Rate of workplace injuries going up for city workers in Greater Sudbury

More employees with the City of Greater Sudbury are having to take time off due to workplace injuries.

Stats from the fourth quarter of 2019, show that time lost due to injuries was at a rate of 5.27 municipal employees per every 100. The city has a total of 3,586 employees (full-time, part-time and temporary) which includes police, fire and paramedics services.

Kevin Fowke, Sudbury's general manager of corporate services, says the recent stat for lost time due to workplace injuries is high compared to previous years.

One of the reasons for the increase is connected to legislation changes over the past several years, where certain illnesses or diseases are now classifed as occupational injuries and are now compensated by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB).

For example chronic mental stress experienced by certain workers, is now considered an injury.

According to the WSIB, a claim of chronic mental stress can be made by a worker employed in an occupation exposed to a high degree of routine stress. For example, jobs where the worker is responsible for matters involving life and death, or work in extremely dangerous circumstances.

"Chronic mental stress and the incidents of chronic mental stress that used to go to short term disability and would not be occupational and would not be considered in this kind of a [lost time due to injury] number, are now included," Fowke said.

He also says under new legislation for firefighters, certain cancers and some cardiac or heart disease are presumed to be caused by employment and so those cases are handled now diverted to the occupational stream of claims.

It means that workplace injuries for employees with the City of Greater Sudbury could be either physical or psychological. 

Fowke further broke down the recent lost time rate of 5.27, saying it translates to 25 injuries in the fourth quarter of 2019. Four of those injuries were psychologically-related, while 21 were physical like sprains or strains.

"When you've got the classifications in public works, in long-term care, in roads, those are always going to be the types of [physical] injuries that you're going to see, and those have been consistent throughout. I guess what has maybe increased to some extent is the psychological ones," he said.

Nobody would consider an employer that had poor health and safety results to be a great employer, and so this is not a result that we want to be repeating.- Kevin Fowke, corporate services, City of Greater Sudbury

"We have all of the 24/7 type services: long-term-care, fire, emergency medical services, roads and all of the heavier services that generate a lot of the potential [for injuries] here and have occupations generating potential for lost time," he said.

"And there's a number of changes occurring within the WSIB that are making the historical norms, in terms of these numbers higher than they have been in prior years."

Health and Safety Measures

Fowke says the City of Greater Sudbury does have a number of health and safety measures in place to help municipal employees after an injury, including after-care for emergency services personnel to process incidents they're involved in.

On the physical injury side, the city has created response plans for areas that have seen increases in their respective lost time injury rates.

Fowke did provide yearly statistics, which show an overall increase over the past four years.

• 2019 = 3.95 (includes the reported 5.27 in Q4)
• 2018 = 3.88
• 2017 = 2.66
• 2016 = 2.24

Meantime, Greater Sudbury will be working to decrease workplace injuries.

"Nobody would consider an employer that had poor health and safety results to be a great employer, and so this is not a result that we want to be repeating, for any means," Fowke said

"Lost time injuries — we take the view that they're preventable, and that we are trying to provide an employment experience that leads to great service experience for citizens."