Every worker has a right to safe workplace and to return home at the end of the day. How can health and safety monitoring help ensure all workers are protected?
Health and safety protocols are more important than ever.
The most important asset any business or organization has is their people. These workers and have the right to do their duties in a safe & secure workplace and to return home safely. Many industries present a host of health and safety risks, from construction sites, critical infrastructure properties, manufacturing facilities, and more. The injuries can range from falls, being struck by objects, as well as potential exposure to chemicals or harmful materials.
Businesses and organizations have health and safety protocols in the workplace that they set out for employees to follow, in accordance with the guidelines created by the Ontario Occupational Health & Safety Act, as well as similar legislations in other provinces. Ensuring the health and safety of all workers is of utmost importance, and measures need to be taken to minimize chances of workplace injury. (1)
There is also consideration of the liability, fines, and penalties that can be levied against a business if an incident occurs, as well as the potential for negative news and social media coverage. The provincial government has taken the issue of workplace safety very seriously, and in 2022 fines for workplace accidents increased from $100,000 to $1,500,000 for corporations, and from $100,000 to $500,000 for individuals. (2)
Businesses are legally required to pass routine health and safety inspections by the Canadian Ministry of Labour, but even the most diligent of businesses can struggle to ensure the health and safety of their workers on a daily basis.
Recent incidents highlight the need for health and safety monitoring.
Unfortunately, there have been many instances of workplace injuries in recent years. According to data collected by the City of Hamilton, there were four workplace deaths in the city in 2022 alone. Those who have been affected by workplace injuries and local health and safety advocates say that there will always be accidents, but all agree that more can be done to prevent those accidents from occurring in the first place. (3)
In September 2023, an Ontario manufacturer was fined $50,000 after a workplace injury occurred on the job site. A worker was injured after putting their hand in a piece of equipment to access a malfunctioning valve. The Ontario government found that certain staff had been given keys to shut off the machines, but not the correct occupational health and safety training to ensure the keys were used properly. This lead to confusion as to what protocols should be followed in that particular instance, and unfortunately, the worker was injured as a result. (4)
In October 2023, an Ontario dairy manufacturer was fined $75,000 after a worker was injured by a piece of machine equipment. The company was fined for failing to ensure the proper precautions were taken to protect the worker while they were troubleshooting the malfunctioning equipment. The provincial government investigation found that proper machine shutdown procedures were not followed before troubleshooting began, leading to the worker injury. (5)
In February 2024, a worker in Calgary, AB was taken to the hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries after a fall at a construction site. They fell into a large hole on-site, and emergency crews were dispatched to use their ladder truck to rescue them. (6)
Monitoring health and safety in the workplace could have made a difference by ensuring protocols were met, avoiding potential worker injury and company liability.
How does health and safety monitoring help ensure protocols are met?
Leveraging our robust proactive security technology is how we can help monitor health and safety in the workplace. Our Logistics team will first assess your site and determine optimal locations for camera placement – we can utilize your existing cameras or install our Video Security Units on-site. These units come equipped with two stationary cameras that provide a fixed view of the job site and a PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) camera to zoom in on important details that matter in the workplace. Our proprietary cellular LTE+ platform operates free of wired Internet infrastructure, and is a fully modular solution that can adapt to the needs of any job site from construction & critical infrastructure, to manufacturing and beyond.
These live camera feeds can be monitored in-house by your own health and safety team, or by our dedicated Monitoring professionals working alongside your team. Our Monitoring operators are trained to identify which protocols should be followed on work sites – PPE protocols, working from heights, as well as potential electrical, fire, and tripping hazards. When our operators observe an infraction, they will respond according to pre-determined response procedures established during consultation with the business. This can include informing management of the infraction, or communicating directly through our voice command speaker to the workers on-site.
All worksite monitoring information is available through our proprietary reporting platform, syncroReports. This platform is an effective tool to keep you fully abreast of every aspect of your site’s current health & safety adherence, while providing the framework and statistics that can be leveraged for improvement.
By employing health & safety monitoring at your property, you can help reduce the chance of workplace injury, provide a safer and positive work environment, and create a higher standard of safety for your job site.
Resources:
- “Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA)” Ontario Government
- “Working for Workers Act, 2022”
- “At least 4 workers died on the job in Hamilton last year”, Saira Peesker, CBC News, May 4, 2023
- “Mississauga Manufacturer Fined $50,000 After Workplace Injury”, Court Bulletin, Ontario.ca, September 22, 2023
- “Workplace Injury Results in $75,000 Fine for Dairy Products Manufacturer”, Court Bulletin, Ontario.ca, October 12, 2023
- “1 in serious condition after workplace injury in southeast Calgary”, Paula Tran, Global News, February 14, 2024