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Reforms needed to reduce construction deaths: study

Workers are dying unnecessarily in a provincial construction industry that desperately needs reformed safety procedures and regulations, say authors of a just-released study.

Construction workers in B.C. die at a rate three times higher than the provincial average for work-related fatalities, according to the authors of Building a Safer Work Environment for BC Construction Workers, which was released January 7 by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the B.C. and Yukon Territory Building Trades Council.

The study was released to coincide with the anniversary of an avoidable accident in 1981 that killed four construction workers. Gunther Couvreux, Brian Stevenson, Donald W. Davis and Yrjo Mitunen fell to their deaths that year during the construction of the Bentall Tower IV.

Since their deaths, 707 other work-related fatalities have occurred in the construction industry and the trend for BC construction deaths has gone upward since the tragedy. Annual construction industry deaths in B.C. average 26.2 annually since 1981, 31.8 a year since 1998 and 33.7 a year since 2001.

2003 alone saw 44 deaths related to construction in the province. In 2007, WorkSafe BC accepted a total of 139 fatality claims for all industries, with 30 deaths recorded in the construction industry.

The CCPA study argues that some of those deaths could have been avoided if simple reforms had been implemented.

“Compulsory safety training for all construction workers was one of the key recommendations of the BC Construction Industry Advisory Council in 1982, following the Bentall disaster,” said Wayne Peppard, Executive Director of the Building Trades Council and one of the study’s co-authors. “Twenty-seven years is already too long to wait for implementation of this life-saving recommendation.”

The CCPA study calls for reforms that would give all construction workers -- whether union or non-union -- health and safety representation rights, and permit authorized union safety representatives to enter non-union work sites. In addition, it suggests that WorkSafe BC conduct pilot projects to test innovative safety policies that have been successful in the United Kingdom and Australia.

Al Johnson, WorkSafe BC’s regional director responsible for the construction industry, told the Tyee that his organization already holds construction employers responsible for safety training, education and orientation, with WorkSafe BC officers making site visits and enforcing that responsibility.

“As for making safety training and certification by WorkSafe compulsory,” he said, “I’m not sure if that would work, at least not in construction.”

Johnson said that many of the deaths included in the CCPA totals reflected long-term disease, especially from exposure to asbestos decades before death. For example, he said that 18 of the 30 deaths recorded in construction in 2007 were disease-related, not the result of traumatic injuries. .

The Tyee contacted the offices of B.C.’s Minister of Labour and Citizen’s Service Iain Black, but he was not available for comment.

Tom Sandborn is a contributing editor for the Tyee. He welcomes your feedback and story tips at [email protected].


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