EDMONTON – A University of Alberta research group says the provincial government is under-reporting workplace injuries.
The Parkland Institute says the government only notes injuries that result in lost or reduced work — about 53,000 cases in 2009.
But the institute says the actual number of people who get hurt on the job is about 10-times higher than that.
The institute says these numbers would be lower if Alberta required businesses to establish joint employee-employer safety committees like in other provinces.
Brookes Merritt, a spokesman for Alberta Human Services, says the province disputes the report’s injury numbers, saying there is no evidence that they are so high.
Merritt also says the province does not believe that forcing businesses to set up safety committees would reduce workplace injuries.
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees and the opposition New Democrats are calling on the government to take action.
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