We can choose to be cynical and say, ‘it’s not safe in the world anymore’ – but that is, to my way of thinking, nonconstructive and not even accurate.

Of course, there are bad people doing bad acts around the world – today, and in generations past, in every era in which humans have lived. And there are good people today – just as there have always been – who rally around each other and step forward to help protect their fellow man.

That’s why I was pleased to see positive aspects of the aftermath of the Boston bombings get air time in coverage by Anderson Cooper and other members of the media, many of whom chose to shine their light on the “light” as well as “dark” happenings immediately following the tragedy.

And yes, it was a choice. They could have kept their cameras focused on the horror and carnage and grief – but they did more than that, much more. Rather than defaulting to knee-jerk fear and loathing, many journalists (professional and ‘citizen journalists’ alike) turned their cameras on the everyday heroes who helped…

The self-sacrifice: Runners ripping off their shirts to use as tourniquets on broken legs.

The bravery: Ordinary citizens, as well as trained professionals like police and paramedics, putting themselves in potential harm’s way to get those barricades down and help the victims any way they could.

The kindness: Stranger comforting stranger in the streets, even when they could not find their own missing family members and friends yet. Think of the man who gave his medal earned from crossing the Boston Marathon finish line to another runner who could not finish because of the bombings.

I work in the area of workplace safety, and I’ve personally lived through the loss of a beloved family member – my son – due to a horrible accident. I know how dark things can be, but this is how I answer the question, “what is safe these days?”…

Love is safe.

Community is safe.

Personal integrity is safe.

The courage to do the right thing is safe – always safe.

So play it safe, I say…

What do you say?

The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board’s 2013 Catholic Technological Skills Competition was held at St. Augustine Secondary School in Brampton. Dufferin-Peel students were showcasing their skills in an Olympic-style, multi-trade and technology competition, which serves as a qualification round for the Skills Canada Provincial Competition.

Approximately 500 students from 20 schools (both elementary and secondary) will compete in over 40 trade and technological areas, including: 3D character animation, baking, carpentry, hair styling, healthcare and robotics. Representatives from local businesses and colleges were invited to judge the competition, and the top students are moving on the provincial finals being held in Waterloo this May.

“The competition allows students to showcase their skills and gives them a great opportunity to see a number of apprenticeship trades that are viable post-secondary pathways available to them,” says Annette Ryan, OYAP and Technology Education Consultant. “Students have a lot of fun, while at the same time, challenging themselves and learning.

Don MacKinnon, president of the Power Workers Union

Don MacKinnon is the President of the Power Workers’ Union (PWU), which represents more than 17,000 workers working in Ontario’s electricity production and delivery industry, including employees at Hydro One, Bruce Power, Ontario Power Generation to name a few of their 50 employers.

Tell us about your journey; did you ever feel vulnerable when you were starting out in Grey County, Ontario?

I had some challenges, like most Canadians, but I was fortunate to have a father who taught me how to stay away from harm’s way. I had a good mentor and gained more confidence each year. I was taught to stay away from potential hazards around the family farm like getting kicked by a horse, falling or getting caught in operating machinery.

What do you think it means to be a vulnerable worker?

Vulnerable workers are often new entrants to the workforce or workers that have limited employment options sometimes resulting in being squeezed by an unscrupulous employer.  They are not necessarily confined to any specific sector of the economy. I think people often find themselves in positions where companies are not doing as much as they should to ensure their safety. These are companies that haven’t invested adequately in orientation and training and don’t see the benefits of doing so.

Who falls into the categories of being a vulnerable worker?

It might be the first job for a youth or new immigrant worker. For others it may be those who have cultural or language barriers that will stop people from speaking up. Many new Canadians and First Nations workers will start working for companies where safety is not first priority. These are often non-union workplaces.  I want workers to find employers that are both safe and profitable with sustainable growth. The two usually go together. It’s great for companies to prosper and make money, but not at the expense of workers’ safety.

