Make safety your mission
The Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB)’s prevention team will help reduce serious injuries by engaging employers in Saskatchewan in their health, safety and well-being journey through a collaborative consulting and data-driven approach. By engaging with employers, internal and external partners, industry experts and workers, the WCB will help employers develop practical solutions to address their significant workplace health and safety risks, and then share those solutions with industry partners, sectors, peer organizations and the broader community.
The WCB’s prevention department provides the following free services to support employers in making improvements in safety, health and well-being.
WorkSafe Saskatchewan, the partnership between the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety and the Saskatchewan WCB, is working with employers to find the root cause of serious injuries across the province as part of WorkSafe Saskatchewan’s Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy. If the WCB’s prevention team has identified that an injury has met one of WorkSafe Saskatchewan’s criteria for a serious injury, the WCB prevention team will contact you to offer support with an incident investigation, root cause analysis and corrective action plan.
If you have already investigated, the WCB’s prevention team can also review that investigation and offer further support if needed.
Please contact your Saskatchewan WCB account manager to discuss the process, and any questions or concerns you may have.
Why are we contacting you?
Serious injuries are costly for everyone.
When workplace injuries occur, it’s easy to see the immediate and direct costs, but there are a multitude of ongoing and indirect costs that should also be considered. Indirect costs can be three to 10 times higher than direct costs, depending on the business and the various circumstances following the incident. Preventing workplace injuries not only keeps your employees safe. It also prevents these potentially significant costs.
WorkSafe Saskatchewan is focusing on reducing fatalities and serious injuries in our province by focusing on two factors within the WCB’s serious injury definition:
- Injuries with 50 or more compensation days paid.
- Many of these are musculoskeletal injuries with back and shoulders being the most commonly injured body parts.
- Injuries having a Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety referral, such as:
- fracture (skull, spine, pelvis, femur, humerus, fibula, tibia, radius or ulna)
- head injury
- neck injury
- serious eye injury
- amputation or near amputations
- wounds to the torso
- electrical burn
- third degree burn
- exposure to radiation
- injury causing internal hemorrhage
- injury caused by an explosion (directly or indirectly)
- asphyxiation
- poisoning and serious toxic effects from exposure to chemicals
- severe infections (HIV, HBV, HCV or tuberculosis)
What is the process?
Participation is voluntary. WorkSafe Saskatchewan is providing this service at no charge.
Prevention teams consisting of account managers, and health and safety consultants from the WCB will collaborate with employers of seriously injured workers to investigate why the injury happened and to identify the root causes of the injury to prevent recurrence.
When the prevention team receives internal notification that a claim has reached 50 or more compensations days paid or is a Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety referral, they will reach out to the employer contact indicated on the Employer’s Initial Report of Injury (E1) form and the Worker’s Initial Report of Injury (W1) form to initiate a serious injury investigation.
The prevention team will work with the employer to gather more information about the incident and investigation to date and work through an additional investigation to confirm root cause(s).
What are the deliverables of the project?
The deliverables for the project include individual serious injury investigation reports back to each employer that identify incident causation and provide recommendations for corrective actions to address root causes. The goal is to prevent this type of incident from happening again. This in turn will reduce injury, illness and suffering for Saskatchewan workers.
The serious injury investigation report is not a standard or regulation, and it creates no new legal obligations. The report is advisory in nature, informational in content and is intended to provide general information to assist employers in providing a safe and healthy workplace.
WorkSafe Saskatchewan is focusing on the reduction of fatalities and serious injuries in our province. The objective of the serious injury hazard assessment project is to provide employers with tools and support with hazard assessments and the implementation of controls to reduce serious injuries in Saskatchewan workplaces.
Everyone has a responsibility to stay safe on the job. Employers and workers both have a role to play. Employers must provide the safest possible workplace, while workers have the responsibility of following safety standards and procedures. All injuries are preventable.
Learn how to assess, identify and control workplace hazards, and avoid hazards caused by poor site housekeeping.
To book an on-site hazard assessment using the energy-based model with a Saskatchewan WCB health and safety consultant, please contact your WCB account manager for more information.
Learn more at worksafesask.ca/prevention/hazard-control.
Why are hazard assessments important?
A hazard assessment is a proactive activity to improve workplace health and safety. By identifying hazards and implementing controls, the workplace can prevent injuries and Illnesses and the associated costs.
What is the process for the project?
Participation is voluntary. We are providing this service at no charge to you.
The WCB’s health and safety consultant will work together with you, the employer, to gather more information on your organization’s current hazard assessment practices and work through a field level hazard assessment to identify potential hazardous acts or conditions on the worksite.
