This Sunday, southern Albertans will recognize the National Day of Mourning to commemorate workers who have been killed, injured or suffered illness while at work.
“It serves as an annual reminder we have a collective, societal responsibility to keep each other safe in the workplace,” says Friends of Medicare.
According to Friends of Medicare, in 2023, Alberta lost 165 people to workplace injury or illness, and tens of thousands more were injured on the job. “These numbers are a stark reminder of the human cost of inaction. Every worker deserves to come home safe and healthy.”
There remains much work to do in Alberta to ensure safer and healthier workplaces, says Friends of Medicare. “Our lack of robust Occupational Health and Safety and Workers Compensation systems ultimately falls onto our public health care: workplace injuries cost tens of billions of dollars to Canada’s health care systems each year. Preventing workplace injuries is crucial for the long-term health of our economy, communities and public health care system.”
With so many health care workers experiencing rising rates of violence in their own workplaces, addressing violence within health care is also increasingly urgent. “Health care workers deserve to be safe when they show up to care for us. We need a violence-prevention plan in place that includes addressing rampant short-staffing throughout our health care system.”