100,000+ Alberta Health Services (AHS) workers report workplace injuries through MySafetyNet. But after just 30 minutes, the system logs out — and destroys any unsubmitted info.
Healthcare workers face constant interruptions and traumatic circumstances. Even when management grants paid time, completing reports is difficult. Only a minority of injuries are reported, and this barrier may have discouraged thousands since 2016.
Our Joint Workplace Health and Safety Committee (JWHSC) at the University of Alberta Hospital raised this with AHS. Our most important recommendation — a simple “Save Draft” — button was rejected because workers could confuse it with “Submit Complete Report.” Better, apparently, to discard drafts altogether!
Management agreed to a warning, and countdown timer on the form. But they minimized the need for thorough documentation, even though details like room numbers and witness contacts are vital for future Workers’ Compensation Board/Disability claims. They defended the timeout on “privacy and security” grounds, while telling workers to copy our information into less secure software.
JWHSC’s can win improvements — only as far as workers’ and management’s interests overlap. Bosses care about safety too — to maintain peaceful labour relations, and reduce risk of costs and liabilities. But from there, our interests diverge.
Managers present injury data in graphs and categories, with a sense of empirical, impersonal, routinism. The most serious are “time-loss incidents” — indicating lost productivity. But for workers, “time loss” also can mean missing your daughter’s wedding. It can mean losing your hearing, your ability to play piano, or your ability to walk without pain. Some injuries take decades off our lives.
Threatened by political sabotage, underfunding, and privatization, AHS is pressured to push our limited staff and budgets harder. Workers give SO much to keep public healthcare running.
I’m fighting for an economic system where health is not weighed against budgets, productivity and profits. But valued alongside our labour — Communism!
– Tatiana M., Edmonton