Have you seen a change in companies’ investment in safety?

Yes, I have seen a slide downwards in recent years in this country’s investment and attitude toward safety. It’s a real concern. If good companies are cutting back on safety and ignoring workplace issues that we solved a decade ago, how will it be for the most vulnerable workers? Profitable business should prioritize investment in safety. Over 300 people died from workplace accidents and occupational diseases last year and we don’t want to revert back to times when they were even higher.

Some would say vulnerable employment is the price we pay to keep pace with demands of a growing, and shrinking, economy. What do you think?

Safety should not be seen as an impediment to business success – it is quite the opposite. We will always have a need for seasonal and casual workers in construction, agriculture and the service sector – employment levels go up and down but that doesn’t mean that these workers shouldn’t expect strict safety and training standards.  The unionized construction industry sets a good example for other sectors that have volatile employment levels.  These workers can have a voice and should be protected and receive training. We have to find more creative ways to prepare young Canadians for these jobs.

Do our laws provide legal protection for our vulnerable workers?

There is a difference between laws and real justice. There is a problem with the enforcement of our laws; enforcement is often reliant on political will and budgets; prosecution is so slow and difficult.  If our workplace laws were as clear and visible as our highway traffic laws it would drive behavioural change in the workplace.

How do we create greater visibility for safety and for vulnerable workers?

Mandatory training and orientation for vulnerable workers with Ministry of Labour enforcement mechanisms and personnel will help. We have to recognize that not all workers will have access to a laptop or have the desire to find the government website. We need to reach out to groups that are clearly vulnerable and listen to vulnerable workers to better understand their issues.

Are there any opportunities for vulnerable workers to progress beyond poverty level “job ghettos”?

Right now there is a sense of frustration building because we are not connecting the dots between the jobs that need to be filled and the workers that need to be trained. Our high schools need to be better positioned to explain the career opportunities in our economy and where the worker or student may fit over the long and short terms. Whether it is the service sector, skilled trades, health care or manufacturing workers, they need to be able to get information on anticipated availability of jobs, educational prerequisites and upgrading options, and the nature of the prospective work.  They need to be assured that there are jobs available and advised as to where they may fit.

Vulnerable workers could be better equipped to move out of “job ghettos” if leaders from all sectors of the economy – business as well as unions, educators, parents – along with representatives of federal, provincial and municipal governments, came to the table to create solutions.

Policy development should also address the huge demographic changes in Ontario. With skilled workers now retiring in large numbers, who is going to replace their leadership in the trades? As well, many new immigrants are not finding the work they are qualified for; we have many highly educated and trained professionals that cannot find work in their field.

What is your outlook for the future of vulnerable workers in Ontario?

We can find a way to change when there is the desire to change. The question is − in what kind of a province do we want to live and work? We need lasting solutions for new and vulnerable workers.  There are many success stories to serve as examples.  We need to tell Canadians the truth as to how sustainable training programs will help new and immigrant workers and how that will help all Canadians in the long run. A strong visual image of a new worker finding a workplace that offers training and is safe – a place where a new worker can work to support their family with confidence that they will come home safely at the end of the work day − a visual image of a country and a province with respect for a person’s labour and a healthy middle class.

We can all celebrate being Canadian; there is no other country like Canada. What a great feeling, if you want to make a difference you have the freedom to do so. We can all be instruments of care and impart knowledge in making Canada a safer and more prosperous country – for everyone.

All photos by Colleen Angus-Yamada

A friend of mine just got back from her third trip to Cuba, during which she participated in a small tour called “Reality of Cuba” held by the resort tour operators after a couple of bad weather days were making the tourists restless.And reality it was – of the harshest, third-world kind, in a rural community in the province of Camaguey located roughly in the center of the island. As well as visiting a rundown one-room schoolhouse and a local farm, the tour included a food factory that makes tomato juice and tomato sauce sold to the local tourist hotels.

