Highland Valley Copper Safety Update Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) Inspection Report – 75277 For over 2 years, USW OSHEC Safety Committee members have tried to get the Company to take back injuries, road conditions and equipment disrepair seriously. The Union tried again this spring to start an internal investigation on the incredible amount of back injuries that our own members were sustaining on the property, proactively raising the issue with the employer, to no avail. The Company spent more time arguing over who had jurisdiction over the reports, than looking into the amount of injuries, or the root cause of them. This led us to file a complaint with the Ministry, which was regarding the lack of reporting of injuries to the Union, and the lack of investigation on those same injuries. MEM came on site over the course of 3 days in May to conduct an inspection at HVC, regarding the road conditions, back injuries to equipment operators and the investigations of injuries on site. Their findings are not surprising, but what did surprise us the most is the total amount of injuries sustained, and the lack of investigations being done. Remember, the Company is not sending the first aid reports for the majority of these first aids to the Union, deeming them non-occupational with no investigation. All of the six haul trucks that had vibration analysis done on them, FAILED their inspection. This means that those drivers have an increased risk of the development of chronic back pain in addition to other signs and symptoms of injury, including: abdominal pain, chest pain, nausea, loss of balance, spinal disc degeneration and spinal disc replacement. As written “If any workers experience these signs or symptoms of injury, consideration must be given to vibration being one of several potential contributing factors to their injury”. If any of these issue have arisen in your health, please immediately report to first aid to file a complaint. The report also pointed to the lack of follow up on OSEHC complaints of road conditions, with little to no follow up on complaints made. The report went on to state that over the course of 28 months, from 2015 till now, there have been a total of 77 first aid reports regarding back pain, 31 from Haul Truck drivers and 46 from equipment operators in Mine Operations. From the Unions investigation, out of those 77 first aid reports, we can only account for a few that were actually investigated by the Company. We recently had to force the Company to investigate three back injuries that were sustained several months ago, one going back as far as 18 months. It’s extremely important to remember Mr. Brouwer’s statement “We fully investigate every single serious and potentially serious safety incident.” This is just not true. We have employees currently in the modified center or even off work due to injury, with no investigation. But, they have had 100% compliance on investigating dead animals. Both a dead marmot and a dead goose. Dead animals are more important than you. Remember, the purpose of a safety investigation is to ensure that any and all incidents are investigated fully, so that with those answers in hand, we have an opportunity to ensure that it never happens again. The Company failed to investigate almost all of these injuries, allowing even more to occur, in some essence, purposely hurting people. This was after the Union made several attempts to launch investigations, or expressed concern over the frequency of injury. The worst part, is that these injuries were preventable. If the Company had done their due diligence, as required to in both the Mine’s code and the Collective Language, many of those 77 employees would not have the injuries they have sustained. It’s despicable. The report is attached below, and every single mine operations employee should read it. At this time, the Company has 60 days to comply to the MEM’s report, which will ensure that employees at HVC are not put at increased risk of musculoskeletal disorders. This should have happened years ago, and should have happened the first time the complaint was made, not after two years of complaints and after having to reach out to the Ministry. It always has been, and always will be, about money, not about safety. Protect yourselves, slow down and run your equipment to road conditions. It’s the only way to ensure that you do not end up with a long term, potentially life altering injury. Safety is ours. United Steelworkers Occupational, Health, Safety and Environment Committee
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
October 2018
Categories |