Safety Reporter
Canadian
www.safety-reporter.com
June 2018
Employer's finding of no workplace
violence not a resolution: Tribunal
Legislation requires employer to appoint 'competent' investigator
if matter isn't resolved; alleged victim wasn't happy with employer's decision
BY JEFFREY SMITH
A BRITISH Columbia company
has lost its appeal challenging a
directive that it didn't properly
investigate an allegation of work-
place violence when it found
there was none and deemed the
issue resolved.
Seaspan Marine is a marine
transportation company in
North Vancouver, B.C. On Sept.
22, 2015, the captain of one of
Seaspan's vessels, Captain Mark
Robson, was in a meeting with
deckhand Mike Hoey – a Seas-
pan employee since 1999 – and
another Seaspan employee
on his boat. During the meet-
ing, Captain Robson kept say-
Reasonable precautions
greater than regulatory
requirements
Ontario company acquitted of charges after worker
death but new trial ordered by Court of Appeal
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC safety regulations must be followed by em-
ployers to ensure the safety of their workers, but employers' duty to
protect their workers doesn't necessarily end there when consider-
ing the parent health and safety act, the Ontario Court of Appeal has
ruled in ordering a new trial for a company charged after a worker
POSTAL WORKER CAN'T DELIVER
PROOF INJURIES WERE EXACERBATED
BY WORKPLACE ACCIDENT
No medical evidence that ongoing symptoms
experienced for years were worsened by fall pg. 3
ACKNOWLEDGING THE PROBLEM
OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT pg. 5
Many organizations think they don't have
a problem but may be caught off-guard
when it happens in their workplace
CAR ACCIDENT, NOT REPETITIVE
MOTION AT WORK, SHOULDERS
BLAME FOR INJURY
Worker claimed repeated reaching over
head aggravated shoulder condition,
but evidence didn't support it
pg. 6
INSIDE
NEWS BRIEF
First > pg. 4
Credit:
Shutterstock/ne3p
Subordinate > pg. 2
PM
#40065782
U.S. AIR FORCE PAUSES
FOR 1 DAY AFTER CRASHES
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The
United States Air Force has or-
dered its aircraft to stand down for
one day for a safety review after a
string of deadly aircraft crashes.
Some aircraft might be exempt-
ed from the pause in flights, such
as those carrying out strikes in
Iraq and Syria, said Major General
John Rauch, the Air Force's chief of
safety.
The operational pause comes
after a Puerto Rico Air National
Guard cargo plane crashed near
Savannah, Georgia, scattering fiery
debris over a highway and railroad
tracks, and killing all nine people
aboard.
The crash was at least the fifth
deadly accident involving a U.S.
military aircraft since early April.
According to Air Force data,
there has been a 48-per-cent
increase in the rate of aircraft
crashes in fiscal year 2018 where
someone was killed, permanently
disabled or that caused over $2
million in damages.
"This is not a crisis. But it is a
crisis for each of these families...
these are across services, and
these are different individuals and
different circumstances," Pentagon
spokeswoman Dana White said.