My friend who took this trip is a seasoned manufacturing journalist and has toured close to 100 factories – including many for food production – across North America and in Germany. But she was not prepared for what she saw in this Cuban tomato production facility…

All the equipment was rusted, held together with aluminum foil, string and other scrap material at hand. Overflowing small plastic cups sat under leaking pipe joints. Steam blew directly into the faces of workers. Workers’ shoes and boots stepped on produce going into the cans for shipping.

Equipment with faded labels reading the USSR and Yugoslavia – places that no longer exist, but were allies to Cuba before the fall of the Communist Russian states. Workers climbing precarious ladders, and leaning over giant vats of boiling juices. Everywhere the factory floor was wet – splattered with pulp, juice, water, grease.

My friend said it was hard to watch, and hard not to fall down oneself while touring the factory. Contrasting with the stark horror of the conditions, pride was evident on the faces of the Cuban workers – who, of course, have no idea what a modernized food factory looks like. Nor do they realize that they don’t have to be in as much danger on the job as they are.

The lesson learned here  - without getting into politics in the truly baffling matter of Cuba – is that without having the right tools in place, no amount of pride nor feeling of a good work culture is going to help you prevent workplace accidents.

Since we are blessed to have state-of-the-art automated equipment, and personal protective gear, and guard rails, and anti-slip mats, etc. – as well as training and tools in our workplaces, let’s not waste those advantages.

Let’s make sure we couple those physical assets with the right attitudes and a safety culture that trickles from the offices of upper management down to the (clean, dry and tidy) factory floor.

Changing workplace cultures begins by giving people the freedom to report all incidents.

The very best companies have gone one step further with workplace accident prevention; they also record”close calls” on the job.

The key is eliminating the fear of reporting and developing a culture of confidence to report everything.

Are we there yet? Not by a long shot!

If we measure our success with our most vulnerable workers - those labourers who are new to the country, students or physically or emotionally handicapped - we have a great deal of room for improvement:

• Few of these vulnerable workers will find the time to report an unsafe work condition.
• Few of them will report getting injured for fear of being fired. (If they get fired, vulnerable workers have fewer chances to find a new job.)
• These life factors weigh heavily against their decision to report any incident.

I am really happy to see the Ontario government has decided to face the challenge of finding solutions that will help the most vulnerable individuals in the work task group to which I’ve been appointed.

It is the right thing to do. Replacing fear with trust and knowledge will help create the safest place in the world to live and work.

What are YOU doing about it?

Over time I have found that as I received positions with more significant responsibility, more focus has been placed on training or responsibility. The summer between high school and university I had two jobs, one working as a dishwasher in a restaurant, and one working in a food processing factory. It was a local restaurant with few staff, and with minimal formal training. When the opportunity arose I quickly moved from that position to one on the assembly line at a food processing factory.

Food Processing Factory Work

At the factory everyone was orientated and we were each given a large stack of papers to read through, at our own discretion and on our own time. We then were sent into the factory setting. While the job was not physically or mentally challenging, it had its own risks. It was a loud factory where ear muffs and safety glasses were required at all times in the work area. We would stand in one place performing a repetitive task for the majority of an 8-hour shift.

My shift was 11pm through to 7am six days a week. To me, working at a low-level job it seemed there was a lack of communication between employers and employees. As a youth working where I punched in and almost never connected with a superior during a shift was disconcerting.

City Job as Technician

Over the past two summers I have worked at a municipality in Ontario as a student technician. This position gave me a lot more responsibility than I was used to. Having this kind of responsibility I was given ample training from well-experienced seniors on how to appropriately perform my job.

At this job I was responsible for collecting and testing water samples, recording the results, and insuring transport to labs for additional testing. For this position I had to have my driving capabilities evaluated and have formal instruction on safe handling of chemicals as well as procedures for working safely on the waterfront. The training was usually formal, and it was also confirmed by my superiors that I had a thorough understanding.

I have found that, as a student, the quality of work training you receive depends on the level of accountability that institution is held up to. Large corporations and government agencies seem to be held to a very high standard.

