Most people are familiar with tickets for speeding and parking.
Now those same workers and employers who drive to work could also be slapped with a ticket for violating regulations governing occupational health and safety. The Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is currently holding consultation sessions across the North “about the possibility of creating a ticketing system to add to the regulatory toolbox for education purposes, and to facilitate enforcement.”
A ticketing system could carry summary $250 fines for employees and $2,000 fines for employers.
Under existing workplace law, persons charged under the NWT Safety Act must be taken to court. Charges aren't typically laid unless there is a serious incident involving injury or death. And the penalties are stiff: “every employer or person acting on behalf of an employer or person in charge of an establishment who is guilty of an offence” can face a fine up to $500,000 or be jailed for one year — or both.
So having an option to correct relatively minor violations, that if left unchecked could snowball into more dangerous situations, is a sensible idea.
It’s tragically clear that ignoring simple safety procedures can lead to injury or death.
This was made horribly clear in 2016, when 19-year-old David Vinnicombe was killed near Inuvik after the vibrating roller packer he was operating for Allen Services and Contracting Ltd. rolled over, pinning him underneath. A coroner's report stated Vinnicombe was not wearing a seat belt at the time, nor had he been given proper training on the safe use of such a large piece of heavy equipment.
The company was handed a $100,000 fine.
Would the threat of a much smaller fine prevented that death? It’s hard to say.
But a ticketing and fine protocol could be a more workable procedure for employers, because currently inspectors who witness a safety violation can only issue a verbal or written direction, or a stop-work order.
Employers should be providing safe work environments for themselves and employees. And receiving a ticket would have to be a better solution than have all work shut down. Or to have verbal or written directions go unheeded, placing workers at risk.
After all, who among us hasn’t slowed down once we have received a speeding ticket for even exceeding the limit by just a bit? Paying a fine wakes people up. Whether it be a heavy-footed driver on Franklin Avenue or a worker at a construction site who an inspector sees isn’t wearing proper personal protective equipment.
Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission — an arm's-length agency of the GNWT — says more needs to be done to get repeat offenders to change their ways and considers ticketing to be a relatively simple and immediate way to respond to health and safety infractions and that the threat of fines could preempt future violations.
While Yellowknifer supports in general the concept of a ticketing system in the workplace— this act doesn’t cover federal operations or mines — it must be administered with an even hand. It shouldn’t become a cash cow with some form of quota system for inspectors to meet, lest they become the butt of cynical humour from workers. Much as some police agencies are derided by motorists for staging speed traps or issuing tickets for exceeding a speed limit by just a few clicks — a situation that might just prompt a warning depending on how well you get along with the officer who pulled you over.
As long as the new ticketing and fines system is accompanied with an extensive education campaign, it could be a positive development.
While safety must be paramount in any endeavour, we also count on the GNWT — and its agencies — not to add more spools to the existing warehouse of red tape for business.