A study conducted by the Institute for Work and Health for the Ontario Construction Secretariat (OCS) suggests that work on Ontario construction sites is safer than on sites run by non-unionized firms.

The findings from Updating a Study of the Union Effect on Safety in the ICI Construction Sector were released on January 12. They show that lost-time injury claims on unionized non-residential construction sites are 31 percent lower than those on non-union sites. They also show that claims for severe injuries are 29 percent lower on union job sites.

“The data doesn’t lie, and reaffirms what we have always suspected,” says OCS CEO Robert Bronk. “Preventable incidents hurt people, reduce productivity and affect worker morale. It is encouraging to see data that assures a unionized job is being done properly and safely by people who are fully trained in what their tasks are.”

There are other findings besides. The study suggests that while there was a lower incidence of lost-time claims on unionized sites, the reverse was true when it came to reporting no-lost-time incidents. The rate of no-lost-time claims on union sites was nearly 52 percent, compared with 48 percent on non-union sites.

Report author Lynda Robson suggests this could be because where there is more regulatory discretion around reporting no-lost-time incidents, unionized contractors tended to report more minor claims than non-unionized firms.

The union safety effect also varied according to the size of company. For small operators—those with four or fewer employees—there was no statistical difference between union and non-union sites. However, in companies with 50 or more employees, the risk of lost-time claims on union job sites was 44 percent lower than those on non-union sites.

“This could be because smaller companies are regulated differently than larger companies,” said Robson. “Requirements for health and safety oversight such as posting health and safety information are different for smaller firms. They are also more of a challenge for government officials to reach.”

The study analyzed Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) data from more than 50,000 companies representing 1.7 million workers in the industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) construction sector between 2012 and 2018. The study is a follow up to a similar analysis completed in 2015 with data up to 2012, and which makes similar conclusions.

The updated study suggests that the union safety effect has strengthened over the past five years, when claims from unionized construction workers were 23 percent lower compared to unrepresented construction workers.

“Unionization in ICI construction results in safer workplaces,” says Patrick Dillon, Business Manager of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario. “Building trades unions insist on a higher level of construction trades training, which results in safer workplace practices, as well as educating tradespeople to recognize unsafe working conditions. This results in a healthier and safer workplace and provides confidence that a unionized workforce will get a job completed on time, on budget and, most importantly, safely.”

While the researchers did not investigate why unionized workers are filing fewer WSIB claims, they do note that ICI building trades unions and their contractor partners make significant investments in health and safety training and that unionized building trades employees are more likely to report unsafe working conditions, refuse unsafe work and ensure enforcement where needed.

Building trades union work sites also tend to employ more registered apprentices and have higher journeyperson-to-apprentice ratios according to their trade’s respective collective agreement. Building trades union signatory contractors also tend to have less worker turnover and longer job tenure.