Labour group to push for ergonomic rules CLC says regulations will lower the number of workplace soft tissue injuries By Muriel Draaisma-Workplace News Canada needs national standards on ergonomics to prevent soft tissue injuries in the workplace, says the largest labour organization in Canada. David Bennett, national director of the health, safety and environment department of the Canadian Labour Congress in Ottawa, says the CLC is developing standards that it wants included in Part II of the Canada Labour Code. It is asking the federal government to make the standards a priority.
Musculoskeletal injuries are by far the greatest hazard that workers have to face in Canada today.
At least 50 per cent of all workplace injuries in Canada are soft tissue injuries and the problem needs immediate attention, he says. The CLC, an umbrella organization that represents 2.3 million workers in Canada, is basing its standards on a proposal it submitted along with government and business representatives to the B.C. Workers' Compensation Board when that board was drafting ergonomics requirements. Bennett says he expects there will be opposition from some employers to the idea of standards because it is coming from a labour organization and it is an attempt to change the culture of business. This has been traditionally seen as an area reserved for management. What we're finding in the federal jurisdiction is that employers that are used to dealing with unions on a co-operative basis are not hostile to the idea.