Every employee should have the right to feel safe when they go to work every day.
That’s why the Safety Advisory Committee helped draft better language to protect workers with new Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.
But the draft regulations have been collecting dust on the desks of both territorial ministers since 2011, and every year more workers die on the job because of it.
We insist the governments of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut approve the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations in their current state when both Legislative Assemblies resume in October 2014, as the Safety Advisory Committee recommended them.
Background:
· Sweeping changes proposed in the draft Occupational Health and Safety Regulations put together by the Safety Advisory Committee go a long way to ensuring better standards in workplaces all across the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
· The key to being safe in the workplace is establishing health and safety committees, joining together both workers and employers, and these new regulations will make this mandatory.
· Since 2004, 75 workers have been killed on the job in both territories, according to the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada.
· From September 2010 to March 2011, the Safety Advisory Committee carried out public consultation on the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.
· Forty-eight stakeholders offered more than 750 comments.
· The Safety Advisory Committee offered 18 recommendations, including the creation of Joint Workplace Health and Safety Committees in every workplace with more than 20 employees.
· Despite the overwhelming public support, the regulations has now been sent out to a third party for review.
· Please check out the proposed language at the WSCC Website http://www.wscc.nt.ca/YourWSCC/WhoWeAre/Pages/Legislation.asp
For more information, or to sign the e-petition, view the petition online at http://epetition.lant.public-i.tv/epetition_core/community/petition/2852