Sick Days management

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A big thank you to Anna-Maria Parente, a EHSCBC board member and Chief Human Resources Officer at SureWerx for her presentation on Sick day management.  Over the course of the presentation, she covered many strategies, policies, and opportunities to better manage sick days, absenteeism, work from home and proactive ways to help prevent abuse of sick days. 

 

By sharing how her company deals with many of these issues others were able to learn new methods and how to better track sick days and build strong polices.  Additionally, Anna-Maria identified some of the behaviours that could indicate potential misuse of sick days.  During the conversation other issues, like differences between unionized workers and nonunionized workers, KPI bonuses, doctors’ notes, and encouraging people to stay home when they are still contagious were discussed.

This forum was recorded for members to review at a later date.

General Roundtable Discussion

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Unfortunately, the speaker for the day was sick and was not able to attend. She will be presenting in February, hopefully better by then!  As such, a general roundtable discussion was held instead, focusing on topics like sick days and employees working from home.  

The meeting started with a quick video “Getting to Zero”, an important reminder that no injuries or fatalities is the target.

 

A brief discussion was held on TexMed, a company used by some members to enhance their “return to work” programs.

One member shared his thoughts on sick days and working from home, including that his company had increased their sick day policy from 3 to 5 days.  A discussion ensued around the uncertainty of new government legislation around increasing sick days, and whether the new government will be making any major changes.  More conversation was based on the differences between unionized and nonunionized policies, and how they are often similar but there are differences.

Other members brought up that they were still experiencing COVID related sicknesses, and that they were often short staffed as 2-3 people would be ill at the same time.

The next virtual breakfast forum will be on January 23rd, with guest speaker Michael Wrinch from Hedgehog Technologies.

Falcon’s Journey to COR certification

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Blair Norberg of Falcon Equipment walked members through Falcon’s journey in their COR certification.  The COR program has been an instrumental insurance policy that has given management peace of mind that all staff have proper tools, and that Falcon is providing a safe working environment and that everyone will go home safe to their families every night. 

Falcon has also seen a significant savings on premium rates over time due to implementing COR.  There are definitely costs to implementing COR, but Blair stated that there would be a much larger cost to the business if there was an incident.  Blair reiterated that safety is an on-going practice and a continuing journey.  Thank you Blair for the great presentation!

2024 EHSCBC Round Table a HUGE success

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Road Saftey at Work

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In today’s Virtual Breakfast Forum, Trace Acres, the Executive Director at Road Safety at Work, spoke about the importance of increasing the safety of employees driving. 

Motor vehicle incidents are the single leading cause of traumatic workplace death in BC (30%), and 18 people are killed every year in BC in vehicle workplace incidents.  The aim of the Road Safety at Work organization is to help employers increase the safety of employees driving.  

A work driver is defined as any employee who drives a vehicle, it could be a company owned or leased vehicle, or it could be their own vehicle.  Road Safety at Work has many free resources for employers, including toolkits, tailgate meeting guides, online courses, webinars, workshops, and templates. 

Check out their website at https://roadsafetyatwork.ca.

Technical Safety BC Annual Report 2024

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In today’s Virtual Breakfast Forum, members and guests heard from Kate Baillie, VP Marketing and Communications at Technical Safety BC.  Kate shared that they have launched their safety report called The State of Technical Safety in the province of BC 2023.

Kate shared a few incidents that occurred in 2023, and discussed what led to those incidents.

A few questions were posed for the members, including :

  • How do you assess the decision-making and communication of supervisors at your own organization?;
  • what controls do you have in place to ensure the more junior employees are instructed and supervised properly?; and
  • how do you ensure that employees know that timely communication is important for safety? And how do you ensure they feel safe to call out potential risk?

Members had a very interactive conversation around these questions, citing examples from within their own organizations.

Thank you Kate for the wonderful presentation. This session was recorded, for any members to review at their leisure.

The next VBF will be on July 18th, with a presentation from Trace Acres of Road Safety at work.

Doug’s Story

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A compelling firsthand experience

Doug Hutton recounted his Oct 28, 1976, incident and the physical, mental, and financial aftermath. Doug was working on a live panel board, replacing breakers, and an arc flash occurred.  He was the victim of a huge electrical shock and burn, and was admitted to the Burn Unit at VGH with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree burns.

It was a year plus road to recovery, with many physical and mental hurdles.  Fortunately, Doug recovered after many surgeries and procedures.  It helped that he was a non-smoker as smoking slows healing and delays tissue repair.  Doug was on time-loss for 1.5 years, affecting the financials of the company he worked for as those costs were charged against the company.

After more similar accidents occurred, WCB changed the regulations.  Burn matts, arc flash gear and strict protocols around live equipment are now required.

Doug retired in 2010 from Bridge Electric, but recently returned as a part-time Safety Coordinator.  He has a strong interest in safety, and he understands the perspectives of both the company and the individual when accident happens.  He also shares his story with other accident victims, schools, hospitals and companies in order to provide awareness. 

Thank you, Doug!

Following Doug’s presentation, Michael Roberts provided an update on upcoming WorkSafeBC changes.  It is undergoing a restructuring and there may be some random inspections coming with respect to bullying and harassment.

Abraham von Poortvliet provided an update recounting that accidents have decreased due to employing training and certifications.  Companies need to be responsible for safety.  It is beneficial to have both WCB inspections and holding companies accountable.

The next Council meeting will be on February 15th, with a presentation from Cassels Law.

Emergency Preparedness & Disaster Recovery

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In today’s well attended Virtual Breakfast Forum, two of our members spoke to the group regarding emergency preparedness and disaster recovery.

Mark Bunz, CEO of Dynaflex Group spoke to the group from his offices in Salmon Arm. The North Okanagan has very dry conditions, so the threat of fire/being prepared for fire is very real. Mark shared what his organization has done, particularly due to a recent threat of fire that was very near to his own home.

Some of his recommendations to the group were:

  • an event can happen on day shift, a night shift or weekend shift – ensure everyone on each shift is aware of what to do.
  • Make sure that all internal, external and client contact information is up to date.
  • Consider how could your organization support your employees with evacuation orders.  
  • Review your business structure – is there any way of mitigating total loss, by adjusting the location of where work is being done?
  • When creating a plan, be in the moment. It’s easy to create a plan when there are no pressures and you might overlook certain things.
  • Review your insurance coverage to be sure that you’re totally covered as organizations can grow, gain more equipment, have more stock and more property over the years. 
  • Do frequent reviews / drills with your team on all of your emergency plans to ensure the more fresh it is in your mind in the event that things do happen.

We then heard from Dann Konkin with Ampco Manufacturers out of Coquitlam. Dann spoke to us about a drill his organization had, regarding potential cyber security breaches. He shared that some of the organizations they work with now require business continuity/disaster recovery plans, including cyber security.

Dann and his team used the drill to identify and correct potential gaps in the business’s online presence. The drill took 2 hours to implement, and provided an insight into what could happen in the event of a cyber-attack.

Insurance brokers, such as Acera/Capri CMW, can provide free risk assessments on cyber security in your organizations.

Please join us for our last 2023 Virtual Breakfast Forum on Thursday, December 7th at 8:00am, where the speaker will be from the Employers Advisors Group (part of the Ministry of Labour). Their job is to help employers navigate WorkSafe BC. We welcome you to invite guests that you think might benefit from the presentation.

Moving into 2024, we will be holding Virtual Breakfast Forums once a month, every 3rd Thursday of the month.