Safety Matters

For years, leaders at Canada Post’s Halifax delivery operation grappled with safety challenges centred on soft tissue injuries and an increasing number of short-term time-loss claims. The operations team in Nova Scotia realized a significant priority shift towards health and safety needed to occur across the board. Together with the WCB specialists and internal support groups, the team developed and implemented initiatives driven by its ‘5 Pillars of Success’ platform.

L-R: Minister Kelly Regan, Labour and Advanced Education, Paula Bernat, Canada Post, Stuart MacLean, CEO of WCB 

A complete review of safety practices was completed which resulted in a number of health and safety plans and practices being amended and updated to better reflect the ‘5 Pillars of Success’ platform. This platform focuses on identifying safety gaps, improving hazard reporting and heightening awareness and measures on overall safety prevention.

Canada Post focused on a number of key issues including leadership accountability, injury prevention, enhancing relationships with the WCB and other safety partners, internal injury management, and more efficient hazard reporting. Perhaps most importantly was the collaboration that occurred internally throughout this transformation process – with management, union reps and the JOSH committee members all working together, supported by WCB specialists, to create, develop and execute solutions to enhance the workplace health and safety culture at Canada Post.  One of the most significant achievements was the re-launching of the Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work Program – which helped to reduce injury severity (a measure of the length of time employees are recovering from workplace injury away from work) from 10.12 days in 2012 to 4.67 days in 2013.

Where once the Halifax delivery operation lagged behind, it was now leading the way, and its best practices were recognized at Canada Post headquarters and shared with delivery operations in the rest of the country.
Canada Post’s Halifax Delivery team has achieved a true transformation, and for that they have been recognized with the Mainstay Safety Transformation Award.