While smaller businesses may struggle with how best to train their employee, MySafeWork provides both employers and their employees an educational service to assist in creating a safe work environment.

Don Levy

Don Levy wants to help immigrants and youth learn how to ask tough questions on the job – questions that could save them life or limb – and he knows first-hand that it isn’t easy to do. As an 18-year-old who immigrated to Canada from Jamaica to attend university in Toronto, and has stayed in the GTA ever since, Don recalls – decades later – his first job in Canada, washing pots at a restaurant. His family was poor, and he had to work to pay for university. “It never occurred to me to question anything at work; I didn’t want to mess up a chance to earn money.”

Today, as the Managing Director and Senior Financial Advisor, Confido Wealth Management Group at Manulife Securities Incorporated, located in Oakville, Ontario, Don is well positioned to be able to mentor youth, including those new to Canada, and he is especially well connected with the Jamaican-Canadian community. For example, he volunteers for Project for the Advancement of Childhood Education PACE Canada which raises money for school-age children in Jamaica. For 2013, Don’s company has committed to playing a bigger role in PACE, including its annual fundraiser.

Don has been a personal friend of the Ellis family for about 12 years, soon after they lost their teenage son, David, in a workplace accident. Don didn’t know David Ellis well, but he has fond memories working alongside David’s sister, Jess, and their mom, Jean, giving free tutoring to economically challenged youth in Burlington. He is beginning to get involved now in the Ellis family’s not-for-profit organization, MySafeWork – formerly known as Our Youth at Work Association – created in 1999 shortly after David’s death. Rob Ellis and his daughter, Jess, travel to schools and workplaces across Canada to discuss their own loss and the importance of workers speaking out for their safety rights.

“I’ve heard Rob speak on a couple of occasions,” says Don. “It really resonates with me that some of the most vulnerable segments – such as young people and immigrants – are the ones often exposed to the greatest amount of risk in workplaces in blue collar and factory jobs… Anything I can do to bring awareness to this issue, to improve conditions I am certainly happy to do.”

Don Levy and Rob Ellis got together recently and came up with the idea of a “Jamaica Charter of Courage” similar to the Safety Charter already in play among a national network of schools and employers to whom MySafeWork has circulated a Team Canada hockey jersey to sign as a pledge to workplace safety. The Jamaican Charter of Courage initiative has the potential to reach young leaders in Jamaica as well as in Canada, says Rob. Don notes that the timing is good insofar as Jamaica just celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence as a nation, and 50 years of Jamaica’s official relations with Canada.

The Jamaica Charter of Courage includes the circulation of a soccer-style jersey in some of the colors of Jamaica (gold, green and black) among the Jamaica-Canadian community – to gather signatures of people willing to show their support for workplace safety advocacy. Don has already signed the jersey, and he is presenting it to his friend and former employer, The Honourable Michael Lee-Chin, a Jamaican-born Canadian business magnate, investor and philanthropist. Don worked for Lee-Chin when his company, Berkshires Security, acquired the National Commercial Bank from the Jamaica government; Don spent time in Jamaica 2002 – 2004 helping recruit financial advisers on the island and training them in investment.

Don will also take the Jamaica Charter of Courage jersey to be signed by attendees at the prestigious Reverend John C. Holland Awards in February – named for John C. Holland (1887-1954) who started out as a newspaper boy and became the first African-Canadian to be named “Citizen of the Year” in any community in Canada. The awards honour those who continue to work diligently in the spirit of John Holland. “Jamaican leadership will raise the profile of workplace safety and help us find more effective lines of communication into the Caribbean community – everybody wins when courage is introduced to a younger generation.”

