National Health and Safety Policy Committee (NHSPC) Minutes

This meeting was chaired by Doug Gaetz, Employee Co-Chair. 
 

OPENING REMARKS

The Employee Co-Chair opened the meeting and welcomed attendees to the March 5, 2024 meeting.

Natalie Waples, acting Employer Co-Chair, gave opening remarks. She began by thanking Deirdra Finn for her work as the Director, Well-Being and Occupational Health and Safety Division (WOHSD), and welcomed Marc Bellavance into the role. Ms. Waples provided an overview of communications that have been published, as well as announced that the allowance for safety footwear had been increased to $185. In closing, it was stated that a Request for Proposal (RFP) was posted to seek suppliers to replace the automated external defibrillators (AED) currently in place at the Agency, as the current contract would be expiring soon.   

REVIEW OF DOCUMENTS

NHSPC Meeting Minutes – December 12, 2023

The minutes have been signed and sent for publishing.   

Action Item Report

The action item report from the December 12, 2023 NHPSC meeting was reviewed and accepted. Items that have been actioned have been closed.

Forward Agenda

The forward agenda was reviewed and approved by the members. 

OHS Communication Plan    

It was noted that a number of communications had been published. The upcoming Safety and Health Week communications will focus on the role of health and safety committees (HSC) in the workplace. 

VERBAL UPDATE FROM THE HUMAN RESOURCES BRANCH (HRB) – NATIONAL OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY (OHS) PROGRAM 

Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention (WHVP)

The WHVP Working Group met in January 2024 to continue its review of the current WHVP Procedures, which must be formally reviewed every three years. The draft procedures were shared with the working group, and will be shared more broadly for consultation once the working group’s feedback has been incorporated. 

The updated Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) WHVP stand-alone training module (TD1599-007) is now live. This replaces the former two-part training, including WMT 101. There is no special requirement for employees to retake the training before their current three year re-take date, and the CRA course code remains the same.

Given the mandatory nature of the various OHS trainings, a question was raised regarding whether there was a way to determine how much time had lapsed for employees who had not taken the mandatory training. This will be taken back and reviewed to see if this information can be determined.   

Well-Being and Psychological Health and Safety

The Psychological Health and Safety (PHS) Working Group met January 25, 2024, continuing their work to integrate psychological health and safety into all areas of the CRA.

On January 26, Bell Let’s Talk Day, senior management sent an all-employee message reiterating the importance of employee mental health, and providing links to internal mental health resources, and services available to employees. The “13 Workplace Factors that Affect Well-being” materials for employees was posted and launched in the InfoZone News Summary. This resource is meant to increase awareness of psychosocial risk factors and act as a building block for future products.

A draft copy of an information bulletin on psychological health and safety in call centres, was shared with the PHS Working Group on February 1, 2024 for review and feedback. On February 29, the Working Group was also provided with a draft copy of a “13 workplace factors awareness resource” tailored for health and safety committees and representatives. Both of these resources are expected to be published in Spring 2024.

There continues to be great interest to have Ms. Kyla McGuire, Assistant Director of Well-being in WOHSD, present the new Well-being and Psychological Health and Safety Approach to different groups across the Agency. To meet this demand, it is hoped to equip regional Well-being Champions to be able to give this presentation, increasing its availability. 

OHS Program Monitoring 

The NHSPC was provided with an update on the OHS Program Monitoring, specifically what the OHS Program Monitoring is, and what changes are being incorporated into the updated monitoring tools. It was advised that the previous monitoring cycles were put on hold due to the pandemic in 2020, and is set to restart in the fall of 2024. The new monitoring cycle will incorporate online surveys to employees as well as look at the hybrid work experience.

At this time, the plan is to begin the two year cycle, with buildings that have higher risk work areas, such as warehouses, mailrooms, and call centres. Communications, and planning strategies will be shared in more detail with this committee as they become available. 

VERBAL UPDATE FROM THE FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION BRANCH (FAB)

Provision of menstrual products in the workplace 

The committee was provided an update on the menstrual products in the workplace program. While the program has been fully implemented across the Agency, there have been a number of issues with vandalism. Messaging has been shared to all employees reminding them of their obligations under the Code of Conduct, to behave in a respectful manner. Targeted messages will be shared in locations where any vandalism continues to occur, with further specific actions to be taken.

Bedbug Guide

The new guide is set to be published, allowing a fast and consistent approach to remediation should bedbugs be found in a location. This manual will be shared with local health and safety committees.  

VERBAL UPDATE FROM THE SECURITY BRANCH (SB)

CRA Notification System (CNS)

An update was provided on the new CRA notification system that has replaced the Building Status Line. In Phase One, all employees were automatically registered with their email, but only 60% of employees have updated their profile to ensure timely alerts for building closures or other building issues. Measures are underway to increase employee participation to update their notification profile.

