:: rawblogXport ::

:: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 ::

A Death in the Woods - By Gordon Hamilton, Vancouver Sun
In an interview Brown said "something is wrong" with the industry's safety record but he said change has to begin at the top. He said the licensees and WorkSafeBC are at the top.
Brown said contractors are distrustful of the current situation. They feel too much liability has been transferred to them and that if they report what is taking place, they, as companies themselves, will be penalized by WorkSafeBC, formerly the Workers Compensation Board.

"It's like a pyramid and if you want to change the stones in a pyramid, you have to start at the top," he said. "For the companies to change, WCB is going to have to change."

Brown said he would not comment on what happened on Black Jack Ridge, saying he wanted to wait until WorkSafeBC issues its report.

"The fact that we lost a good comrade is enough for now."

Ensure safety or face law, CEOs told - By Gordon Hamilton, Vancouver Sun
Forest industry chief executive officers have been told they and their boards will be held criminally liable if they do not discharge their workplace safety responsibilities.

In a Nov. 30 letter that went out to forest company heads, WorkSafeBC chairman Douglas Ennes said the agency is establishing joint investigation protocols with police forces in the province 'to facilitate criminal referrals where warranted with regard to serious workplace injuries and fatalities.'

Ennes said the agency, formerly called the Workers Compensation Board, is relying on a 2004 Criminal Code change that holds negligent companies accountable for their actions. It arose in response to the 1992 Westray mine disaster in Nova Scotia, in which 26 miners were killed.

Forty one forest workers have been killed this year in the B.C. industry and another 193 seriously injured.

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