Convenience Store and Gas Station Workers Have High Risk of Violence
Following a number of high-profile convenience store and gas station deaths across Canada, Saskatchewan is making moves to strengthen its labor laws to better protect late-night workers against such violence, according to a report from the Canadian OH&S News.
At the recent Saskatchewan Federation of Labor (SFL) convention in Regina, labour minister Don Morgan unveiled new rules that he said will better protect late-night retail workers, including those who work in convenience stores and gas stations, and those who face an especially high risk of assaults.
Safety Updates to be Required
According to Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Labor Relations and Workplace Safety updates would include safe cash handling procedures, use of video cameras and the provision of good visibility and signage for all late-night premises as part of the improvements. As well, the ministry went on to say, establishments will require a check-in system and personal emergency transmitters will be provided to all clerks working alone on the late shift.
Glennis Bihun, executive director of the province’s occupational health and safety department, added that those mandatory regulations are part of the overall workplace hazard assessment programs.
“The hazard assessment ensures that the employer takes a look at what the potential hazards are and what the risk of those hazards might be,” Bihun said. “It provides an opportunity for an employer to do an assessment to identify the kinds of things in addition to the mandatory security measures they might need to do to minimize or eliminate the risk of violence for workers.”
Jimmy’s Law
Such efforts come in response to the death of Jimmy Ray Wiebe in 2011. Weibe was shot by armed robbers while working the late shift at a Shell gas station in Yorkton, Sask., near the Manitoba border. That spawned Jimmy’s Law, an initiative calling on the government to improve protections in 24-hour workplaces.
The federation, which represents close to 100,000 workers, lauded the government’s efforts to move towards safer environments for late-shift staffers.
Late-night retail employees will begin to see the new regulations come into force as early as mid-January of this year.
Author Michael B. Stack, CPA, Director of Operations, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in employer communication systems and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. He is a writer, speaker, and website publisher. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.
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