Sunday, August 14, 2022

They’ll Never Know!

If you want your employer to keep you safe, give them the information they need to keep you safe.

By Geoff Dueck Thiessen, Regional Director, Winnipeg Member Centre

While speaking at a membership meeting for educational assistants this past June, I wanted to encourage them to fill out incident reports every time they were subject to violence or injury at work. I know they’re reluctant to do this and are sometimes discouraged from filling out reports.

One of my members came to mind during the meeting. She had recently been hit in the head with a ball while supervising students, leading to a concussion.

I asked the 40 EAs present how many had been hit in the head with a ball while working as an EA? Most of them raised their hands. Then I asked, how many of them had filled out an incident report. Most of them lowered their hands.

The obvious problem here is that it can be difficult to make a WCB claim for a workplace injury if you haven’t reported it. Second, if you don’t report the incident, your employer won’t know it happened.

For EAs, it became clear to me that their employer has no idea how many of their employees are getting hit in the head with a ball, or at what grade levels, or if it’s happening in gym class or outside at recess, and how many of those incidents lead to lost work time and a WCB claim. I reminded the EAs that their employer can’t keep them safe if they don’t know there’s a problem.

This story came to mind while at a Save-On-Foods store, when a team member told me they had slipped on a puddle of water in the fridge. I encouraged the team member to file a report. If they don’t, how will the store manager know to fix the fridge? How many more team members will slip on that puddle?

Maybe a new policy or solution is required to make sure the door is closed to prevent condensation. This team member was working hard, and the busyness of their job made filling out a report seem like a nuisance, and also they happen to be pretty tough.

So, remember, if you want your employer to keep you safe, give them the information they need to keep you safe. Otherwise, they’ll never know!

They’ll Never Know!

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