gJ.50">Another UK study</a> estimated up to 40,000 annual deaths in Britain were caused by work-related cancers alone. And long-term research by the <a href="http://www.wolvestuc.org.uk/index.php/health-a-safety5/8-workers-memorial-day/276-wmday?showall=&start=2">Hazards movement</a>, drawing on a range of studies of occupational and environmental cancers, the number of heart-disease deaths with a work-related cause, as well as estimates of other diseases to which work can be a contributory cause, showed a lower-end estimate of 50,000 deaths from work-related illness in the UK each year. </p>
<p>This is around four times the HSE estimate and ranks highly in comparison with virtually all other recorded causes of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/oct/28/mortality-statistics-causes-death-england-wales-2010">premature death</a> in the UK.</p>
<p>Workplace deaths are not, of course, reducible to numbers. Every death creates ever-widening ripples of emotional, psychological and financial harm through <a href="http://www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/fack/about/index.htm">families, friends and communities</a>. But the harms experienced by those so bereaved are surely compounded when an agency of the state understates the scale of the issue. If we are to see a real reduction in the thousands of work-related deaths there are in the UK every year, it’s paramount that the HSE both presents these problems accurately and responds to them adequately.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/hard-evidence">Hard Evidence</a> is a series of articles in which academics use research evidence to tackle the trickiest public policy questions.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33553/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Tombs has long worked with the UK Hazards movement.</span></em></p>The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the regulatory agency with primary responsibility for enforcing health and safety law across British workplaces, has released its latest annual statistics. According…Steve Tombs, Professor of Criminology, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/247102014-04-23T20:06:11Z2014-04-23T20:06:11ZOne year on from Rana Plaza collapse, work still to be done<p>One year ago on the 24th of April 2013, the horrific Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh claimed at least 1,129 lives and galvanised industry and government into action. </p>
<p>Worldwide condemnation for lax safety standards saw the government pressured into undertaking proper structural assessments of all export-oriented garment factories, employing an additional 200 building inspectors, and moving to ensure occupational safety and health, freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.</p>
<p>But have these developments ensured any real progress with respect to building safety and work environment including worker security, health and compensation?</p>
<h2>A promising response</h2>
<p>The immediate response following the disaster from key garment buyers and retailers was mixed – some, like Disney, withdrew from Bangladesh, while others followed a more cautious approach with a primary objective of improving the factory conditions including infrastructure, fire safety and working conditions.</p>
<p>Pressure from these key buyers led the Bangladeshi government to <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323664204578607814136238372">amend existing labour laws</a> to allow the formation of trade unions without informing the factory owners, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of new unions in the garment sector, which have more than doubled since the Rana Plaza incident. </p>
<p>The government also decided to <a href="http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/02/04/17118">increase minimum wages in the industry by 77%</a> from US$38 a month to $68 a month. In addition, garment manufacturing factories in Bangladesh promised to invest US$1.3 billion <a href="http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/03/30/26049">to comply with fire and safety standards</a>.</p>
<p>But the promise of appointing 200 qualified building and safety inspectors has not been finalised yet, and unions are still not allowed in factories within export processing zones. While the government is trying to relocate factories to other parts of the country, the concentration of factories around the already overcrowded capital city, Dhaka, remains a concern.</p>
<p>Another lingering issue is the <a href="http://www.thedailystar.net/rana-plaza-survivors-left-in-desperate-straits-20864">failure to adequately compensate victims</a> of the Rana Plaza disaster. Unfortunately, making and breaking promises to compensate victims of fires, building collapses and other industrial accidents are not uncommon in Bangladesh. The Rana Plaza collapse is no exception. </p>
<p>Some compensation, however, has already been paid by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), charitable organisations and the government. To date, the British retailer Primark has paid US$9 million to the fund while the others paid a total of only $8 million. According to the International Labor Organisation, this leaves a shortfall of another US$23 million. </p>
<p>Some of the retailers did not even make any initial payments and remain unwilling to create any precedence of paying compensation in full. The Bangladesh prime minister’s relief fund collected public donations worth more than US$17 million to support and rehabilitate Rana plaza victims. Sadly, <a href="http://www.amadershomoys.com/content/2014/04/21/middle0631.htm">less than US$3 million</a> of this fund has been spent.</p>
<h2>What’s left?</h2>
<p>According to the BGMEA Director Sadek Ahmed, in Bangladesh, the post-disaster focus has shifted to building safety, workers’ security and workplace compliance to meet requirements set out by retailers in Europe and the US. </p>
<p>The two deals signed in the aftermath of the disaster – the “<a href="http://www.bangladeshworkersafety.org/">Alliance</a>” with mostly US companies and the “<a href="http://www.bangladeshaccord.org/">Accord</a>” with primarily EU firms – do not form part of a comprehensive, long-term solution to the problems of Bangladesh’s manufacturing industry. These two agreements together only cover approximately 2,300 factories, less than half of the total industry.</p>
<p>Facing rising production costs due to higher wages and the cost of compliance, major brands and retailers are reluctant to spend any extra money to pay the fair price for imported garments. In turn, this is putting undue <a href="http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/02/04/17118">pressure and stress</a> on local garment manufacturers.</p>
<p>Despite some progress made since the Rana Plaza incident, several issues still remain unresolved. These include the lack of full implementation of newly-legislated labour laws, the absence of a comprehensive and credible building safety inspection processes for all factories including the ones that haven’t yet signed up for the Accord or Alliance, and the inadequate arrangements to compensate victims of industrial accidents.</p>
<p>It’s also important for retailers to ensure ethical practices conforming to the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf">2011 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights</a> to protect peoples’ life and livelihood and respect their dignity. Accordingly, at the buyers’ end, the government, retailers and consumer groups should form a partnership to ensure the observance of these principles in factories located in source countries. </p>
<p>Currently, there is no direct involvement of governments of major retailing countries in making their own retailers and major brands adhere to ethically responsible global sourcing practices.</p>
