I disagree....I believe they(OH&S) are doing their job, if contractors and sub contractors followed the safety regulations there will have be issues.

edit.....if contractors and subcontractors follow the safety regulations they will have no issues

It's funny how people, employees as well as contractors (given that workplace injury isn't restricted to the building industry), don't have enough time to do the job safely and properly the first time, but they have time to clean up the mess and do the job over again the second time.

Whoever posted this I'm in total agreement in fact here is a video which pretty much sums up EXACTLY what is going on. Although this video is from the states it could very well be from here. And remember this is just my personal opinion from what i have seen as a contractor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoKOEnpPJkE

I think the link john doe posted is great and makes a valid point. OH&S needs to worry about the fly-by-nighters who aren't working safely or the companies who actually have WCB claims not picking on the companies who have been around a long time and are well known to work safely. I believe they are more concerned about putting some money in the governments bank account (and obiously theirs) than actual safety for workers. Obiously they have never worked on ajobsite or they wouldn't have impossible rules like their 3-point stance rule- which says you can only use one hand to install something off of a ladder. Anybody want to tell me how you drive a nail with one hand or use any kind of air equipment?? I guess you have to have another worker on another ladder beside you hold the nail???? Has anyone noticed labor prices are way up. Perhaps a coincidence that they went up when OH&S started slapping contractors with ridiculous fines.

Good job to the OHS for keeping contractors and sub contractors in line and in compliance! More work needs to b done to get the numbers down even more!!

Darkitty obviously lives on another planet (or works for OH&S) when this individual thinks they are doing a good job! I see contractors struggling with their impossible rules and it makes me shake my head, and yes this will drive prices up even further!

I don't see how by playing by the rules will make prices go up. Maybe longer hours as it will take time to have things set up to do them safely...and that would drive up the price, but I would rather have a contractor who cares about the safety of others (including their own employees, sub contractors) then one who can say they can get the job done in half the time and perhaps seriously injure someone.

I know the OHS has dumb rules, but not impossible, I work in an office and have had to take minutes at OHS meetings, and sometimes it took a while to figure out the solution to the safety issue, but it was worth it in the long run as the company was able to have a clean safety record for that year, and thus able to attract bigger contracts worth more money as we could get the job done safely and quickly as there was no LOA due to injuries. I've also been to job sites and the ones that had the toolbox meetings i felt safest at, as the concerns were spoken about daily and what had to be done about them.

If an OHS office is truley stepping over the line, video tape them, i don't think they can call privacy issues if they are working for a gov department doing a public service! and if they ask why you are videotaping, just say so you can review it to make sure you got all their points done!

OHS has cost this city hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Regulations are in place to protect the worker. I personally knew a gentleman that was killed because an employer would not provide fall arrest . The reason most regulations are there is because an accident has happened in the past and OH+S is trying to stop it from happening agian. I do however think that common sense should prevail. If a worker climbs more than a few feet off the ground by regulation they have to be tied off yet we have our children playing on play equipment that is higher than all regulations would allow. The problem with some OH+S regulations is that common sense was not part of the equation and have gotten to the point of rediculous. There are regulations that truely do protect the workers such as fall arrest from high situations but the problem is that employers are being bombarded with regulations that make no sense whatsoever. I think we should all just wear those blow up samurai suits and bounce around the job site.

OH&S I hope you just read the previous post, man he just nailed it! Yes at Fort Mcmurry or at mine sites or at mills the degree of danger is greater, but to write up a landscaper with a rake in his hand on a homeowners front lawn for say (example) no hardhat or safety glasses or some rule he never even dreamed existed COME ON! Use the brain you were born with! use some common sense! I'm beginning to think maybe it is a money grab.

as someone who had had family members injured @ work...and not in the construction industry, I support our OH&S 100%. it seems clear that some have never experienced this. there is a reason these rules & regulations are there....some employers put their financial gain higher than the value of their employee's safety. I am sure that some people can drive safely while going above the speed limit too, yet others cause accidents...it's the laws & regulations that make this a civilized & safer society...imagine if there were no rules for employers to follow...

there are certainly regulations that make sense and do protect the worker but in the construction industry some regulations have become borderline rediculous. I agree we need to protect the worker but let's use common sense when these regulations are implimented. If you throw in regulations just for the sake of regulating and they don't make sense pretty soon you begin to question other regulations that really should be in place.

