Safety Reporter
Canadian
www.safety-reporter.com
April 2019
Worker's return to full-time
work after 16-year absence
doesn't stop benefits
Benefits were locked in when worker was deemed
unemployable; Decision not reviewable after five years
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
AN ONTARIO employer has lost its appeal to discontinue ongoing
future loss-of-earnings benefits that were locked in until the age of
65 for an injured worker, despite the fact the worker receiving the
benefits was able to return to work full-time after 16 years off work
recovering from a workplace injury.
Doug Featherstone, 50, was an employee of Nepean Hydro — cur-
rently operating as Hydro Ottawa — dating back to the '90s. On
One conviction, one charge
dismissed after worker's fall
Hole worker fell through and plummeted 2 storeys was too big to cover
but should have had guardrails or other safety measures in place: Court
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
A SASKATCHEWAN construc-
tion company has been found
guilty of one out of two charges
filed in the wake of a worker's
two-storey fall down a hole that
had no guardrails.
Norred Construction is a
construction business based in
Saskatoon, Sask., owned by Nor-
man Reddekopp. In the summer
of 2017, Norred was contracted
to work at a residential construc-
tion site. Reddekopp worked
at the site with another Norred
employee, Keith Giesbrecht.
On Aug. 3, 2017, Giesbrecht
and Reddekopp were onsite
DEPRESSION DIAGNOSIS
LINKED TO WORKPLACE
ACCIDENT 5 YEARS EARLIER
Worker had psychological condition
deserving of entitlement after injury pg. 5
LIGHTS OUT FOR WORKER WHO
REFUSED NIGHT SHIFT MOVE
Worker claimed he couldn't work
night shift for medical reasons, but
medical information he provided
didn't support his argument pg. 6
INSIDE
NEWS BRIEF
Not feasible > pg. 4
Credit:
Shutterstock/Zapylaiev
Kostiantyn
Certainty > pg. 2
PM
#40065782
28-HR RESIDENT SHIFTS
NOT HARMFUL TO PATIENTS
(Reuters Health) — Hospital resi-
dents working 80 hours a week get
nearly as much sleep and provide
comparable patient care whether
their schedule is highly-structured
or more flexible, according to a
study looking at extended shifts.
Thirty-day mortality rates for
patients in the iCOMPARE study
were 12.2% when shifts were lim-
ited to 16 hours a day and 12.5%
where shifts could be as long as
28 hours. Both schedules gave
the doctors-in-training roughly the
same number of hours of sleep
through the week.
But Dr. Charles Czeisler, director
of the division of sleep and circa-
dian disorders at Brigham and
Women's Hospital in Boston, said
the iCOMPARE results do not prove
it is safe to sleep-deprive doctors.
The study measured physician
performance where neither the
flexible group nor the control group
gave residents and interns close
to the amount of protected sleep
time recommended by a 2009
analysis by the Institute of Medi-
cine, Czeisler said.
Concern about the long work
hours that residents and interns
are required to work prompted new
rules in 2011 limiting shift duration.
BENEFITS FOR RECURRENCE
OF MENTAL STRESS INJURY
3 YEARS AFTER INCIDENT
Modified work, PTSD diagnosis, similar
symptoms developed 3 years after
incident pointed to compatibility pg. 3