THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER 5 SAFETY NEWS WILL INDUSTRIAL SAFETY BE DUMPED? Danger seen in chairman's statement j It is true that off-the-job injuries now substan- tially outnumber disablements on the job. But this is so because of a planned attack on the origin of job caused injuries. We are firmly of the belief that any slackening of incentive to work safely would have awful repercussions, not only at work but also on the highways and at home. It is not good enough to conclude that because we badly need a more comprehensive social security scheme to assist those disabled who are not presently cov- ered by workmen’s compensation, that such a scheme replace the principle that industry should be held responsible, morally, legally and financ- ially, for job caused disability. It is facetious to argue that in any case the cost of industrial acci- dents is passed on to the public through higher prices. “He agreed with Berger that it was patch- work coverage for the community. “Kades said a comprehensive social security scheme is essential, but feels it should be con- tributory. He said when he said that it should be contributory in a speech to the B.C. Federation several years ago, they didr’t like it.” ACCIDENT PREVENTION BASED ON INDUSTRY Mr. Eades has made a pertinent _ statement here but we wonder if all its implications are fully under- stood by him. Does his advice to the Commis- sion of Inquiry into Workmen’s Compensation take into account the fact that the firm base of accident prevention, on this continent and elsewhere, is industrial? Does he consider that without the compulsion under law to run a safe operation, that firm base could disappear? Let’s look back into history. The concept that industry should foot the bill for industrial casual- ties has worked and worked well, particularly in this province. Mr. Eades’ statement is proof of this. We do not dispute it, but it is logical to assume that we im industry have “graduated” in accident pre- vention and that from now on our citizens who work in industry will no longer be protected by that special legislation which has created the at- mosphere necessary to a rounded safety program? By Bob Ross, Safety Director The following disturbing report appeared re- cently in the Vancouver Sun. The chairman of B.C. Workmen’s Compen- sation Board said Tuesday that workmen’s compensation is obsolete. “J. Edwin Eades, under cross-examination by Tom Berger for the B.C. Labor Federation, rec- ommended comprehensive social security to cover workmen at all hours of the day and night. “He told Mr. Justice C. W. Tysoe, sole com- missioner in the inquiry into the Workmen’s Compensation Act, that the safest place for a person today is at work. ; “He said that in the days when a man worked 12 or 14 hours a day seven days a week, work- men’s compensation was worthwhile. “But today, when a man works 40 and even 35 hours a week, there is a large period of each day when he is in greater danger of accident than at work and yet has no coverage. “Work is the safest place to be,’ said Eades. When a laugh went up from the gallery, he said: “Tt is no joke. There is a large uncovered area or period where a workman is in a much greater need if he is injured as he is during work’.” “He said that scattered legislation, such as unemployment insurance, old age pensions which cover widows, and now medicare, are merely playing with the problem. Apart from normal humanitarian considera- tions, the direct association of payroll assessment to the number of industrial accidents has provided the incentive to work safely in safe surroundings. British Columbia has developed throughout the years the most effective cooperation in this field in Notth America. Government, industry and labour can and have worked together to pre- vent accidents. It would be a retrograde. step to lose any part of this common effort. By all means let us pass legislation that will compensate the highway casualty, the home in- jured. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. * THIS 15 A KRARD WAT AREA--DONT BE WWLNERAGLE TO AN INTJURN-. KEEP R WARD HAT 7 <4 ON! » BUT IT AIN’T ME HEAD THAT’S VULNERABLE Heavier penalties urged TORONTO — Amendments to the province’s new Con- struction Safety Act to pen- alize wayward contractors and to protect the general public from construction ac- cidents were urged by key Toronto officials. A report by city solicitor W. R. Callow, buildings com- missioner Frank Wellwood and works commissioner Ray Bremner urged higher fines for firms violating the act and other changes to protect pas- sers-by. The report noted that most construction accidents are due to short cuts by employ- ers “to save money or to their toleration of the slipshod work habits of their em- ployees through lack of pro- per supervision and direc- tion.” The report urged the plac- ing of greater responsibility on employers and general contractors with fines large enough to “eliminate any pro- fit gained by such practices.” The officials said that mag- istrates rarely imposed fines in excess of $50 for convic- tions under the act. Such fines were insignifi- cant to contractors thinking in terms of a million-dollar construction project, they said. They recommended fines ranging from $100 a day to $1,000 for a first conviction and double that amount for a second offence. For subse- quent convictions and for failure to comply with a stop work order in any two-year period, the report proposed fines of from $500 to $5,000 a day.. Under the present act, a maximum penalty for contra- vention of its sections is a fine of $1,000 or one year in jail or both, but there is no min- imum set out. As a result, magistrates may suspend sentence and impose no pen- alty. For failure to comply with a stop-work order, the maximum fine is $100 a day. The report noted that safety inspectors frequently found contractors who refused to accept or honor a stop-work order despite flagrant viola- tions of the act. At other times, they were unable to find any responsible person ‘on the job and consequently could not point out effectively contraventions of the act. There was no provision in the act in most cases, the re- port said, for protection of the public where its safety is af- fected by various construction operations such as hoisting of loads over or close to public thoroughfares. The report also called for province-wide uniformity of qualifications, certification, training and identification of inspectors under the Trench Excavators’ Act. In the case of either act, the report said, the general contractors as well as the workman’s employer should be subject to conviction and fines where a workman has ‘violated safety procedures. The CNR will concentrate on getting grain moved to east and west ocean ports un- til inland shipping resumes in the spring. When ship- ments to the Lakehead halt- ed in mid-February, the CNR was 7,000 carloads ahead of schedule. eae * Canadian farm income in 1963 after calculating ever- mounting costs and the bene- fits of increased inventory was an estimated $1,716,300,- 000 or 2.2 per cent higher than in 1962. Alberta and Saskatchewan, thanks to grain and beef, accounted for the increase and every other province recorded a decrease. Mea sk a ... or unsafe All the things I really like to do are either immoral, ille- gal or fattening. RELAX NAUTICALLY SPEAK- ing: A young ensign, very in- sistent he must have leave, was asked the reason by his commanding officer. “My wife is expecting a baby,” he replied. “Listen, young man, re- member this — you are only necessary at the laying of the keel. For the launching you are entirely superfluous.” * * * Robert Benchley was drink- ing Martinis mixed with sec- ond-rate gin one day when a friend passed by. “Don’t you know,” warned the friend anxiously, “that stuff’s slow poison?” “Oh, that’s all right,” said Benchley. “I’m in no hurry.” * * * There was a young lady of Lynn Who was deep in original sin. When they said, “Do be good!” She said, “Would if I could.” And straightway went at it again. * * * BABY TALK: “And this is the bawl-room,” she said, showing the nursery. . . . The baby wakes up in the wee wee hours of the morning . . . Training a child is more or less a matter of pot luck. kook & CHILDISH NOTIONS: Mummy,” asked the ten- year-old daughter of an Eng- lish friend, “how did Queen Elizabeth know she was go- ing to have a baby?” Before the mother could re- ply, her younger daughter, aged five, piped up scornfully, “Well, she can read. can’t she? It was in all the papers.”