British Columbia Federation of Labour

Ceremonies will take place throughout the province tomorrow, including a ceremony hosted by the Federation tomorrow morning in Surrey's Bear Creek Park.

"We're still witnessing far too many workplace fatalities and injuries that can be prevented if we step up enforcement," said Federation President, Jim Sinclair.

"Since last year's ceremony, after the labour movement demanded stepped up enforcement, we've seen three critical areas where frequent, serious safety violations exist in BC workplaces," Sinclair stated.

Last year an inspection blitz by the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) of 300 forest industry job sites resulted in 650 orders for compliance issued by the Board. As well, a WCB inspection blitz of 366 gas stations, according to the WCB, "found significant levels of non-compliance with safety regulations."

Following the deaths of three women farmworkers in March, re-instated road side spot checks found that 37 percent of farm labour passenger vans failed to meet safety standards. The failures included 51 vans that had mechanical violations, 18 cases of load security violations and nine vans failed because the driver did not have the correct class of license.

Working with the families of crash victims, the Federation presented 29 recommendations to the provincial government to protect the lives and improve the working conditions of BC farmworkers. The government has yet to respond.

Tomorrow's event will include a special focus on farmworkers, in honour of the women killed and injured in the crash of an overloaded van on Highway 1, east of Abbotsford, on March 7, 2007.

"Deaths like these could be prevented if we had appropriate safety rules in place, and more importantly, enforcement of those rules," Sinclair added.

Sinclair also noted that in a five-year period, inspection reports by the WCB decreased by 30 percent, compliance orders by 20 percent and the number of penalties imposed by WCB decreased by 54 percent.

Last year 160 workers died from a work-related accident or disease; including:

 12 workers between the ages of 15 and 24; 
22 forestry workers and 39 construction workers;
 61 workers who died from occupational disease; and
4723 workers were permanently injured as a result of a workplace accident.

The Federation's Occupational Health and Safety Committee will be in Victoria to meet with MLAs and press the case, not only for improved safety standards and enforcement, but also restoration of compensation rights for injured workers, that were stripped in 2003.

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For more information contact: Jessie Uppal 604-430-1421 or 604-220-0739