City workers more prone to assault and injury, association says

By Kelly Sinoski, The Vancouver Sun

Street-sweepers, firefighters and other city workers have a higher risk of injury on the job than other B.C. workers and face the added threat of being accosted by irate taxpayers, according to the BC Municipal Safety Association.

An average of 1,829 city workers — from sanitary workers to lifeguards — were injured annually in the five years between 2004 and 2008, costing WorkSafeBC about $16.5 million in compensation and rehabilitation each year.

The municipal injury rate of five per cent annually was higher than the three-per-cent rate for B.C. generally in the past five years.

Firefighters and labourers, including street-sweepers, were among the top occupations for injuries, followed by sand-truck drivers, snowplow operators, parks facilitators and lifeguards.

The injuries cost employers and workers an average of 54,000 days of productive work for each of the five years.

“The injury rate is a little higher than we would like to see collectively,” said Al Johnson, WorkSafeBC’s Lower Mainland regional director of construction and hospitality.

“What we want to do is drag that injury rate down.”

About 300 delegates will look at ways to reduce injuries, death and disease in the workplace at a bi-annual BC Municipal Occupational Health and Safety Conference in Whistler this week.

Municipal jobs tend to be more hazardous because of the diverse work and physical labour required by employees, Johnson said.

About 61 per cent of claims in the past five years were for sprains, strains and tears, and usually involved the back and spine.

But there’s also a risk of disease and death from exposure to smoke and toxic substances such as asbestos. In the past five years, 22 people died of such exposure, with 70 per cent of the fatalities involving firefighters, according to the association. Two additional death claims, both for firefighters, were accepted in 2009.

Cathy Cook, executive director of the association, said city employees face another increasing threat: violence in the workplace as irate taxpayers take out their angst on city workers.

“That’s a real issue for municipal employees,” she said. “If a taxpayer is upset over rates or taxes or a crack in the sidewalk, municipal employees are often the target.”

Johnson agreed city workers, particularly those interacting with the public such as clerks at city hall and ticket bylaw officers, are more prone to being assaulted or accosted. This has led some municipalities to pair up bylaw officers for safety.

He didn’t have statistics as to how many workers are assaulted.

“It doesn’t have to be violent; they take a lot of verbal abuse,” he said. “People like to dish that out … and sometimes it can turn physical.”

The conference will also look at training and supervision required as the workforce ages and young workers fill the void. Cook noted that within four years, most municipalities in B.C. will see 40 per cent of their workers retire.

Municipalities must find ways to assist employees, so older workers don’t have to bend or squat as much and to change the mindset of younger workers who tend to take more risks.

Both Johnson and Cook said young workers, many of whom work in aquatics as lifeguards, aren’t as cautious as more seasoned employees.

Workers aged 15 to 24 made up 7.7 per cent of all claims, with an average of 140 claims costing more than $600,000 between 2004 and 2008.

About 83 per cent of the claims in the past five years were made by men.

There are about 629 employers registered in the WorkSafeBC local government sector.