January 19, 2006

ONTARIO MINISTRY OF LABOUR

Labour Minister Steve Peters (front row centre) and Assistant Deputy Minister Helle Tosine (seventh from the left) with 32 new health and safety inspectors following their graduation last August at the Ontario Heritage Centre.

Safety inspectors having a positive impact

DAN O’REILLY

correspondent

TORONTO

The province is making good on its promise to hire additional Ministry of Labour health and safety inspectors to cut down on workplace injuries and deaths.

In July 2004, then Minister of Labour Chris Bentley announced the province would hire 200 new inspectors — almost doubling its existing 230 inspector workforce — over a two-year period to achieve a goal of preventing 60,000 workplace injuries a year by 2008.

Based on the average cost of a workplace injury, eliminating 60,000 injuries annually will also translate into savings for businesses of up to $960 million per year.

Recruitment of the first 100 candidates began immediately and initially targeted 6,000 workplaces with the highest injury rates, including construction sites as determined based on workers’ compensation claims filed with the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB), Bentley said at the time.

“To date, 131 inspectors and have been hired and remaining 69 will be hired by May,” says Vic Pakalnis, the Ministry official in charge of recruitment and training.

By next December, that final contingent of inspectors will have completed two phases of three months’ training. Seventy of the 200 new inspectors will focus on the construction sector, he says.

There’s been overwhelming interest in the program with 5,000 applications alone for the remaining 69 positions, says Pakalnis.

Applicants are required to have five years “of good standing” in the industry sector they will be monitoring. In other words, construction inspectors must have a construction background.

Short-listed candidates also go through a rigorous two-stage interview process and successfully pass a series of behavioural and technical tests. That screening process is necessary because of the complex and difficult nature of a safety inspector’s role, says Pakalnis.

“They must have patience and know how to keep their cool. It’s a tough job, making decisions on disputes that can involve two or multiple parties, and often under conflict. They must have the right stuff and have a passion for the work. It’s not just another job.”

Once hired, they receive a first-phase three months of training to enable them to conduct inspections. After working in the field for a few months, the inspectors return to the classrooms for three more months of training which qualifies them to conduct investigations and testify at coroner’s inquests. The Ministry of Labour conducts the training sessions with the assistance of the Construction Safety Association of Ontario and various safety associations, says Pakalnis.

Judging by the comments of some construction representatives, the safety inspectors now on the job are making an impact.

“I’ve have had some feedback that the new inspectors are giving tickets rather than warnings. I think that’s a positive, rather than a negative thing. Certain safety violations such as not wearing safety boots or helmets or tying down safety harnesses should be obvious,” says Pat Dillon, business manager of the Provincial Building & Construction Trades Council of Ontario.

“But I would be upset if only workers were getting tickets and not the supervisors. It (safety) is a dual responsibility.”

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