VANCOUVER (NEWS1130)  – The families of workers killed on the job in BC and the BC Federation of Labour want negligent employers to be prosecuted and sent to jail.
    
Sitting with family members whose loved ones have been killed or seriously injured at work, BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair says they made three recommendations to Justice Minister Shirley Bond and Labour Minister Margaret MacDiarmid in a private meeting today.

“One, that the Crown counsel assign a special prosecutor so that when [workplace deaths and serious injuries] take place [and] employers are clearly guilty of gross negligence, that the Crown takes up the case and takes them to court,” says Sinclair.  “And if necessary, and the circumstances warrant…they be given jail sentences.”

They’re also recommending police in BC be better trained to investigate workplace death and serious injuries, and make it mandatory for police to investigate such cases.

“You shouldn’t be able to walk away, close up your company, not pay the fine and suffer no consequence when you’re grossly negligent in killing workers,” he says.

The BC Fed says more than 7,000 workers have died across Canada  since the Criminal Code was changed in 2004 to adopt recommendations from an inquiry into the deadly Westray mine explosion in Nova Scotia in 1992.

But, it says only a few have been investigated by police for possible criminal charges and while two cases have gone to trial, only one resulted in a conviction with no jail time.

Tracey Phan’s father Michael was one of two workers left brain-dead after toxic gas seeped out of a Langley mushroom farm pipe in 2008.  Three other men were killed.

“[The families] are just hoping that change will come,” Phan says, her family by her side.  “They don’t want anyone else to go through this.  They just want change.”

The owners of the farm pleaded guilty to not ensuring workers’ safety at the farm and the Crown did ask they serve jail time along with $600,000 in fines.

Instead, a judge imposed $350,000 in fines and no jail time last year.  The company itself went bankrupt.

The mushroom farm owner later told a coroner’s inquest he didn’t know about potentially deadly gas created from composting mushrooms before the accident.

The coroner’s jury made 15 recommendations, including making agricultural workers, managers and owners complete a two-day workplace safety training course.

Sinclair says the two ministers listened closely to their three recommendations today and expects to hear back from them within a month.

“Today, we hope the door’s been [pulled] open,” he says.  “We’re cautiously optimistic, we’ll go down this road and fight out there it takes us.  But I think we’ve made progress today with the government and we hope that down the road we can start to see more justice in this system.”