Mr Tyson Krunek NCSO
I was a framer before I became a National Construction Safety Officer and have attended the first two years of carpentry at Red River Collage and I have seen a lot of Canada travelling for work. The thing I have seen in the past is shoddy, sloppy guardrails that do not provide even a fraction of the restraint required because by design had to be temporary. The rails are all straight and at the same height but don’t have tie ins on the cantilevered areas or protrusions because they look like a continuing rail from a distance. I have been on a site where a coworker was part of a fall incident and it impacted all of us greatly, even though not directly injured in the incident. I would see an addition made to WSH legislation in regards to a basic design that’s acceptable for guardrails as letting people figure it out themselves by having the act and regulations book that you need a course to know how to read and apply. The basic guardrail should have a basic plan that we all know and can apply. Rather than give a minimum number for restraint required give the basic plan and the “why this is like this” in its instructions so that builders cannot continue to interpret the Act and Regulations as they see fit and the way it was written.
Two: there are trade schools and places of learning about how to do your jobs, construction has multiple courses that can be taken to enter into a facet of the trades but the carpenters are being denied proper training in the basics of “how to do the job safely” which would include the requirements and design for the minimal acceptable guardrails and handrails.
Three: thought of this after making my first two points, provincial officers to enforce the act and regulations, like at least another fifty or so, fifteen for Winnipeg ten for Brandon and the rest to be floats as required to travel to sites that are not in urban settings. The reason so many people get hurt is that so many builders know that the officers most likely either won’t show up or if they do and there is an issue they can just deflect it to their subcontractors through contract. First you need officers second you need enforcement and follow through rather than a slap on the wrists for builders who contract outside the law.
I have a basic design for a guardrail system that I can provide if requested as I was inspired to come up with a basic one after having a discussion about guardrails with a subcontractors supervisor and after having to explain the book and convert it to imperial for him since the manual is in metric but the builders use imperial.
my email is tysonkrunek@yahoo.ca if you want a copy of my guardrail system. It is designed to be a modular reusable through multiple projects system or to have its materials consumed by the process of finishing the buildings they are for.
four: thermal stress cutoffs that are clear for both hot and cold weather. Sure the chart says “all non emergency work to cease” when it’s below -40 but you go past a site and they are still putting their workers at risk. That and the other extreme where there isn’t a “too hot to work” cut off and employers push employees to heat exhaustion then yell at them for being exhausted because they don’t have heat exhaustion because they are standing there supervising rather than actually doing anything.
five: merge with the WCB and use their reporting system to root out unsafe employers and revoke the WCB coverage of company’s that contract outside the law so they can be sued rather than continuing to protect unsafe employers from 217.2 of the criminal code.
Six: make it law that when incidents of violence are reported they must be reported to the RCMP and investigated, not be left to WCB suppressing the claims of injured workers because it’s cheaper than having to settle with them.
I went past my original two ideas but after starting I felt inclined to continue.
have a safe and great day
Tyson Krunek
Consultation has concluded
