Update From ALIGN E.D. Sept 24, 2018
The Ministry of Labour is doing another focused inspection program for group care facilities – the program is from October 1, 2018 to January 31, 2019. The goal is to change the culture of the workplace to ensure violence is not tolerated or at least mitigated appropriately for workers. On Friday last week I met with a number of Ministry of Labour staff and staff from Ministry of CS and CSS regarding their plan to continue with the focused inspection this year starting October 1 – January 31 , 2019. Given that group care is considered a high risk industry and that when they inspected last year there was low compliance on hazard assessments they are feeling a need to continue to inspect with the goal of decreasing incidents and trying to change the culture of workers feeling that violence in the workplace is part of the job. We all know that we work with people that are traumatized and can be violent but employers have a responsibility to ensure that workers are well briefed on circumstance regarding the people they work with and on what to do should incidents happen. The new legislation and safety management systems are expected to be helpful in this area. Related attachments were distributed to all ALIGN Member E.D.’s via email September 24, 2018.
Rhonda Barraclough Executive Director rhondab@alignab.ca