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Work isn’t safer on late-night shift

NANAIMO – Re: Late-night retailer implements all safety practices, Letters, April 25.

To the Editor,

Re: Late-night retailer implements all safety practices, Letters, April 25.

What’s really disgraceful in Doug Hartl’s letter is not only the content, where he claims that the effort to water down the WorkSafe B.C. rules around late night workers somehow enhances their safety, but the timing, coming as it does on the eve of the Day of Mourning when workers all across the world note the deaths and injuries caused to workers on the job.

It’s really disappointing to see WorkSafe B.C. sacrifice evidence-based safety regulations after a lobby based only on the profit motive of late night employers.

Grant’s Law was named after a young Maple Ridge gas station attendant killed on the job in Maple Ridge while working alone. The stripped down regulation allows stores like Mac’s to bypass requirements that the door be locked and a window used to exchange money and goods between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Doug DePatie, Grant’s father, said “When the spotlight was on Grant’s death, WorkSafe scrambled to show they were taking action to protect late-night workers and doing right by Grant. Two years later, with the issue out of the spotlight, WorkSafe B.C. is caving in to employer demands to make workplaces more dangerous.”

The best late-night workers can hope for now is that when they are involved in a violent robbery, they are lucky enough to live and have their assault caught on video so the police can apprehend those responsible.

It doesn’t prevent them from being robbed or assaulted in the first place.

Robert Smits

Ladysmith