City staff being confronted, assaulted on job, union says

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This article was published 06/06/2023 (1140 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A spike in work-related injury and illness claims among City of Winnipeg staff comes amid concerns over some relatively new dangers on the job, according to the head of its largest union.

“There are assaults (and) behaviours that are concerning… our members, just from them being confronted by vulnerable people as they’re working,” said Gord Delbridge, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500.

“Many of our members, whether they’re doing pool maintenance repairs, cutting grass or they’re in parks, sometimes they’re being confronted by vulnerable people in our society.”

City staff filed 1,254 injury and illness claims that were accepted by the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba in 2022, up 27 per cent from 2021 (989 claims), according to a new report.

Municipal costs linked to the WCB claims also rose last year, to $16.4 million from $13.8 million in 2021.

Delbridge said he believes unwanted confrontations affecting library and staff who work outdoors is part of the trend. Meanwhile, he believes vacancy management — delaying the filling of new positions to save money — is leading some workers to take on more tasks with less support from colleagues.

“We’ve got people being expected to do more with less resources, and so that’s been a concern as well… It’s a lot more difficult for people to complete the tasks (with fewer staff) and they (could) get injured as a result.”

The union leader said he hopes to work with the civic officials on ways to improve safety.

In an email, spokeswoman Tamara Forlanski said the city believes multiple issues played a role in the claim increase.

“We believe this is due to a number of factors, including: impacts of the (COVID-19) pandemic, physical and mental stress, reduced stigma around mental health issues, and physical violence or violence with a weapon incidents,” wrote Forlanski.

Winnipeg’s chief administrative officer said officials share the concern city crews are exposed to confrontations with some members of the public.

“We know that even if it’s a public works crew doing work in a park or on a riverbank, there’s just a higher prevalence of encountering folks in various states… We absolutely remain concerned about any of our crews having to deal with people if they’re agitated, if they’re in mental health crisis, if they’re experiencing other things that might lead to confrontation,” said Michael Jack.

“We’ve got people being expected to do more with less resources.”–Gord Delbridge, CUPE Local 500

However, Jack said, the trend is not believed to be a key factor fuelling the general increase of injuries among city workers since last year, partly because it began before that point.

Injuries have not increased due to delays in filling staff positions, Jack said.

“We have standard operating procedures across the organization… We don’t place someone in an unsafe position just because there may be fewer people in that division.”

The CAO said the city believes more mental health and stress claims are being reported due to decreased stigma around such issues.

Concerns around weapons, threats and violence were most common among Winnipeg Police Service, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service and Transit staff, Jack added.

“There, you’ve got the very real possibility of physical injury… (and) trauma-related effects of having been involved in a situation like that. We simply have to do more to ensure that our employees aren’t subjected to that.”

A city chart notes there were 21.3 injuries per 100 WFPS workers that led to lost time on the job in 2022, 14.5 such injuries per 100 Transit workers, and 10 such injuries per 100 WPS staff, all of which exceed the overall city rate of 8.2 per 100.

City officials noted several employee support programs have been introduced to help mitigate and respond to risks and the Transit Advisory Committee is exploring options for a long-term safety plan for Winnipeg Transit.

Mayor Scott Gillingham stressed the city is committed to keeping its staff safe.

“We want the City of Winnipeg, across all departments, to be a safe place to work. We want the number of injuries to be reduced year over year,” said Gillingham.

In April, the municipal government became the largest workplace in Manitoba to achieve SAFE Work certification, which requires it to allow external audits of some departments to ensure set safety and health standards.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga

City Workplace Safety report