Nova Scotians Reminded to Make Safety Priority at Work

Nova Scotians will be walking, talking and learning to promote workplace safety as part of North American Occupational Safety and Health Week.

Safety events and workshops are being held across the province from May 5-11. The kickoff event was held today, May 6, at Pier 21. Hundreds of safety professionals, employers, employees and labour leaders attended to acknowledge the importance of workplace safety.

Other events happening throughout the week include a safety symposium in Sydney on Friday, May 10, and walks in support of families who are dealing with the trials of workplace injury and death.

"Too many lives have been lost in the workplace, and we are committed to changing that trend once and for all here in Nova Scotia," said Labour and Advanced Education Minister Frank Corbett. "Events like this symposium bring together the people who deal with safety issues every day on the shop floor, the construction site or even in the office boardroom, and get the discussions going on how we can all work together to make workplace incidents and deaths a thing of the past."

The symposium will be attended by employers, employees, contractors, safety professionals and leaders who will get updates on critical issues in accident prevention, and will discuss ways to make Cape Breton the safest and most efficient place to work and do business.

"Because we work in people's homes, we don't have one workplace, we have over a hundred," said Sabrina Vatcher with New Dawn Homecare in Cape Breton. "That is why implementing a safety program and getting staff involved and interested in safety was so important to us to ensure our workers are kept safe no matter where they are working.

"Since we implemented our safety program we have seen a dramatic decrease in the number of injuries. We talk about safety every single day at New Dawn, and all companies should do the same. We're looking forward to gathering ideas and sharing our success stories with our safety colleagues at the symposium so that we play our part in making sure every Nova Scotian comes home safe and uninjured from work."

In March, the province and the Workers' Compensation Board launched a new five-year workplace safety strategy that aims to make Nova Scotia the safest province in the country. The strategy was developed by thousands of Nova Scotians, for Nova Scotians, and focuses on leadership, increased education, training and partnership as ways to help increase safety in workplaces across the province.

"As we endorse the strategy and bring it to life, it has the capacity to take our approach from that of simply knowing about health and safety, to really caring about health and safety," said Stuart MacLean, CEO of the Workers Compensation Board. "It will help us move toward a strong safety culture in this province, where when it comes to work, we only do something if we can do it safely."

North American Occupational Safety and Health Week activities also included several five-kilometre walks in support of families who are suffering from a workplace fatality, a life-altering injury or occupational disease. The Steps for Life: Walking for Families of Workplace Tragedy events were held on Sunday, May 5, in Halifax, Sydney, Windsor, and Greenwood. The events work to raise money to provide support and healing for families and raise awareness about the importance of workplace health and safety.

For more information on North American Occupational Health and Safety Week, visit www.naosh.ca