A question was raised regarding the timing of when decisions are made to close a building and when notices are actually sent to employees to announce building closures, specifically, if there was consideration of the timing of messages to be before employees start their commute to work in inclement weather. Mr. Harry Gill, Assistant Commissioner of Security Branch, noted that this was determined by each worksite individually, and once entered into CNS, notification to employees was almost immediate. Additional communications will be looked at to convey this to Lead Senior Management for Emergencies and Evacuations (LSMEE) and the importance of providing advance notice.

A question was also asked regarding the updating of building lists and how frequently it was done. An update will be provided at the next NHSPC meeting in June.

WRITTEN UPDATES

Members received the following written updates in advance of the meeting.

National Occupational Health and Safety Program Updates

National OHS Dashboard

In conjunction to the written update, the committee was provided with the Q3 2023-2024 National OHS dashboard, as well as the National OHS dashboard for calendar year 2023, representing program measurements on:

• Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) Assurance of Voluntary Compliance (AVCs) and Directions
• Mandatory OHS training completion rates
• HSC/HSR effectiveness rates
• Workplace harassment and violence prevention
• First aid & AED program
• Ergonomics program
• Occupational injuries & illnesses
• Hazards and safety complaints

Several comments were made regarding the dashboard information, specifically the status of workplace monthly inspections not being completed. While OHS Officers continue to communicate and educate committees on their legislated duty to complete at least one inspection per month, the results remain disappointing. It was raised that this is ultimately the responsibility of LSMEEs to ensure it is done and discussion continued as to how accountability could be tracked and an action plan put in place. Further communications will be considered to both HSC members, and also to LSMEEs to ensure they understand their roles and responsibilities. The acting Employer Co-Chair committed to bringing this to the Assistant Commissioner (AC), HRB for further discussion on implementation strategies and for sharing at Senior Management Committees.

Multiple Environment Job Hazard Analysis (MEJHA) Working Group

The next meeting of the Working Group will occur in April 2024, to review the current titles of several safe work procedures to determine if they can be more generic, thereby covering additional equipment. Conversation will continue on the safe emptying of externally located drop boxes at CRA workplaces.

Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) for Field Employees Working Group

A meeting of the Working Group was held January 29, 2024 to continue the conversation around the safety of CRA employees executing search warrants and the potential for increased risk during this operation. The Employee Representatives continued to voice concern on the functioning of the working group, and that the people participating in the Working Group, do not have a fulsome knowledge of the work being discussed.  The Employer Representative agreed to continue to look at these concerns and the committee will be updated.

Health and Safety Committee (HSC) / Health and Safety Representative Program (HSR)

The HSC/HSR Train-the-Trainer session is set to launch in the next month. This training will occur virtually, however the Employee Co-Chair reiterated their stance that in-person training should be in place for actual HSC member training. At this time, the determination of in-person or virtual training, is determined locally. Further analysis will continue to determine cost effective ways to hold in-person training in centralized locations within the regions, while being sensitive to budget restrictions in place at this time.

Recruiting of new trainers from local HSCs is continuing. Employer Co-Chair Natalie Waples asked for an environmental scan to be completed to look at the current representation and locations of trainers, along with where training needs to be conducted for HSC members.

OHS Training Courses Status

Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention

The committee was provided with the statistics related to reported cases of workplace harassment and violence at the CRA over the last quarter (Q3 - 2023 to 2024) as well as for the calendar year 2022, and 2023. The AFS representative asked for confirmation on one of the statistic. This will be taken back to the National OHS Program and a response will be provided to the committee members.

Workplace Health and Safety Operations

The committee was provided with an update on the operation and outreach of the Occupational Health and Safety Prevention and Compliance Center (OHS PCC) and the Harassment and Violence Prevention Centre (HVPC):

Health and Safety Committees and Representatives 

As part of their regular activities, OHS Officers continue to monitor that meetings and inspections are conducted as required. In addition, they monitor that new members are completing their online training within the first month of joining the committee.

Awareness and Training Sessions

Since the last meeting, OHS Officers have facilitated awareness sessions on the following:

Between October 1 to December 31, 2023, over 3600 employees, managers and HSC members participated in the above-noted sessions.

Harassment and Violence Prevention Centre (HVPC)

The next awareness sessions on the Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations and the related process will be delivered in April 2024.

Finance and Administration Branch (FAB) Updates

Airborne Asbestos Fibre Testing

The asbestos fibre testing report was presented to the committee with no questions being raised.

Security Branch (SB) Update

Quarterly Incident Report (QIR)  

The AFS representative thanked the Security Branch representative for continuing to improve the QIR provided to the committee.

CLOSING REMARKS

Ms. Waples thanked everyone for their work and their participation in the meeting.

Mr. Gaetz also gave appreciation for the work and engagement of the committee and adjourned the meeting at 2:23 p.m. EST. The next NHSPC meeting is scheduled for June 11, 2024.

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Natalie Waples for Sonia Côté Employer Co-Chair  National Health and Safety Policy Committee		Doug Gaetz Employee Co-Chair  National Health and Safety Policy Committee
Date: 2024/05/13		Date: 2024/05/14