Keynote Speech NAOSH 2003 - Len Hong
KEYNOTE REMARKS by:
S. LEN HONG
NAOSH 2003, EDMONTON
MAY 6, 2003
Thank you and good morning. I am very pleased to join you for this year’s national launch of North American Occupational Safety and Health Week also known as NAOSH WEEK, Merci et bonjour. Il me fait plaisir de me joindre à vous pour l’ouverture de la semaine nord américaine de la sécurité et de la santé au travail 2003 ( deux mille toi). With all the upheaval and concerns affecting the perceptions and reality of our country’s health, economy and security, it is gratifying to see such a strong attendance here today. In fact, your presence at this important meeting has an extra dimension this year, for it is a demonstration of confidence in Canada, as well as being vital for knowledge-sharing with the regions and work areas you represent. NAOSH is an excellent example of the benefits of international cooperation and workplace standards setting.
I believe the Canadian jurisdiction has been a real leader in North America occupational health and safety. All the Canadian governments: federal, provincial and territorial, the workers compensation boards of Canada, the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety have created programs – jointly and separately -- that have addressed sectoral health and safety concerns. I want to give particular commendations to the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering and the Labour Programme of Human Resources Development Canada as two of the major sponsors and promoters of NAOSH Week, for their work with schools, the general public, at community meetings, coalition-building and, of course, workplace initiatives. Their efforts – along with those of the many levels of Canadian governments, organized labour, various Non Governmental Organizations, a growing number of employers, and those of you in this room – have done much to create partnerships on many levels from coast-to-coast, such that the other two countries on this continent often visit here to see how we do it.
But, we can’t be too complacent – although we have come far together, there is still a long way to go. Nowhere are Canada’s efforts more visible than in our NAOSH Week activities, which I believe are unparalleled in dedicating time to exploring and sharing information on improvements about ways we can work together to achieve better results in three major areas: increasing understanding about the benefits of investing in occupational health and safety; raising awareness of the role played by professionals such as you; and – most importantly -- reducing workplace injuries and illness. After all, that’s really what it’s all about and why we’re all here. Exchanging information and helping to educate each other, as well as those on whose behalf you have come, symbolizes the whole concept behind NAOSH Week. Over the next few days, we will all focus on new knowledge and initiatives regarding workplace health and safety that we work on 52 weeks a year, not just for this one week, as significant as this event is.
The continuing education process that we are part of during NAOSH Week has, in fact, taken on expanded and very positive aspects in recent years. One of the most significant – and still growing – developments is that this week’s theme – Education is Prevention – is a reality in more and more schools across Canada, as occupational health and safety education becomes more embedded in primary and secondary school education, both informally and as part of a curriculum.
This is especially the case here in Alberta, which is to be commended for this foresight and excellence in teaching health and safety in the school system. OSH training used to be only provided in the workplace, because it is a required responsibility of employers by law. Increasingly, however, OHS is being viewed as relevant in early education to satisfy a Canadian social need and to manifest a universal right – the need for a minimum set of safety knowledge and skills to support the right to be safe at work.
It is interesting to note that in the past, some education improvements increased efforts on strategies for lowering youth unemployment and to make education link to job requirements. So, we have witnessed the mass production of resources about career readiness, job search techniques, encouraging entrepreneurs and school-to-work programs. These are all good and necessary, but it left out focus on the needs of school-age workers or young people to prepare them to be safe on the job. Unfortunately, school aged workers and new employees have usually been oriented and trained as if they were experienced workers. The reality is that, while progress has been made in reducing overall work-related injuries and fatalities, the pace has been slower for the younger working age cohorts.
For example, during the last half of the nineteen- nineties, the decrease in injury rates among workers age 25 and over was more than 14%, a statistic that all OSH professionals should be proud of . . . But the decrease among workers ages 15 to 24 was only about 10%. At least this rate is decreasing, but I’m sure we can do better. Furthermore, workers between ages 15 and 24 represent a disproportionate 16% of all workplace injuries, and the injury rate for workers under age 25 is 40% higher than the rate for those over 25.
As well, according to the Alberta-based Job Safety Skills Society, workers between 15 and 25 comprise only one fifth of the workforce, but represent a third of all workers killed on the job.
As always, behind these unfortunate statistics are real human beings. If we as a society are to effect meaningful prevention among young workers, then providing different education which integrates health and safety into everyday learning is urgently needed. While we are at the beginning days for this phenomenon of OSH education in the school classroom, and although there is still an education gap at the post-secondary level, genuine progress is being made throughout Canada.
