Manitoba Heavy Construction Association

Celebrating 75 GROUNDBREAKING years in 2018 THURSDAY MARCH 22, 2018 15 A SUPPLEMENT TO THE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS M anitoba Heavy Construction Association (MHCA) President Chris Lorenc was an employer representative on the 2005 Workers Compensation Act legislative review task force, which recommended that the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) make prevention of workplace injuries a top priority. e MHCA has been a leader on that front since 1990, having developed, delivered and expanded a successful workplace safety and education program, branded as WORKSAFELY™ in 2011. "If we focus simply on responding to accidents, then we're accepting that they are inevitable," says Lorenc, who also served on the 2017 review task force and currently sits on the WCB's board of directors, as chair of its prevention sub-committee. "I'd like to believe that with investment in education and training, with investment in workplace practices and procedures, we can significantly reduce exposure risk to injury — to its severity, to its duration, to its frequency. And I think what the record of our program shows is that those objectives have consistently been addressed, and successfully." e 2005 task force recommended that WCB's mandate should include a focus on prevention and that the province's Workplace Safety and Health branch should have a mandate for enforcement. SAFE Work Services (the precursor to SAFE Work Manitoba) originated as a department within the WCB in 2007. Over the next five years, SAFE Work Services worked closely with WORKSAFELY™ and the Winnipeg Construction Association's Construction Safety Association of Manitoba (CSAM). ese industry organizations played a vital role in promoting safety and delivering services that directly improved outcomes, including growing the COR™ (Certificate of Recognition) program. Since MHCA began delivering the COR™ program in 2000, WCB has seen time-loss injury rates drop from 5.6 per 100 hundred workers to 2.8 in 2017. Today, Manitoba's average WCB premiums are the lowest in Canada. In 2014, SAFE Work Manitoba was established as an arm's-length organization funded and operated by the WCB. Along with public awareness campaigns, it has expanded its scope to focus on several key areas. Some of its initiatives have been modelled aer similar safety programs successfully implemented in the construction sector. Jamie Hall, SAFE Work Manitoba's Chief Operating Officer, explains that one of the organization's strategic priorities has been to work with other industries to create industry-based safety programs. Since 2014, new industry-based safety programs have been developed in the trucking, manufacturing and motor vehicle industries. A newer program in the agricultural industry is finding its feet, and public organizations and Crown corporations recently established their own industry-based safety program. "e industry-based programs in construction, MHCA's WORKSAFELY™ program and CSAM, served as successful examples as other industries started down this path," says Hall. He adds the success of the construction industry's COR™ program, as well as active participation by the construction industry, helped in establishing a new certification program for all industries. "We could show in the province that, in the construction sector, COR™ reduced injuries, and we wanted to bring that same success to other industries." Starting in 2018, companies that are SAFE Work Certified for a 12-month period receive a 15 per cent rebate on their WCB premiums through the Prevention Rebate Program. Since COR™ certification is recognized under this program, construction companies are expected to reap the lion's share of about $8 million that will be returned to employers in Manitoba this year. A SAFETY ROLE MODEL FOR ALL INDUSTRIES Sales Rental Parts Service The Complete Source For All Your Aggregate Needs! www.genagg.ca Winnipeg | 204-697-9600 841 Oak Point Hwy, Winnipeg, MB Regina | 306-757-2400 18 McLeod Road, Regina, SK SINCE 2000, WCB REPORTS TIME-LOSS INJURY RATES HAVE FALLEN FROM 5.6 PER 100 WORKERS TO 2.8 MANITOBA'S HEAVY CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY HAS PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE WIDENING FOCUS ON WORKPLACE INJURY AND ILLNESS PREVENTION IN OUR PROVINCE.

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