The pressures on oilfield services to continually improve worker safety and protection are relentless, as they should be. Safety first. Drive to zero. Everybody on any worksite should be able to work safely and go home healthy. The determination of the upstream oil and gas industry to deliver has been relentless for over three decades.
And it’s working. For 2015 Alberta’s WCB reports mining and petroleum development again had the lowest lost time accident rate and disabling injury rate of any industrial sector by a large margin. For LTAs, the oilpatch was one-eighth of Municipal Government, Education and Health Services.
A key element to the industry-wide determination to be safe is drug and alcohol testing. From driving to and from remote locations to working with heavy machinery, high pressures and flammable and poisonous hydrocarbons, there is no such thing as too safe. Please come to work. But for the safety of yourself and colleagues, don’t work impaired.
Attempts to introduce mandatory drug testing have been regularly challenged in the courts and our safety-conscious industry has consistently lost for human rights considerations. The latest twist is courts treating impairment test failure as an employer’s “duty to accommodate.” Should a worker who tests positive for drugs or alcohol be terminated, that employee can challenge the firing by claiming to have a dependency defined as a “disability,” not reckless behavior. Increasingly provincial governments and human rights commissions are saying even if the worker knowingly appears on the jobsite impaired, employers are being forced to rehabilitate, not terminate.
Enter the pending legalization of marijuana promised by the current federal government. Medical marijuana dispensaries are increasingly appearing in all major urban centres. This is because marijuana is regarded as a treatment for certain medical ailments. This is one of the fastest growing industries in the country. In an article on investingnews.com on February 22, 2017 there were no less than 27 publicly traded companies moving into the legal pot industry. The growth will accelerate when recreational consumption of marijuana is legalized.
Meanwhile, concerned employers are urging Ottawa and the provinces to think this through. On December 21, 2016, nine major trade associations including, PSAC and CAPP, wrote several federal cabinet ministers including the ministries of Justice, Safety, Transport and Employment pleading, “As the employers of hundreds of thousands of workers across Canada, we feel it is imperative that several issues and concerns are addressed prior to or at the same time as the legislation to legalize marijuana is introduced.”
Other concerned employers included the Canadian Construction Association, Canadian Fuels Association, Canadian Trucking Alliance, Canadian Urban Transit Association, Federal Regulated Employers, Railway Association of Canada, and Toronto Transit Commission. That covers just about every moving piece of heavy industrial equipment in the country.
After stating in detail the obvious hazards of workers impaired by pot consumption prior to or on the job can create for themselves and others, the associations urged the federal government to concurrently introduce an acceptable and measurable marijuana impairment standard as in the case for alcohol; clear and enforceable workplace drug and alcohol enforcement regulations; and more legal balance in favor of the employer for the “duty to accommodate” issue.
The determination of the upstream oil and gas industry to become as safe as it can be for the past three decades is admirable. Interestingly, it is still considered dangerous and unregulated by many despite significant statistical evidence to the contrary.
But for governments to demand and enforce high standards for safety while simultaneously creating obstacles like those described above is not only unfair but just plain wrong.
#safety #workplacesafety #workplace #government #Alberta #WCB
