NDP, Steelworkers introduce occupational disease bills

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NDP COMMUNICATIONS

************************* NDP creates legislation for occupational disease registry

SAULT STE. MARIE - The NDP is pushing for groundbreaking legislation requiring employers to report information about accidents, occupational diseases and other hazardous occurrences in the workplace, creating a new registry available to prospective and current employees.

Federal NDP Human Resources Critic Tony Martin (Sault Ste. Marie) and Ontario NDP MPP Andrea Horwath (Hamilton Centre) and critic for Occupational Health and Safety, (shown with USW area co-ordinator Jack Ostroski) were joined by United Steelworkers leadership, as they introduced their private members’ bills to create an occupational disease registry nationally and in Ontario.

“Workers have the right to know the safety record of employers as well as trace the source of an illness,” Martin said, crediting the Steelworkers for the registry idea. “Governments have an obligation to make job sites safer.”

“Employers will be held to account and workers on the job will enter their workplace with eyes wide open to potential risks and hazards, something that’s been long lacking in existing occupational disease laws and policies,” said Horwath.

The bill amends the Occupational Health and Safety Act and mandates the reporting, recording and sharing of data regarding occupational illnesses and accidents.

The legislation is timely in the wake of the local Occupational Disease Intake Clinic organized on May 7, 2008, by Steelworkers which was attended by hundreds of area residents.

The steelworkers local organized the clinic after the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario (WSIB) confirmed that 40 former Algoma Steel Inc. employees died due to occupational disease between December 2001 and December 2007.

During a recent information session, a Local 2251 injured workers specialist representative said members of USW Locals 2251 and 2724 have 160 claims relating to occupational diseases with WSIB, including 60 filed since January.

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