<p>The global apparel market is worth <a href="http://www.fashionunited.com/global-fashion-industry-statistics-international-apparel">US$1.7 trillion</a>, and it’s <a href="http://www.anzbusiness.com/content/dam/anz-superregional/Textiles%26GarmentIndustryUpdate.pdf">growing quickly</a>. Now is the time to streamline home-country and source-country regulations with the establishment of a global governing council for the garment industry with a permanent secretariat. It could become a platform to formulate, update and implement a set of global norms on building standards, working conditions, labour rights and minimum wages relevant to the industry. With all stakeholders involved, this kind of coordinated action will mean disasters like Rana Plaza won’t happen again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24710/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharif As-Saber is affiliated with Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) as its Honorary International Advisor</span></em></p>One year ago on the 24th of April 2013, the horrific Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh claimed at least 1,129 lives and galvanised industry and government into action. Worldwide condemnation for lax safety…Sharif As-Saber, Associate Professor of International Business, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/109492013-01-09T03:41:54Z2013-01-09T03:41:54ZHow and why do construction plant-related fatalities occur?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18664/original/dzxt88fz-1355442352.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C15%2C1025%2C665&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are an average of 41 construction worker deaths per year, yet they are rarely reported in public.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/yewenyi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The construction industry is a major part of the Australian economy. Construction sites are everywhere. Some of them are recognisable from kilometres away due to their impressive tower cranes.</p>
<p>You may stop and watch these enormous beasts tamed by a human operator sitting in a small cabin. However, construction sites are not always safe and these beasts are not always tamed.</p>
<p>While you hear about fatal incidents in the news all the time - shootings, fatal car accidents, knife attacks, construction work-related deaths are more rarely reported.</p>
<p>Here’s one incident recorded in the National Coronial Information System <a href="http://www.ncis.org.au/">(NCIS)</a> involving a mini excavator. Surely, you have seen these machines. Pretty handy, they can do anything in small scale. If your house required a landscaping job, you would probably need one of these.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The operator was engaged in the removal of vegetation and the construction of a sand pad for building foundations using a mini excavator. At the time of the incident, he was undertaking final spreading, compacting and levelling of the sand pad. He switched off the engine with the bucket in the raised position, alighted from the cabin, stood in front of the bucket and began to undo the chains attaching a railway line to the bucket. In doing so he was working directly under the raised bucket. The bucket and boom fell, trapping him between the boom and body of the mini-excavator.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As simple as that, one life was lost and a family devastated.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18665/original/755t4hc4-1355442364.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18665/original/755t4hc4-1355442364.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18665/original/755t4hc4-1355442364.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18665/original/755t4hc4-1355442364.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18665/original/755t4hc4-1355442364.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18665/original/755t4hc4-1355442364.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18665/original/755t4hc4-1355442364.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Excavators/backhoes and trucks were the leading cause of construction site deaths.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/klearchos</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/pages/default">Safe Work Australia</a>, 123 construction workers died and 13,640 were seriously injured because of work related causes from 2008-9 to 2010-11. This is on average 41 deaths and 4,546 injuries per year. A considerable proportion of these deaths were related to mobile plants.</p>
<p>This was the main motivation for me and RMIT colleagues <a href="http://www.rmit.com.au/browse;ID=w1z2me7lscnm1">Prof Helen Lingard</a> and Tracy Cooke to investigate, 81 cases of plant related deaths in the Australian construction industry, using the NCIS.</p>
<p>The study found that in more than 50% of cases, the decedent was not the operator of the plant. Further, as expected, 79 out of 81 of them were male.</p>
<p>The number of cases peaked between 10.00 and 10.59 am, with nine cases (11.1%) occurring in this time frame. A further 13 cases (16.1%) occurred between three and five o’clock in the afternoon. These peaks coincide with the period immediately prior to the mid-morning break and end of the workday, suggesting that fatigue may be a causal issue.</p>
<p>Most of these people - 27 out of 81 - were run over by a construction plant while working on site. 23 of them were struck by a moving object and the rest were either in a plant overturning, electrocuted, fallen from plant, been crushed between mobile plant and another object, entangled or engulfed.</p>
<p>Although the immediate circumstances around the incidents are usually the focal points of investigations, these circumstances have underlying causes that if not properly addressed, the incidents would be inevitable. Causes such as site constraints (19 cases), inadequate supervision (18 cases), plant design (17 cases), safety culture (13 cases) and construction process design (13 cases).</p>
<p>We also found that the frequency of the incidents varied by the type of plant. The most frequent items of plant involved in these incidents were trucks and excavators/backhoes. Crane fatalities were also quite frequent accounting for 15 deaths.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18564/original/xhxz4qy6-1355209027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18564/original/xhxz4qy6-1355209027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18564/original/xhxz4qy6-1355209027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18564/original/xhxz4qy6-1355209027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18564/original/xhxz4qy6-1355209027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18564/original/xhxz4qy6-1355209027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18564/original/xhxz4qy6-1355209027.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frequency of incidents according to the type of plants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ehsan Gharaie</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The next time that you pass a construction site with these machines, be careful and keep a safe distance. These impressive and sophisticated human inventions can be deadly.</p>
<p>Moreover, plant operators and workers on site as well as managers, designers and client organisations must take safety very seriously. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/10949/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ehsan Gharaie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The construction industry is a major part of the Australian economy. Construction sites are everywhere. Some of them are recognisable from kilometres away due to their impressive tower cranes. You may…Ehsan Gharaie, Lecturer in Construction Project Management, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.