Ontario moves to reduce on-the-job injuries to manufacturing workers

A manufacturing panel for a new Health and Safety Action Group in Ontario’s labour ministry has been established. The expert panel will set priorities to reduce injuries in the manufacturing sector, ensure proper policies are in place, and promote safety through education, training, regulation and enforcement.

“The manufacturing sector is the backbone of Ontario’s economy,” said the province’s labour minister, Chris Bentley. “Yet workers are still being injured and killed on the job. There is tremendous room for reducing injury and illness rates in manufacturing workplaces if we work together and harness existing knowledge.”

In February 2004, the ministry established the first Action Group panel for the construction sector, and recently added the manufacturing sector. Other sectors will be studied as the Ministry of Labour works to reduce the nearly 300,000 workplace injuries people suffer every year in Ontario.

In 2003, there were 72 workplace fatalities in the province, the highest level in a decade. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) recorded approximately 100,000 accidents in 2003 that resulted in lost time at work and almost 200,000 others that did not cause lost time at work.