Despite their talk on wage and hiring freezes in the Civil Service, the Province recently announced that they would be adding five new safety and health officers to help prevent workplace injuries and illness.
The new additions bring the total to 74 safety and health officers in the province, up from 54 in 2007.
The government claims the additional staff hired over the past few years has “helped to reduce the time-loss injury rate by about 30 per cent since 2000, for savings of over $100 million annually.”
While it is difficult to put a price tag on safety, there’s no denying that additional inspectors will help reduce the number of hazards in workplaces and, hopefully, decrease the number Manitobans getting injured at work.
On a per capita basis, Manitoba is disproportionately high in workplace injuries compared to its neighbours to the west. In 2008, Manitoba had 17,091 workplace injuries, while Saskatchewan incurred 13,731 and Alberta had 32,248.
The province claims the additional inspectors will help them…
•reach more workplaces across Manitoba;
•increase inspection and enforcement activities in high-hazard industries such as construction and manufacturing, and enable more proactive initiatives in sectors such as agriculture and healthcare;
•establish more occupational safety and health committees and workplace safety and health programs;
•increase enforcement in workplaces most likely to employ new, young and immigrant workers; and
•develop and deliver new programs to increase training and education opportunities for workers and employers.