Alberta Injury Rates 10 Times Higher Than Reported

A fact sheet recently released by the Parkland Institute, a non-partisan public policy research institute in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta,  states that the Alberta Government is understating the numbers of workplace injuries that occur each year.

In 2009 the Alberta government reported some 53,000 workplace injuries, however, the group’s paper states the actual number of injuries in the province is 10 times that.

“The reason for the discrepancy,” says the papers author Bob Barnetson, “is that the only injuries the government discusses in public are the disabling injury claims. By not reporting on those injuries which do not result in lost or modified work, they are under representing the true rate of injury by a factor of ten.”

In October the Alberta government will begin issuing fines to enforce occupational health and safety, but Barnetson says that is not likely to make a significant difference to the total rates of injury in the province.

The fact sheet highlights that what truly makes a difference in reducing injury rates is direct worker participation in Occupational Health and Safety efforts. This is one of the reasons that unionization provides workers with a significant safety dividend, especially in Alberta, the only jurisdiction in Canada where joint (worker-employer) health and safety committees (JHSCs) are not mandatory for any size of workplace.

In addition to unionized workers being much more likely to have access to a JHSC, the fact sheet highlights other ways in which unions result in increased safety:

• in Alberta unions support workplace safety education for all workers;
• having a union in place increases the odds that a worker will feel they can refuse unsafe work;
• unions provide experienced staff to represent workers at workers’ compensation hearings;
• unions have a voice (often the only voice) at the table with government and can lobby for changes in legislation and participate in consultations; and
• Alberta unions have been at the forefront of pushing for greater statistical reporting of injuries, making it difficult for the government to continue downplaying the workplace risks.

“We are not trying to imply that unionization is the only way to improve workplace safety,” says Barnetson, “but the data certainly shows that unions provide a significant safety dividend that benefits all Alberta workers.”