Workplace safety has improved in Canada, but even so, 977 workers died in 2012 for an average of three per day. April 28th has been designated the National Day of Mourning to raise awareness about workers injured, killed or afflicted with an occupational illness while on the job.
Workplace safety rules and compensation bodies exist in Canada’s provinces and territories. And the statistics are drawn from those cases where compensation benefits have been paid out. Labour unions say that means we are only getting part of the picture.
“Hundreds more die from under-reported illnesses and occupational diseases that go unrecognized in the compensation systems,” says the Canadian Labour Congress, the large union which first established the National Day of Mourning exactly 30 years ago.
Most fatalities in contruction
Construction industries accounted for 22 per cent of fatalities, with manufacturing in second place with 19 per cent.
Health and social service industries accounted for the highest number of injuries on the job. That’s 17 per cent of the 245,365 workplace injuries in Canada in 2012.
Manufacturing was second and construction third on the injuries graph.
Safety standards decreased injuries, say unions
The number of work-related injuries has fallen dramatically since the late 1980s, according statistics. The labour movement attributes much of that drop to improving health and safety standards in the workplace.
Nevertheless, an average of 672 workers were injured every day on the job in Canada in 2012.
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