PrintOn April 28, 2024, the Workers Day of Mourning, fears remain Alberta is still chipping away at worker safety
Members of United Nurses of Alberta serve on the front lines of a health care system battered by intentional government underfunding, massive politically motivated reorganization, and a worldwide shortage of health care workers, including Registered Nurses and Registered Psychiatric Nurses.
This Sunday, April 28, 2024, UNA members mark the International Day of Mourning for workers killed, injured, or made ill on the job.
As they do, they and other workers realize our provincial government’s policies are chipping away at worker safety and health so that the struggle to make our workplaces safer continues to move in the wrong direction.
After passage of the “Ensuring Safety and Cutting Red Tape Act” in 2020, Alberta workers saw rights they needed to ensure their safety at work significantly rolled back.
Changes done in the name of reducing red tape included watering down the Joint Health and Safety Committee system, eliminating requirements for workers to participate in worksite safety inspections, and eroding the right of workers to refuse unsafe work by making it easier for employers to punish workers who refused dangerous work.
Now the government says it is reviewing Part 27 of the Occupational Health and Safety Code, which deals with violence and harassment in the workplace.
Given Alberta policy on occupational health and safety in recent years, this is not likely to be good news for working people, especially UNA members.
When we hear slogans like “red tape reduction” and “modernization,” we legitimately fear the government will further weaken regulations that keep nurses and other health care workers safe.
Part 27 as it is now written requires employers to develop a plan, policy and procedure with requirements for corrective actions to mitigate violence in the workplace. Employers must also do a review when violent incidents take place.
This is not enough, but the concern now is that the Part 27 review will result in further weakening of the Code’s already inadequate protections.
UNA OHS Advisor Dewey Funk warned recently that the Ministry of Jobs, Economy and Northern Development goes into the OHS Code Part 27 review intending to combine the language concerning harassment and violence, which would take away the prescriptive components that employers are required to follow. The requirements in a harassment procedure must remain independent.
“The work of nursing must be done with renewed attention to the safety of health care workers, their patients, their families and friends, and everyone who uses medical facilities in Alberta,” said UNA President Heather Smith.
“The government’s misplaced priorities in health care and its hostility to regulation that is needed to ensure health care facilities are safe places is a real and glowing concern,” she said. “Nurses will never let their patients down, but they are very tired of being let down by health care leaders and politicians.”
In-person gatherings will be held in Red Deer, Calgary, and Edmonton.
Red Deer
April 26, 2024
11:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Bower Ponds Stage
4715 Fountain Drive, Red Deer
Calgary
April 28, 2024
Starting at 12 noon
City of Calgary Workers Memorial
Edward Place Park (Southeast corner of City Hall)
9th Avenue & Macleod Trail S.E.
Edmonton
April 28, 2024
Starting at 11 a.m.
Grant Notley Park
116 Street & 100 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