If this approach is as successful in engaging youth, as I think it will be, there should be enormous benefits. Young people will enter the workforce with a heightened knowledge of the legal and moral obligations of their employer; the protective and regulatory role of governments; and the requirement for every worker – part time or full time – to take their share of responsibility for health and safety. And a key part of personal responsibility is for young workers to know that they have the right to ask questions and get answers that satisfy them . . . to refuse unsafe and unhealthy work . . . and to advocate for safe conditions based on an expectation of eliminating preventable workplace injuries and illnesses. Early education can provide this knowledge about their rights, about basic safe-job skills and about what to do if workplace dangers go unfixed. Through the classroom and related OSH experiences, student workers develop sharper analytical and critical thinking skills, respond to barriers and opportunities, and gain the confidence to develop appropriate strategies for understanding and improving the workplace.
Another key part of early education is to provide resources to parents about their role in talking to their children about part-time job choices, understand the nature of their tasks; alerting them to potential dangers; and encouraging them to ask questions or seek help if they are uncertain about job-site practices. Plus, getting involved with their children’s safety and health education will help them know it is their right as parents to talk to the employer about health and safety policies and training and to expect that their child be provided with safe and healthy work. Teachers, too, need better resources to build on what’s been started so that more of them can effectively integrate OSH teaching into their courses so that health and safety awareness and practices continue to expand beyond the bare minimum that is required by law.
From a purely practical standpoint, OSH education starting at an early age is beneficial because more than half of all 15 to 19-year olds participate in work-related activities – including paid jobs, unpaid internships and volunteerism – before graduating from high school. In fact, by age 19, some 80% of young people have some type of paid employment during the year. Not only that, most youths stay in school longer than they did a generation ago, so they are likely to hold more part-time jobs during that period. This trend will likely increase, as youths find they need the income and the work experiences to improve their future employability.
All of this means that young people are experiencing the labour market more intermittently- for a longer period – which in turn means there are many opportunities for them to receive OSH training before their full-time occupations . . . or, conversely, to be exposed to many workplaces without adequate training, which seems to be the case for over 70% of school-age workers. But whether young people engage in work with good training or poor training, they can only benefit from the greater awareness provided by health and safety education at primary and secondary school levels.
One example of a schools and workplace initiative that is aiding the OSH cause is the “Take Our Kids to Work” program, coordinated nationwide by The Learning Partnership. Initiated nine years ago, the program has grown to include all provinces and territories. Over one million students have been involved to-date, at more than 75,000 Canadian workplaces in experiencing the realities of work -- and job-site safety is assuming a larger portion of messaging for the day.
The need for high quality classroom education and workplace training for youth was perhaps best summed up in Ontario by Paul Kells, whose 19-year-old son Sean was killed three days after beginning his first temporary job. Mr Kells said that if he, as a parent, had been as vigilant in teaching Sean about safety at work as he was in teaching him about safely crossing the street, his son might be alive today. With greater awareness and knowledge being brought to the workplace by youth via schools and with more training by employers starting to happen, the level of hazard elimination and injury rates can be noticeably lowered. I am very encouraged that this trend is gaining momentum.
I believe that the larger presence of OSH education in schools is also part of a gradual but growing trend in the education philosophy of “popular education” that empowers individual workers much more than in past years. Worker education is broadening out from being narrowly defined safe performance on specified tasks. Instead, workers are being empowered to take a more active role in making the entire workplace safer and healthier.
While the term “popular education” may connote a kind of mass approach to some people, it is actually rooted in the recognition that employees are not some faceless entity in a group or industry. Empowerment speaks of individuals, first and foremost. It recognizes that most adults are self-motivated, especially when they are affected by a situation that could affect their lives and work; that most adults learn best by building on what they already know; and that each person has a particular learning style that responds best to complete learning methods.
Migrating from education in the classroom for student workers to receiving job specific training in the workplace for new full-time workers is equally vital. In Canada, one in seven young workers is injured on the job. At a level of nearly 110,000 young people injured in a year, that means people aged 15 to 29 represent one in every four injured workers.
