The injury rate and serious injury rate in the manufacturing sector are above the provincial injury rate, and the risks that drive serious injuries in this sector are highly fragmented. The top 7 general risks represent 56 percent of all the manufacturing claims, and the top risk (caught in or struck by machinery or conveyors) represents 18 percent of all serious injury claims in manufacturing.

Therefore, the 2018-2020 Manufacturing High Risk Strategy (HRS) will address a significant number of risks to have an impact on the serious injury rate.

Combustible dust, particularly in sawmills and pellet mills, has been a critical issue over the past several years. However, other fire and explosions hazards may also be present in other manufacturing subsectors. Inspections associated with the Manufacturing HRS will address fire and explosions hazards, including combustible dust, where appropriate.

Goals

The goals of the 2018-2020 HRS are to:

• Reduce serious injury and fatal injury rates in the manufacturing industry
• The strategy will address the risks of serious injury from these seven strategic focus areas:
  • Safeguarding and lockout
  • Powered tools
  • Hand tools (knives)
  • Material handling (falling objects)
  • Falls from elevation
  • Falls on same level
  • Mobile equipment

Additional risk areas are fire and explosion risks.

Approaches

The HRS approach will be to assist employers in strengthening their safety management system by focusing on risk reduction — taking a two-pronged approach of inspection-based engagements and employer self-evaluations.

Officers will focus on the top 15 classification units (CUs) that are at risk for serious injury, and evaluate whether the employer:

• Identifies hazards and risks
• Implements effective and compliant controls
• Develops safe work procedures, programs, and policies
• Provides related instruction, training, and supervision
• Conducts effective inspections
• Performs effective accident investigations
• Engages the joint health and safety committee or worker health and safety representative

2019 additional focus

When we developed the 2018–2020 HRS, we recognized that within the three-year timeframe we would need to retain flexibility to add additional focus areas. In 2019, an additional focus is on preventing slips, trips, and falls. An analysis shows that they occur across all CUs within the manufacturing sector.

Factors that contribute to slips, trips, and falls are often seasonal or indirectly related to the manufacturing process. There appears to be a complacency and acceptance of the risk, so we will survey employers and workers to ensure we provide effective slip, trip, and fall prevention resources.

Deliverables and timelines

Updates and results

As part of our strategic initiative to develop measures to assess the effectiveness of prevention activities, we are providing updates of our High Risk Strategies and Industry Initiatives.

• Manufacturing HRS — Quarterly updates 2019
• Manufacturing HRS — Quarterly updates 2018

Note: To save space in bulleted lists, our update documents may refer to occupational health and safety as OHS. All references to the Act, refer to Part Three of the Workers Compensation Act. Penalties and warning letters reported in updates may have been initiated by inspections in a previous quarter.

Related resources

• Safeguarding Machinery and Equipment
• Manufacturing Inspection Checklist
• Machine Risk Assessment Survey
• Controlling Hazardous Energy: De-Energization and Lockout
• Manufacturing High Risk Strategy overview
• Classification units included in the Manufacturing High Risk Strategy
• Letter to employers