e Andy King, National Safety Director of USWA. Royal commissions key to progress for workers say union speakers t the I.W.A. National Health and _ Safety Conference, John Weir, Occupational Health and Safety Director for the B.C. Federation of Labour and Andy King, Safety Director for the United Steelworkers of America, gave some overviews on the importance of the Royal Commission on Workers’ Compensation with some very impor- tant perspectives on what has been happening in British Columbia and Ontario. Brother Weir said that the cur- The entire first aid * system in B.C. came out of the I.W.A.’s presentation to the Royal Commission on the W.C.B. in 1952. rent WCB Royal Commission in B.C. is the fifth one in the province’s his- Eeny and that the whole system is still weak on the prevention of acci- dents. In the past year there was 152 workplace related deaths in the province; 100 were accidents on the job and the rest were occupationally juired diseases. There is a perception that the workplaces are safer in the 1990's,” he said. “What is really happening is that lower risk industries are ee He said the relative safety conditions are not improving at industrial operations. He said that most Royal Commissions have not focused on the prevention of accidents, with exception of one that took place in 1952. Weir added that the I.W.A. and the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union raised “holy stink” about the conditions in B.C. work- places in front of that Commission. Weir said that the entire WCB first aid system came out of the 1.W.A.’s presentation to that com- mission. z “Our hope is that this (today’s) Commission will actively look at the facts as opposed to the kinds of Reaessions that people have,” he The B.C. Fed Safety Director said that major and minor employer asso- ciations have stood before the Commission to argue that penaliza- tion isn’t a “high value activity.” The small business sector is argu- ing that their workplaces are safer but statistics show otherwise. “There’s really no accountability in the system for accidents and dis- ease prevention,” said Weir. “If an employer objects to something the Board asks them to do, they can appeal it and they do so on a fre- quent basis. They can force the Board to withdraw an order or penalty.” “If they fail to do it (comply), there’s absolutely nothing workers can do about it. If they fail to pro- tect you there’s really no recourse for workers in B.C.,” he said. Some of the B.C. Federation of Labour’s areas of submissions were outlined by the speaker. On the topic of jurisdiction, Weir noted that the Fed is pushing to get the WCB to be responsible for indus- trial camps including those in log- ging operations. Under the current Health Act there is very little, if any, enforcement of camp condi- tions. On the topic of equity of benefits, Weir said that Board has tradition- ally focused on male-dominated workplace and must expand its scope to protect women in such fields as health care where the use of toxic compounds are on the increase and in domestic work where accident rates can be twice as high as normal workplaces. He said the Board cur- rently has no strategy to help these women. Weir said that, under the NDP government, B.C. farm workers receive WCB protection for the first time but that enforcement stan- dards are lax. In general Weir said that serious (disabling) accidents have increased and that fatalities have not improved. Business Association like the B.C. Business Council, the Council of Forest Industries, and the Coalition of B.C. Businesses, which represent. over 60,000 employers in the province, are lobbying for a cut in fatal benefits. For someone who earns $40,000 per year and is killed, the WCB cur- rently pays $12,800 to a single sur- vivor. The employer associations want to see that knocked back by $1,500. For a wife and two kids who are survivors, the employers want to cut fatal benefits by $5,000. “When you attach some numbers to these things, it tells you what kind of value people are putting on peoples lives these days,” said Weir. dy King, from the Steelworkers’ Union, said that Royal Commission date back hundreds of years into British Heritage and were used when massive tragedies struck and local authorities could not deal with resulting problems. Like today, a notable person, usu- ally a judge, was put in charge to investigate the problem and put together a report. “It was a scenario where things were so out of control that the pub- lic good was a stake,” said Brother King. King said that Royal Commis- sions came into their own during the Industrial Revolution as they investigated “horrific working condi- tions.” Monumental disasters, with- in the mining industry in particular, led to a number of Royal Commis- sions. King said that relations in the workplace are almost entirely pri- vate, regardless of how many people are employed and how dangerous ° May Day Parade, 1938. The I.W.A. has always brought the issues of health and safety to the public, demanding public investigations. jobs are. Employment is regarded as a private contract relationship. Under today’s Common Law, employers have responsibilty only to the immediate factors leading up to injury, said King. If the employer is a corporation, only the actual indi- viduals involved can be held liable. King said that every single piece of progressive social legislation “that has addressed the needs of working £ people, of the poor, of the sick, of the 8 elderly, was in part designed through 2 processes involving Royal Continued on page sixteen all ¢ At the safety conference B.C. Federation of Labour Safety Director John Weir (left) and I.W.A. CANADA Local 500 Business Agent Saul Marques conducted a workshop on the Duty to Accommodate workers that have become disabled. LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER 1997/9