Putting Standards to Work for Health and Safety

2007-02-28

Small and medium-sized enterprises in Canada have a new ally in attracting productive and skilled workers to safe workplaces. The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) has introduced Canada's first consensus-based occupational health and safety management standard.

The new standard, titled CSA Z1000-06, Occupational Health and Safety Management, provides companies of all sizes with a model for integrating workplace health and safety principles into their management practices.

Canada currently ranks among the worst of developed nations in occupational health and safety, with an average of three people a day dying as a result of workplace injuries and disease. The rate of workplace injury is especially high among young workers. More than 100,000 Canadians between 15 and 24 years old, were reported injured on the job in 2005.

Robert M. Griffin, President and CEO of the CSA Group, finds the statistics troubling.

“This is Canada, a G8 country with one of the highest GDPs in the world," Griffin says. "It's difficult to believe that more than 900 workers die every year in a nation as advanced as ours.”

The new standard may help to change that. It’s particularly good news for workplace safety advocate Rob Ellis, himself the former owner of an industrial kitchen equipment manufacturing company.

“When businesses want to attract bright, enthusiastic and skilled young workers, the workers that are going to support Canada’s economy in the 21st century, these workers have to see that the prospective employers has the highest standards of education and training,” says Ellis.

In February 1999, Ellis lost his 18-year-old son David when he died after becoming entangled in a dough mixer at a local bakery. He was on his second day of a temporary job.

“When I sent David out the door that morning, I assumed the company he was working for was operating to the same high standards as mine,” Ellis says. “I could not have been more mistaken.

“This new CSA standard is a way for small and medium-sized businesses to show that they are committed to a workplace where knowledge and safety are shared from the top down, from the executive office to every employee,” Ellis explains.

The standard was developed with input from a broad range of Canadian stakeholders. It uses a Plan-Do-Check-Act approach to provide an overall framework to assist in managing preventive and protective measures, emergency preparedness, training, procurement issues, documentation, legal and many other safety-related requirements.

Integral to CSA Z1000 is the participation of all workers in the operation of the management system. Not only does this ensure that everyone understands the particular health and safety risks associated with their job, it also gives employees a chance to see how they are contributing to the organization's safety and success.

“[CSA] Z1000 differentiates us from other countries because we’ve made a real effort to engage workers,” says Leonard Sassano, Director of Strategic Alliances and Corporate Development, Industrial Accident Prevention Association (IAPA).

IAPA not only contributed to the development of CSA Z1000, it is also providing training to organizations interested in implementing the new standard.

While he sees significant opportunity for CSA Z1000 to improve workplace health and safety in Canada, Sassano acknowledges that selling the standard to smaller organizations may be a challenge:

“Small businesses have many competing priorities they have to manage day-in and day-out, says Sassano.”

For his part, Ellis is hopeful that small and medium-sized businesses will see the overall benefits of the new standard.

“To me, saying you follow a standard such as CSA Z1000 is like showing both customers and prospective employees that your company is five-star,” notes Ellis.

Implementing CSA Z1000 encourages a more systematic approach to meeting defined occupational health and safey objectives and helps increase awareness of health and safety in the workplace. It’s an approach Ellis sees as a win-win proposition for owners, managers and employees alike.

“Knowledge is the key – having enthusiastic employees is not enough,” says Ellis. “Following standards indicates to both employees and customers that the company is pursuing a level of excellence.”

The standard is designed to be complementary to the actions of government in tackling the issue of worker safety and to be compatible with other management system standards that a company may already have in place, such as ISO 14001 (environmental management) and ISO 9001 (quality management).

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This article first appeared in volume 33 of CONSENSUS Magazine, 2006.  The information it contains was accurate at the time of publication but has not been updated or revised since, and may not reflect the latest updates on the topic.  If you have specific questions or concerns about the content, please contact the Standards Council of Canada.

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