Workplace Safety
Day two of BCNU's 2022 convention saw Executive Councillor for Occupational Health & Safety, Aida Herrera take the podium to address delegates gathered for the first in-person convention since 2019.
She opened her presentation with heartfelt thanks to the teams of highly skilled professionals that specialize in disability management, claims appeals, occupational health and safety, and expressed gratitude for all the hard work and long hours these members do in support of safety initiatives for nurses.
"Every time you call out an issue, you are making a difference," Herrera said. "That is what it means to be in a union and that is what it means to have a safe workplace."
She spoke of the work, time, and effort it takes to make workplaces safe, and updated the delegates of new collaborative initiatives rolling over the coming months.
"We have engaged with WorkSafe BC to ensure they hear us when we are saying our workplaces are unsafe. We are demanding that language around violence be changed to include definitions around bullying and harassment," she remarked. "We see these changes as absolutely vital to the protection of all of our members."
Herrera told the room about a new collaborative OHS body with a mandate to create new and practical OHS tools which would be adopted across the BC health care system. Safety, Wellbeing, Innovation, Training and Collaboration (SWITCH) is made up of other health care unions as well as reps from the health care employers, Doctors of BC and WorkSafe BC. "As it's first order of business, SWITCH is looking at three major initiatives," Herrera stated. "A new standardized, baseline toolkit for all JOHSC committees, revitalized provincial violence prevention training and releasing the provincial baseline survey on psychological health and safety."
Herrera said she is hopeful that SWITCH will be successful with these initiatives while offering another venue for the voice of BCs nurses to be heard with regards to safety.
Wrapping up her presentation, Herrera spoke of BCNU's own three major OHS initiatives planned to increase worker safety. "In 2023 BCNU is focused on expanding our mental health strategy, offering practical and comprehensive supports to our JOHSCs and risk registry," she informed the room. "Nurses are facing a serious mental health crisis. We are exposed to conditions which cause trauma every day and while we have won several victories towards improving, the only way to truly fix this crisis is with large systemic change," Herrera concluded.