“It takes courage to leave a place and go to one you’ve never known,” says Don Levy. “It takes courage to speak up and point out injustices and inequities; it’s easier to say nothing.” As a parent himself, he has watched one daughter go through the first-employment process. “Rob Ellis’ message was very cognizant in my mind when she was looking at jobs… she was only concerned with the pay and the hours, though, actually just with getting any work experience,” Don says. “She didn’t ask a lot of questions, didn’t want to rock the boat in any way… like most kids.” He adds that, sadly, learning “how some employers can take advantage of kids was an eye opener.”

Don and Rob’s plan is to get many leaders from the Caribbean community in Canada to participate in a large community event in Oakville and Toronto, with media coverage, and with senior government officials and CEOs also participating.

For more information about the Jamaica Charter of Courage, please contact Don Levy at don@confidowealth.ca

Check out MySafeWork at mysafework.com and on Twitter @mysafework.

But it’s not just the slow food movement that has been growing in popularity, the “slow movement” as a whole has been flourishing. There are now “slow cities,” “slow medicine,” and “slow parenting.” There is even an International Slowness Day!

What can this slow movement teach us about work? I think there are a couple of things. First, there are certain jobs in which speed is physically risky. Trying to rush around the kitchen at a restaurant, or in the warehouse, is asking for trouble. But the speed at which we are working is also hazardous to the people who are in, what would seem like, safe jobs. For example, in his book, In Praise Of Slowness: Changing the Cult of Speed, Carl Honoré writes:

“When you accelerate things that should not be accelerated, when you forget how to slow down, there is a price to pay… Long hours on the job are making us unproductive, error-prone, unhappy and ill. Doctor’s offices are swamped with people suffering from conditions brought on by stress: insomnia, migraines, hypertension, asthma and gastrointestinal trouble, to name but a few. The current work culture is also undermining our mental health. ‘Burnout used to be something you mainly found in people over forty,’ says one London-based life coach. ‘Now I’m seeing men and women in their thirties, and even their twenties, who are completely burned out.’”

The speed at which we are trying to get things done is harming us. Sometimes it’s killing us. In Japan they even have a word for people who die from working too much – karoshi. We know that the long hours and the speed at which we are working is not healthy, but there’s more. It seems, financially, that the long hours and fast work is not paying off.

Honoré writes, “The National Safety Council estimates that job stress causes a million Americans to miss work every day, costing the economy over $150 billion annually.”

Perhaps it’s time that we started developing a healthier pace of work. We have no problem telling people not to drink and drive but the truth is that drowsiness is killing more people at the wheel than alcohol. Maybe we need to start challenging one another to keep a more sustainable pace for the sake of our safety, health, and even for the sake of our economy.

Rob with some of the “vulnerable workers” of Ontario

I am honoured to be appointed to one of the new tasks groups created by the government of Ontario, as part of the recommendations of the Expert Advisory Panel on Occupational Health and Safety.Each of the two tasks groups – one devoted to Vulnerable Workers and the other to Small Businesses – has 12 members: six who are worker representatives and six who are employer representatives. They are expected to study the issues, gather information and report back over a period of not more than 30 months.

I am one of the Worker Reps on the Vulnerable Workers task group. “Vulnerable worker” is being defined by the Ontario government as those workers who have “a greater exposure than most workers to conditions hazardous to health and safety and who lack the power to alter those conditions.” These include:

• Young workers
• Recent immigrants
• Workers new to their jobs or in new companies.
• Foreign workers hired to address temporary or seasonal labour shortages and employed primarily in agriculture, hotel/hospitality and construction.
• Workers with very low wages holding multiple part-time jobs and workers in the temporary staffing industry.

You can find all the representatives – for the workers and for employers – for the Vulnerable Workers and the Small Business task groups listed on this Ontario Ministry of Labour web page.

This appointment to the task group will be a fantastic avenue for me to meet other leaders who view things differently than conventional thinking around workplace safety. At MySafeWork these days, we are also thinking we will create a new video/PSA in high schools or at a university, to reach vulnerable workers with our message about workplace safety.

I will be posting here about developments as they unfold in the task group about vulnerable workers (and that I am allowed to talk about prior to our final report to the government by mid-2015).