Recommended organization participants include members of the occupational health committee, technical experts, the supervisor and safety professional.
What are the deliverables of the project?
The deliverables for the project include:
- A facilitated observation tour to identify hazards using the energy wheel. The wheel is a simple and easy tool that allows for more effective hazard recognition.
- Discussion of potential corrective actions for the highest risk hazard identified during the tour.
- Creation of a job hazard analysis and/or job safety analysis for the highest risk hazard identified.
- A 30-day follow-up with the health and safety consultant to discuss ongoing safety consultant services to support the corrective actions identified.
WCB account managers and health and safety consultants can provide free consulting and expertise on many WCB topics (injury statistical analysis, overview of WCB processes, experience rating) and safety-related topics, such as psychological health and safety, return-to-work effectiveness, incident reviews, hazard assessments, and health and safety programming/requirements. The WCB works with employers in all industries to meet them where they are at in their safety journey and provide advice and recommendations on injury prevention.
For more information, please contact worksafeinquiry@wcbsask.com.
The Saskatchewan WCB’s prevention department can offer a foundational pillars safety management system assessment.
The foundational pillars safety management system assessment is intended to help employers with their systematic approach to managing occupational health and safety, including the necessary organizational structures, accountability, directive documents and supporting records.
The purpose of the assessment is designed to measure the strengths and opportunities for improvement in six key areas:
- Management and leadership
- Hazard identification, risk assessment and control
- Training and communications
- Inspections
- Investigations
- Emergency response
The assessment report is designed to provide an employer with objective results on the condition of their safety management system as compared to the Saskatchewan joint industry committee standards for health and safety programs, and generally accepted best practices in safety management. The purpose of the report is to enable the employer to take corrective actions from the recommendations listed within to further strengthen their safety management system and reduce or eliminate injuries in their workplace(s).
An effective safety management system is the best way to:
- Ensure compliance with Saskatchewan occupational health and safety legislation.
- Create and maintain a healthy and safe workplace.
Find more resources to help build a solid health and safety system and foster a positive safety culture at pillars.worksafesask.ca.
The organizational performance metric survey is a new tool the Saskatchewan WCB will provide to employers as part of the priority employer process. It is an eight-question safety climate survey that takes approximately 30 seconds to complete. Hundreds of Canadian companies across all industries are using the survey. The tool identifies where a firm is at in terms of occupational health and safety performance to inform the firm’s selection and use of leading indicators.
What is the cost?
The Saskatchewan WCB offers the survey for free.
How many surveys are required to provide statistically relevant data?
The WCB will use the following formula to determine the number of surveys required:
- Employees – 40 surveys plus 10 per cent of all employees.
- Supervisors and managers – 40 surveys or fewer.
- CEO and senior management – 10 surveys or fewer.
How do I schedule the organizational performance metric survey?
Please contact your WCB account manager to schedule an organizational performance metric survey.
The system used across Canada to provide safety information about hazardous products in the workplace has changed. Participants in this course will learn more about the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS).
You must have a Saskatchewan address and register via this link. The course is provided at no cost, so the amount will be zeroed out at the end.
Occupational Health Committee (OHC) Level 1 and 2, and Supervision and Safety training
- OHC Level 1: Occupational Health Committee (OHC) Level 1 is an introductory course for OHC members and occupational health and safety (OHS) representatives. This free course is available in both instructor- led online and in-class formats.
- OHC Level 2: Occupational Health Committee (OHC) Level 2 is required for OHC co-chairs and OHS representatives. This free course takes a closer look at the OHC’s/OHS representatives’ role in workplace inspections and incident investigations.
- Supervision and Safety: This free course is intended for anyone who directs the work of other people and informs supervisors of their legal responsibilities to ensure safety in the workplace.
For other online safety courses, visit: Online courses
If you experience any difficulty registering for the classes or if you want to book in-person training, please email TEPCoordinator@wcbsask.com.
Contact us
For more information on prevention inquiries, contact the WCB’s prevention department:
Email: worksafeinquiry@wcbsask.com
Toll free: 1.800.667.7590 ext. 4
Fax: 306.787.4311
Toll free fax: 1.888.844.7773
To report dangerous work in progress, please contact the Occupational Health and Safety Branch at 1.800.567.7233 (SAFE).
For specific WCB claim inquiries:
Email: claims@wcbask.com
Phone: 1.800.667.7590 ext. 1
For WCB employer account inquiries:
Email employerservices@wcbsask.com
Phone: 1.800.667.7590 ext. 2.
For independent and confidential advice for employers, contact the Employer Advisory Centre:
Email: contact@saskemployeradvisory.ca
Phone: 1.833.822.5607
