FSANL held its Annual Health and Safety Conference on April 11, 2018 at the Corner Brook Civic Center. It was a very informative day with presentations by;
Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Sargent Brad Saint gave a presentation on distracted driving and it was definitely a real eye opener for our delegates. The videos used are on YouTube and should be shared with those you love and work with to bring to their attention the importance of this topic.
Lisa Kavanagh from WorkplaceNL spoke about workplace violence and how prevalent it is in this province. Forestry is no different when it comes to violence. We can face an angry customer or member of the general public on our operations. We need to report such instances and learn how we can best protect ourselves and our employees. Interestingly enough workplace violence is not considered when it is co-worker against co-worker.
Tom Welton fromWorkplace Safety North in Ontario shared their experience in conducting a province wide hazard assessment in the logging and sawmill industries. The information gathered was interesting because the topic of substance abuse was the number one cause for concern amongst workers and management. For more information on this risk assessment visit www.workplacesafetynorth.ca
Dion Newman FSANL executive director spoke about the lock out tag out program project with Burton’s Cove Logging and Lumber. It is available on our website.
Brad Roberts from NLCSA dispelled some of the misconceptions concerning the COR program.
Dennis Hogan CEO of WorkplaceNL had some good news for our delegates. The injury rate for forestry is at 1.0 per 100 workers. That is an all time low for the industry. It is great to see that injuries are on the decline but we cannot rest until the rate is 0.
Ron Sullivan from St. John Ambulance spoke about mental health first aid and talked about some of the stigma surrounding mental health.
Pat Stamp shared his story of survival after he was involved in a terrible workplace accident. Pat also lost his good friend and co-worker in the accident. Pat and his wife Madonna took us through the accident and the long road of recovery for Pat.