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For Your Information Data on Workplace Fatalities and Injuries in Canada and InternationallyThe most recent statistics available on fatalities and injuries at the workplace in Canada are from the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada (AWCBC) and date back to 2017. The statistics indicate that in 2017 the number of workplace fatalities was 951, up from 905 in 2016, 852 in 2015 and 919 in 2014. This translates into 2.6 workplace deaths every day. Sectors with the highest number of fatalities were construction (217), manufacturing (160), government services (93) and transportation and storage (70). Of these fatalities, 333 were due to traumatic injuries and disorders and 590 to various occupational diseases. Amongst the 951 who died, 920 were men and 31 were women. Four were young workers aged between 15 and 19, 19 others were between 20-24 years old and another 19 were between the ages of 25 and 29. The comparison between data regarding fatalities and claims accepted for lost time due to a work-related injury or disease is revealing in terms of an obvious discrepancy in the evolution of both sets of figures. In Canada, from 1996-2000, the average number of claims for accepted lost time was 600,000 per year. From 2013 to 2017, it fell dramatically and some would say surprisingly to 240,000 a year. Meanwhile, the average number of work-related fatalities between 1996 to 2000 was 805 a year, rising to 905 per year between 2013 to 2017. This indicates a likely high number of unreported injuries even amongst unionized workers, but also a high number of claims that were either contested or rejected, as well as a massive shift of the workforce towards precarious employment of all kinds. Precarious employment continues to rise even amongst the workforce the monopolies employ. More and more work is being contracted out or in other ways made irregular. Precarious or irregular workers by definition are considered disposable. They can be swiftly replaced when they complain, are injured and file injury claims. Any action threatens the employment of the irregular worker. Many injuries and of course occupational diseases are unreported. The precarious nature of the work becomes part of the consciousness at work. The monopolies even exert pressure on subcontractors to the effect that their contracts may be lost if "their" workers complain, file injury claims or otherwise "cause trouble." Often, a company will deny that it has any link with
hired workers altogether. They may claim that they are just unknown
people sent by agencies and the real "boss" is the company handling the
contracting, which operate in ways similar to human traffickers. Not reporting accidents has a financial incentive for companies in certain provinces. Employers in Ontario are given government "rebates" if they reduce the number of injuries "their" workers report. In 2017, 251,625 claims were accepted for lost time due to a work-related injury or disease, up from 241,508 in 2016 and 232,629 in 2015 although these statistics are a far cry from the average 600,000 a year from 1996 to 2000. The current sectors with the highest number of claims accepted for lost time were health and social services (45,001), manufacturing (33,893), retail trade (27,392) and construction (26,510), the same sectors as in recent years, but with a higher level of accepted lost-time. The compensation system remains litigious and difficult, injured workers say. Their compensation benefits are routinely cut or reduced by the provincial or federal agency responsible. This takes place in some jurisdictions under the hoax of reviewing pre-existing conditions or through the cruel practice of deeming, when the agency assumes that a worker has been hired to a position even when this is not the case, or under the general watchword of eliminating the unfunded liability of the system and other schemes. Internationally, according to recent estimates released by the International Labour Organization (ILO), each year around 2.78 million workers die from occupational accidents and work-related diseases. An additional 374 million workers suffer from non-fatal occupational accidents. Globally 1,000 people are estimated to die every day as a result of occupational accidents and a further 6,500 from work-related diseases. The aggregate figures indicate an overall increase in the number of annual deaths attributed to work from 2.33 million deaths in 2014 to 2.78 million deaths in 2017. Estimates suggest that circulatory system diseases (31 per cent), work-related cancers (26 per cent) and respiratory diseases (17 per cent) contribute to almost three-quarters of the total work-related mortality. Diseases are the cause of the great majority of work-related deaths (2.4 million deaths or 86.3 per cent), in comparison to fatal occupational accidents (which make up the remaining 13.7 per cent). According to ILO estimates, the burden of occupational mortality and morbidity is distributed in the following way. About two-thirds (65 per cent) of global work-related mortality occurs in Asia, followed by Africa (11.8 per cent), Europe (11.7 per cent), all of America (10.9 per cent) and Oceania (0.6 per cent). Neo-liberal free trade agreements, which are now being supplanted with direct control by oligopolies of all trading arrangements outside of state to state agreements, and the anti-social offensive deregulating any rules governing workplace safety and increasing precarious work and the open exploitation of a global labour market are major factors in the continued deterioration of living and working conditions, including health and safety at work, in all countries. The concentration of decision-making power in the hands of global oligopolies is on a supranational basis. The oligopolies consider health and safety regulations as impediments to their drive for profit and domination. Deaths and injuries take a particularly heavy toll on workers in the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean as a result of their super-exploitation. The International Trade Union Confederation reported a few years ago that global oligopolies such as Samsung, Apple, Walmart and others directly employ less than six per cent of the workers who create the value of their global empires. The other 94 per cent work for smaller companies tied to the monopolies or are supplied (trafficked) by employee subcontractors. These workers generally face even worse conditions within an atmosphere of insecurity, and are left with little or no support when it comes to health and safety at work and when injured or sick. The situation is very similar in Canada where the working class has been divided into arbitrary categories such as "independent contractor," "temporary foreign worker," "undocumented worker," amongst others. Employers use such designations, along with the increase in short-term and casual jobs and other forms of precarious employment, to impose increasingly unsafe and unhealthy conditions. The ILO has now started to examine the impact of climate change, air pollution and environmental degradation on the health and safety of workers. For the moment, what exists are mostly projections. For example, it anticipates that a projected increase in global temperatures of 1.5 per cent by the end of the 21st century will render 2 per cent of all work hours too hot to work by 2030, and that the increase in the temperature will have an impact on the health of half of the world's population, which live near the Equator. These workers are amongst the poorest and work outdoors in sectors such as agriculture. It also estimates that premature death from exposure to air pollution will increase by up to five times by 2060. ILO studies dedicate only a few paragraphs to the actual plight of migrant workers in terms of health and safety. They note that most migrant workers are employed in sectors such as agriculture, construction or domestic work and work under precarious conditions with little, if any, legal protection. Their number is estimated at 160 million. The Canadian experience has shown that migrant workers are employed in the most difficult jobs with conditions similar to indentured labour imposed on them by recruitment agencies, the monopolies and governments. The conditions of employment are detrimental to their health and safety as well as to their overall living and working conditions. For example, migrant workers are officially covered in Ontario by the Occupational Health and Safety Act, which in theory gives them the right to refuse unsafe work and legally prohibits employer reprisals for workers exercising that right or any other issue contained in the Act. However, the onus is placed on the workers themselves to speak out, and activists working with injured workers say that migrant workers who become injured are routinely put on a plane and sent back home before government inspectors are able to examine their case. Migrant workers are disposed of when not needed or are considered a problem even faster than non-migrant contract workers despite all the chatter from governments about human rights and looking after the well-being of workers. Activists and some of the unions working with migrant workers and others needing assistance are the ones that actually take care of them and attempt to meet their needs.
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