These regulations would not be put in place unless there was a reason that caused them to have to. not every employer is careless with the safety of their employees, but somewhere along the line someone had to have been negligent and a regulation had to be put in place because of it.....one rotten egg can spoil it for the rest....if it's not a fair regulation then it should be addressed to the head of the Sask..Oh&S....the regulations are not decided on by 1 person...there is a committee that reveiws and decides, if it's not fair then they will see that.

ttree you sound like one of those brainwashed union members thats driving our country into the ground , no wonder Brad Wall wants to get rid of the unions, all they do is sit around crying about the safety issue LOL worrying if they will get a scratch on their finger, meanwhile real men are out working and getting things done.

I work 2 jobs, niether is a union job. my husband worked for years in a non union job and was made to go in trenches that were not safe...my kids are all wrking non-union jobs too and have had on the job injuries. How did this all of a sudden turn into a union thing...is that really what your issue is? What I'm saying is somewhere along the line, some very not so smart employer put one or more of his employees in a situation where they were hurt or there was a real threat of it. Because people do stuff like this we end up with more insight into the potential for injuries...this may have been a 1 in a 1,000,000 case......but no work related injury is restricted to union or non union workers. and I and not a supporter of thr NDP in any way, I am a strong conservative supporter and they will have my vote as long as they hold strong to their belief in scrapping the long gun registration and most likely after if it eventually happens. Has anyone ever questions the statistics of injuries that has led up to this regulation? Everything needs to be looked at with a calm level head. knee jerk reactions don't change things.

You actually believe you can change the government or that they do much good???? who has the time to jump through all the goverments hoops to get things changed -and how long would it take? There needs to be changes right now not in a couple of years. These are some common sense things that are obvious to anyone- except maybe to the government, so likely these common sense changes will never happen

I guess if your not willing to take the time to make the "common sense " changes then you will have to live with them, and should do so without complaining. This is your choice to do nothing to change it, it's like not voting in an election and complaining afterwards...you have no right.
And before someone tries to throw it in my face, NO, I am not a government employee...but if I see something I believe is not right then I do everything I can to change it. Life is full of hoops and if we want change then we need to learn to jump for it or stop complaining and expect someone else to do it for you.

here's my complaint, i phoned OHS and made a complaint which was not investigated;
the reason it wasn;t investigated was it was a complaint against provincial government;

there definitely is a double standard, when it comes to investigating complaints

Yeah a concerned contractor will write about the occupational health and safety. I think we know what he's concerned about, his fine.
How many fly by night, outta my tailgate "contractors" totally take advantage of their staff because of a so-so wage. Putting these kids lives on the line, because they make 2 bucks an hour more than flippin burgers. The whole While you're pullin in money hand over fist.
I'm outta the construction field and glad of it, because we couldn't get the OHS to step up and even get us a toilet on site. No i wasn't with the government, they usually follow the law. It is usually OHS that drops the ball.
Good on OHS for protecting your workers, and shame on you for not.
Honestly what were you thinkling leaving whatever you got fined for for so long you got fined for it.

The rules are simple, follow the rules and regs at work and you get to go home at the end of your work day !!!

The rules are not always simple and every situation has it's own risks and dangers. Now I am not with the govermin nor any union and I am not some greedy contractor, I just work in industry and have done so for 30+ years. And my experiences with the Occupational Health and Safety officers are for the most part positive. They are there to look out for my safety and they are trying to make sure my fellow employees and myself will go home to our families in the same condition we left home to go to work. Yes some of them have a bit of an attitude but most are reasonable and if you ask them questions and talk polite to them they will help you make the workplace safe.
I am glad that we no longer work the way we did when I first started into the work force. Today the employer has to keep the employees safe or face heavy fines and the employees themselves have to follow due diligences or face both legal and professional consequences and thanks to that I have not witness a serious accident in quite a few years. Yes accidents still happen and yes they will in the future but if I go the rest of my career without having to watch another man die over the “gitterdone attitude” I will be quite happy.
So everyone who doesn’t like OHS rules and the people who enforce them should just grow up and accept the fact that in todays workplace we no longer condone the old attitude were people are expendable. I want my kids to have a safer workplace than I did at their age.

OHS will investigate unless it is a complaint against a government institution, then nothing will be done, and the danger will not be investigated, unless you get a lawyer. see how long you will have a job if you due this, you will soon be kicking your lunch bucket down the street looking for a new career if you do this;

OSH is provincial, No?

when I was working in an isolated town, employed by Transport Canada, we had a fire in our buidling. MY department was the ONLY one NOT Evacuated, because "We were NEEDED for the airport to continue to operate"

Well, it was noticed that if we DID need to evacuate later, we had NO FIREESCAPES!

seems they didn't meet "Security Code" so they were never installed (newer ones with fall cage)

OSH rep was on his way up to LOCK US OUT, when the Airport manager, a Federal Civil Servant instructed the ladders be installed.

so I would suggest that OSH can and WILL go against Government, when workers safety is at risk