The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Manitoba now has a new strategic action plan designed to prevent workplace injury and illness and better ensure every worker makes it home safely at the end of the day. The NDP government's Five Year Plan for Injury and Illness Prevention incorporates recommendations from three reports issued last month as part of a review of workplace injury and illness prevention. The new strategy details plans for: Êdoubling funding for prevention services; Êcreating new requirements under the Workplace Safety and Health Act that more clearly define workers' legal rights, require mandatory orientation of new workers and provide stronger protection when a worker refuses unsafe work; Êinvesting in resources that will ensure every high school student has access to workplace health and safety information in the classroom or online, and materials to help parents prepare their children to know about their rights to a safe workplace when they start their first job; strengthening support for emergency responders and other workers in high-trauma jobs; providing more ways for the public to report unsafe workplaces including a one-stop phone number for reporting unsafe workplace or injuries; requiring mandatory safety orientation for new workers; Êproviding a mobile safety lab to bring safety awareness training and tools to rural worksites; ensuring every new business in Manitoba gets information about their responsibilities to prevent injuries; creating a leadership team of business owners and executives who have shown their commitment to safety and can help inform and mentor other business owners; Êincreasing enforcement of rules to prevent bullying and violence in the workplace; and reviewing every workplace death to learn lessons about prevention. Labour Minister Jennifer Howard said the strategy follows the province's most extensive review of injury and illness prevention in over a decade and doubles resources for injury and illness prevention. 'It strengthens our safety and health laws and will ensure employers are rewarded for practices that make their workplaces safer and healthier,' she said. 'Dedicating more resources to prevention will help make Manitoba one of the safest places to work in North America. Enforcement is also an important part of injury prevention and our safety and health laws will be among the strongest in the country. ÊSafety and health officers will now have the tools needed to ensure compliance.' Howard also announced the Workers' Compensation Board of Manitoba will develop a strategy to eliminate claim suppression and inappropriate return-to-work practices. It will also be designed to ensure employers that engage in genuine injury prevention are recognized and rewarded. _ Compiled from a Government of Manitoba news release
