Canadian Occupational Safety

6 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com WORKPLACE NEWS One-quarter of Canadians going to work tired: Conference Board M ore than one- quarter (27 per cent) of Canadian workers report being fatigued most days or every day during a typical work week, which has consequences for occupational health and safety, according to a survey by the Conference Board of Canada. "The harmful effects of fatigue are numerous and, in some cases, comparable to the effects of alcohol," said Mary-Lou MacDonald, director, workplace health, wellness and safety research at the Conference Board of Canada in Ottawa. "Employers that proactively address their employees' fatigue will have a more productive workforce and a safer working environment." Based on fi ndings from a national survey of 739 full-time or part-time employed Canadians, the repor t, Running on Empty: Understanding Fatigue in the Workplace, conducted a review on fatigue literature and found that fatigue has consequences for the way employees think, react and display emotions at work. The repor t said the relationship between fatigue and workplace injuries has been a long-standing topic of research, and a wealth of research evidence links sleep quantity or quality to workplace accidents and injuries. For most types of jobs, Canadian workers who report trouble sleeping most of the time are more likely to have a workplace injury compared with those who never have trouble sleeping. The report found employers and employees recognize the need to understand the full impact of fatigue on performance. More than 40 per cent of those surveyed reported that their productivity and performance were somewhat or signifi cantly worse when they did not get enough rest. Fatigue also has an impact on health outcomes, such as obesity and depression. Previous research has suggested that tired employees have an impact on inter- personal interactions at work. Without proper sleep, supervisors may be less respectful or civil to their staff and people working in customer service may fi nd it harder to deal with diffi cult customers. Work stress and job demands topped the list as the main cause of fatigue. Of the employees surveyed, 28 per cent identifi ed it as one of the biggest factors contributing to their lack of sleep. Other leading factors included stress from home demands (26 per cent) and physical health problems (nine per cent). Only 21 per cent of Canadian employees reported receiving information in the last year from their employer about the importance of sleep or resources on how to manage fatigue. The Conference Board of Canada report said that forward-thinking organizations are developing formal fatigue risk manage- ment systems that are integrated within existing organizational safety manage- ment systems. Ultimately, risk associated with fatigue is managed the same way as any other safety risk in the organization. "These systems... encourage organiza- tions to understand the risk of fatigue in their own operations, among their own employees," the report said. CEO involvement in OHS reduces workplace injuries, fi nds study C EOs play a more effective role in developing a culture of safety within their organization — one that actually reduces injuries, according to a recent study. The study put to the test the common viewpoint that top organizational leaders infl uence front-line employee injuries — and found this to be true, based on data collected from more than 4,300 employees, supervisors and managers. University of Regina professor, Sean Tucker, University of Regina alumnus, Dayle Ehr and University of Calgary professor, Babatunde Ogun- fowora, authored the study entitled "Safety in the C-Suite: How CEOs Infl uence Organizational Safety Climate and Employee Injuries," published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. "Our research is the fi rst to gather hard data to test if and how CEOs infl uence injuries among front-line workers," said Tucker. The study had found that CEOs have the most direct safety-related infl uence on their top man- agers, who in turn, model pro-safety values and behaviours to lower-level managers, supervisors and employees. This trickling down of safety behaviour is referred to as "collective social learn- ing" by the study's authors. The research also demonstrates that when CEOs, senior managers, managers, supervisors and front-line staff are aligned with their commit- ment to safety, a strong culture of safety within an organization forms. "Aside from the human toll, workplace injuries and deaths take a tremendous toll on a business' bottom line, and this research makes an important contribution to our understanding of how we can improve worker safety and reduce businesses' costs," said Phil Germain, vice-pres- ident of prevention and employer services at the Saskatchewan Workers' Compensation Board, the sponsor of the study. "The researchers collected and analyzed a large amount of hard data to show that reducing worker inju- ries, which can save businesses literally millions of dollars, comes through a CEO-driven, top-down cascade of directives that promote a pervasive cli- mate of safety at all levels of the organization." Workplace injuries do more than just harm the employee; they also cost the Canadian economy $19 billion annually, according to the government of Canada's Labour Program. Nova Scotia focusing on workplace violence in health-care facilities T he province of Nova Scotia is taking further steps to ensure health-care facilities are safe workplaces. Premier Stephen McNeil announced a working group will be formed to look at safety protocols in hospitals and health clinics. The goal is to make sure the appropriate measures are in place to keep staff, patients and visitors safe. "We are always concerned about safety, particularly for the staff in our hospitals and the patients they care for," said McNeil. The group will report to Health and Wellness Minister Leo Glavine by the end of the year with recommendations. A recent incident at Soldier's Memorial Hos- pital in Middleton, N.S., highlighted the need to take a look at workplace safety, specifi cally workplace violence. In October, police responded to a call from the hospital about a man acting errati- cally. When they arrived, they found and arrested a 60-year-old man. He was charged with fi rearm-related offences. "This man has a long history of violence and, by the sounds of it, had clear intent of harming someone. He was threatening and he had an arsenal of weapons with him," said Nova Scotia Nurses' Union president Janet Hazelton. The union has been in talks with health-care stakeholders for several months, since it released a study in January 2016 identifying violence in the workplace among 15 signifi cant problems plaguing the province's health-care system. "We continue to witness daily violence against nurses and other health-care workers, which is unacceptable. Thankfully, this latest, and potentially more catastrophic situation was averted but we must do more to prevent future threats to patents, family members, workers and other innocent bystanders." In addition to the nurses' union, the working group will include representatives of the Nova Scotia Health Authority, the Workers' Com- pensation Board and the RCMP. The province is also working with the Workers' Compensation Board, AWARE-NS, employers and unions to develop a fi ve-year work- place safety action plan for the health-care and community services sectors. This plan will provide recommendations for reducing high injury rates among health-care workers, including those caused by workplace violence. on workplace violence in health-care facilities he province of Nova Scotia is taking further steps to ensure health-care facilities are safe workplaces. Premier Stephen McNeil announced a working group will be formed to look at safety protocols in hospitals and health clinics. The goal is to make sure the appropriate measures are in place to "We are always concerned about safety, particularly for the staff in our hospitals and the patients they care for," The group will report to Health and Wellness Minister Leo Glavine by the end A recent incident at Soldier's Memorial Hos- pital in Middleton, N.S., highlighted the need to take a look at workplace safety, specifi cally workplace violence. In October, police responded M ore than one- time are more likely to have a workplace injury compared with those who never have trouble sleeping. employees recognize the need to cent of those surveyed reported that their productivity and performance were somewhat or signifi cantly worse when they did not get enough rest. outcomes, such as obesity and depression.

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