A key challenge is that health and safety is still too often taken for granted by new workers. They mistakenly assume that proper health and safety planning has occurred for all their tasks, - they trust their employers - so, they don’t expect to get hurt, and thus are less able to recognize when they are in a potentially hazardous situation. Add to this the fact that most young workers are eager to demonstrate that they are good, independent and reliable workers who can work on their own. Then mix in poor training, and it’s no wonder we see the kind of statistics I just mentioned. Having said that, I believe that in young workers today, we are beginning to see the positive effects of school education. They have a greater awareness of workplace duties. There is no doubt that a growing number of them are not willing to tolerate unsafe conditions and are thus more likely to either speak up or, more often, leave for better work environments elsewhere.
Despite our best efforts to reduce workplace injuries and illness – and real improvements have occurred in Canada, as we know – it is still too often the case that some employers see the need to make a profit or meet a budget as an objective so overwhelming that it crowds out other considerations which appear to compete. Investing in prevention – in knowing what the hazards are and how to eliminate or control them – still doesn’t get the day-to-day attention it deserves. This should not be the case because most would agree – regardless of whether they are senior managers or new workers – that getting everyone safely home when the work day finishes is just as important as “delivering the numbers.” And the way to do this is through sensible prevention measures. The steps leading to true prevention are complex, and there are many influences that make it so. I’ve talked about the unique challenges of young employees who are new to the workplace.
I also wish to speak about some other major trends and influences in Canada. There is the challenge of workers at the other end of the age spectrum. The Baby Boomer workforce has started to retire. Older workers place different demands on the workplace. Workplaces need relevant information to plan for and manage the reality of employees whose eyesight, reaction times and physical strength may not always be at the levels of their younger years.
Another factor is our multi-ethnic workplace make-up. The talents and skills of new Canadians are always welcome, but new approaches may be needed regarding workplace safety orientation and training. Many of them come from countries where the safety culture is very different, and there is the added challenge of English being a second language for most. Here again, employers and employees are seeking OHS strategies that take these realities into account.
Meanwhile, there is a newly-emerging workplace culture today of more outsourcing, part-time and contract employees, which presents challenges in ensuring that safety is practiced just as rigorously as if the workers were full-time. The potential problems here are exacerbated by the reality of a faster pace of work due to new technologies continuously arriving on the scene, as well as the increasing length of workweeks. Another emerging factor is the increased recognition about psychosocial stress, which is contributing to the rise in workplace injuries and illnesses. Employers are only now beginning to realize its cost – perhaps as high as $20 billion annually in Canada – and to develop strategies that will help them design measures to reduce stresses.
As well, there is the rapid rise of newly-created small businesses – most of them in the service sector – which is unique in our post-world war 2 society and brings new workplace safety issues. Today, about half of all Canadian workers are in workplaces that employ fewer than 250 people. Within these small enterprises, about 80% of new jobs created in the past few years were in the service sector. Yet, it is in these categories of new small businesses and the service sector, where health and safety awareness and practices need more attention and more improvement.
Finally, we continue to face the challenge of getting more employers and governments to understand that OSH is a good investment – not only from a moral point of view but also from a sound business perspective. Businesses today are expected to operate in a safe and ethical manner. This includes having programs to ensure workers are not hurt or killed on the job. This is the minimum standard and anything less will not be acceptable. Fulfilling this standard helps to benefit the business overall. When there is a serious workplace injury or illness, it can badly damage the employer’s reputation. If the incident is large enough and standards not met, it can become an issue that has the potential to reduce sales, bring tougher regulation, add costs through lawsuits and higher insurance, and in extreme cases, even drive the company out of business.
Employers must understand that good prevention is the absence of injuries, illness and fatalities – which makes it hard to measure prevention success by the usual business yardsticks. But, with proper investment in the health of employees, providing sufficient resources, and focusing on a consistent process for attaining safety and health goals, prevention can be attained.
Achieving the best possible prevention is indeed a complex journey. Part of the task in reaching our destination is to make fuller use of the resources available through sources like the CSSE, unions, Canadian Ministries of Labour, trade associations, workers compensation boards, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety and non-governmental organizations such as Minerva Canada which promotes the integration of occupational health and safety education in post-secondary schools. Properly employed, these resources can provide guidance about the best ways to meet our humane obligations to each other and, not incidentally, that “deliver the numbers” – because prevention does save money. I am convinced we can get there.
Before me this morning I see some of the world’s most skilled professionals in making workplaces and communities more healthy and vibrant. If anyone can do it, you can, because you understand the complex, yet ultimately, simple truth: that Education is Prevention and Prevention is the Cure.
