May 2, 1996
(Executive Council)

Keeping women at work safe

Julie Bettney, Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, and Kevin Aylward, Minister of Environment and Labour, are pleased to announce the release of our new "keeping women at work safe" poster. This initiative helps ensure women's safety by providing preventive information and ideas for increasing safety in the workplace to both employees and employers.

Violence in the workplace is fast becoming a serious occupational health and safety issue. The problem is widespread and is demonstrated across all occupational settings, from industry and manufacturing to the hospitality and human services industry. Staff at the Occupational Health and Safety Branch of the Department of Environment and Labour have examined the number of claims associated with violent acts reported to the Workers' Compensation Commission in the past six years and have found a total of 47 claims. "If we take into consideration that not all injuries are reported to the Workers' Compensation Commission, then the actual instance of violent acts is likely much greater," said Mr. Aylward. "Many workplaces are at higher risk because of the type of employee/client interaction, or because the employee works alone, or a combination of the two. A breakdown of the 47 claims which were reported showed almost 60 per cent occurred within the Hospital/Nursing Home industry and Social Services."

"It is the vision of government's recently announced strategy against violence that the people of our province will live in safe, caring communities, where there is an inherent respect for each other and violence is unacceptable," said Ms. Bettney. "In keeping with this vision we have distributed this poster to over 16,000 employers and to women's groups in this province so that we can help them eliminate violence in the workplace and throughout society as a whole."

The poster was designed and produced by the province of British Columbia as part of a safety information campaign launched in partnership with the British Columbia Ministry of Small Business, Tourism and Culture. The governments of the Atlantic provinces were granted permission to reproduce the poster with Newfoundland and Labrador coordinating the effort. Additional copies of the poster may be obtained by contacting the Women's Policy Office at (709) 729-5009.

Contact: Cindy Christopher, Public Relations Specialist, Women's Policy Office, (709) 729-5730; or Teddy Ryan, Public Relations Director, Environment and Labour, (709) 729-2575.