February 2, 2007

PSAC members want better health, safety and environmental regulations and more rigorous enforcement

PSAC members must make use of every forum available to speak out against deregulation and the implementation of measures that weaken their health and safety protection and their environment.

This was one of the messages heard at the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) National Health and Safety Conference held in Ottawa from January 19 to 21, 2007. PSAC National President, John Gordon, told delegates that “Canadians need a government that responds to the public's needs, not to the desires of large corporations. We all need quality public services provided by our unionized members, who enjoy good health and safety protection. It's our challenge, but it's also our right,” he added.

More than 300 PSAC members attended the Conference, the theme of which was “Regulation Works”. Together union members devised strategies to: counter the federal government's push to scale down occupational health and safety and environmental regulations; improve enforcement of health and safety legislation to better protect workers; and, dispel the myth of the careless employee. Members also debated resolutions some of which will be forwarded to the Alliance Executive Committee for action and the rest will be forwarded to the next PSAC Triennial Convention.

According to PSAC National President John Gordon, “several PSAC members are suffering from the actions of various governments to weaken the regulation system. The move to greater deregulation, whether it be in the form of Smart Regulations, Risk Management, or Canada bowing to pressure from the World Trade Organization is bad for workers, for Canadian communities and for public safety. It also has a direct impact on our social programs.”

More and more employers are implementing worker behaviour-based safety programs, yet the number of occupational accidents continues to rise, according to Conference panellist Nancy Lessin, the AFL-CIO Health and Safety Coordinator. Worker behaviour-based safety programs are yet one more way of achieving deregulation. These programs are based on the notion that the work performed by the individual is at the core of the problem, rather than the work process or the working environment itself which is controlled by the employer. Ms. Lessin maintains that Canadian employers are attempting to encourage the Canadian government to follow the US example and scale back the enforcement of occupational health and safety regulations.

According to Patty Ducharme, the PSAC National Vice-President and Co-chair of the Conference, “these programs are attempts to have workers bear the burden of the accidents they fall victim to. PSAC members need to aware of the harmful nature of such programs and identify effective ways of countering them. More than one million occupational accidents occur each year which claim more than 1,000 lives in Canada, and we believe that the federal government must continue to improve regulations and legislation in this area and ensure that they are enforced. Sadly, we currently see the exact opposite trend.”

Jérôme Turcq, the Co-chair of the Conference and the Regional Executive Vice President of PSAC-Quebec, added that “the Conservative government in power, following the example set by its predecessor, has made a firm move toward deregulation, outsourcing and the transfer of its responsibilities. We know this trend is not intended to better protect our rights or our health.”

In his remarks on regulation, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Bruce Campbell, indicated that when the Canadian government negotiates international economic treaties, it introduces new provisions and actively works to put deregulation measures in place regardless of their adverse impact. In spite of the numbers of injuries and the rise in casualties that occur each year in the workplace, the government is clearly striving to reduce health and safety protection of people in Canada.

To counteract this clear willingness on the part of the Canadian government, Marie Clarke Walker, the Vice President of the Canadian Labour Congress reminded delegates that health and safety legislation is based on three fundamental rights: the right to know, the right to participate and the right to refuse to do dangerous work. “We must continue to assert these rights, if we want to maintain them.”

For the first time ever, the Conference also examined environmental issues. The environment and its impact on health and safety was also highlighted in a panel discussion with Hugo Séguin of Équiterre and Donald Lafleur of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. Hugo Séguin provided a comprehensive and powerful overview of the current world environmental crisis we are facing. In the absence of legislation of products used in the workplace, workers are increasingly exposed to products which can lead to new occupational diseases. In his view, even though technology does exist to reduce the negative impact of our economic choices on the environment, governments have not shown the political will to apply it.

Donald Lafleur of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers reminded delegates that unions can and must play an active role in the protection of their environment. “Collective agreements are one area where we can demand changes to improve our environment. We can demand that our employers purchase hybrid cars. We can demand that the buildings we work in are ecological and are not places that breed environmental diseases. Finally, we must contest changes to work procedures that create waste or are adding new risks on workers and the environment.”

The PSAC National Health and Safety Conference represents an important first step of a long term process to step up our fight against back-door deregulation attempts and the adoption by the government of measures that will weaken the health, safety and the environmental protection of workers and the Canadian public.