For the second year in a row, the province and WorkSafeBC marked the national Day of Mourning for workers killed, injured or made sick by their jobs with a sombre virtual ceremony, highlighted by a pointed message from a young woman who lost her mother to a workplace accident in 2007.
In a recorded video, Avneet Sidhu related how her mother, Sarbjit Kaur Sidhu, and four others died in 2007 when the farm transport vehicle in which they were riding collided with two semi-trailers on the way to work in the Fraser Valley.
For Sidhu, the tragedy — ruled an accident, though the van was poorly equipped and neither the owner nor contractor providing the labour were found responsible — drove home the message that blue-collar workers are seen as replaceable and unimportant.
“I realized that profit can never account for the loss of a life,” she said, noting her story is not unique.
Sidhu said she now works with the B.C. Federation of Labour and WorkSafeBC to ensure workers have more rights and workplaces are safe.
There were 151 work-related deaths in B.C. last year, more than half resulting from occupational disease. On Vancouver Island, there were 16 work-related deaths.
One of those was a 25-year-old man killed when he was hit by a tractor-trailer at Sysco Victoria’s facility on Amy Road in Langford in March of last year. WorkSafeBC fined Sysco $149,573, ruling the worksite lacked designated walkways to give pedestrians safe access across the yard.
It also noted Sysco did not have a traffic-management plan or a system of communication between drivers and pedestrians, and the yard was inadequately lit.
Laird Cronk, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, called the Day of Mourning a collective call to action.
“Our province can never accept the deaths of nearly four workers every week,” he said. “Now, amid a pandemic that puts workers throughout B.C. at risk, it’s more important than ever to protect working people.”
The 151 work-related deaths in 2020 represented an increase from the 140 recorded in 2019 and 131 in 2018.
There were 90,685 disability and health-care claims as a result of workplace incidents last year, and workplace injury and illness resulted in more than 3.5 million lost days of work.
The Day of Mourning is a reminder that health and safety must be a priority every day of the year, said Anne Naser, chief executive of WorkSafeBC.
“As we continue to navigate the global COVID-19 pandemic, we have all seen how critical workplace health and safety is,” Naser said. “Every worker has the right to go home safely at the end of the day.”
Labour Minister Harry Bains said the Day of Mourning is an important opportunity to renew the commitment to making B.C. workplaces the safest in Canada.
“Every day, we are taking action to improve workplace safety so that every worker returns home in the same condition they left,” he said.
Students across the province took part in a series of activities to learn about their rights in the workplace.
According to WorkSafeBC, young workers are statistically more likely to suffer injury or death at the workplace — an average of 27 young workers experience time-loss injuries each day.
