Nearly three workers die on the job each day, official statistics show, but labour groups warn that the figure could be much higher as they mark a National Day of Mourning for those injured or killed at work.

Some 977 workers were killed on the job in 2012, according to the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada. In addition, more than 245,000 employees lost time at work due to workplace-related illness or injury that same year, the agency says.

But those figures could be much higher, says the Canadian Labour Congress, because they represent cases where workers or their families received compensation benefits after the death or injury. Hundreds more workers die from “under-reported illnesses and occupational diseases that go unrecognized” in the compensation system, CLC says.

Workers that spend years handling harsh chemicals can fall ill much later, says CLC president Ken Georgetti.

“That’s a low number,” Georgetti says of the 977 workers lost in 2012. “That’s the ones we know of.”

Ninety-two per cent of workplace injuries and deaths “are preventable,” Georgetti told CTV News Channel on Monday.

“It’s a huge cost to the productive capacity of Canada in terms of lost time and lost wages, but it also is devastating to families to lose loved ones through no fault of their own.”

Unionized workplaces have fewer accidents and fatalities, Georgetti notes, “because we have more say in the health and safety in the workplace.”

While all employers have a responsibility to protect their workers, he says, injury and fatality rates will drop when accidents in the workplace are investigated differently.

“I’m not sure that losing lives is the cost of doing business,” Georgetti says.

“What we need to do, frankly, to stop it from happening and we’ll have a change overnight, is for the Crown to enforce the Criminal Code that says that workplace deaths should be treated as crime scenes and investigated that way. When a prosecution happens and an employer goes to jail for negligence, we will see a dramatic and significant change in workplace deaths and accidents in Canada.”

Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union that represents more than 300,000 workers, marks the day with the slogan: “Remember the Dead, Fight for the Living.”

April 28 serves as a reminder to organized labour groups that they must continue to advocate for better working conditions, says Jerry Dias, Unifor’s national president.

“This year we continue to focus on an acknowledgment of our workplace health and safety advocates, their role in reducing workplace accidents and ill health, and how this has become increasingly important set against continuing attacks on health and safety legislation by governments and cuts to resources given to the health and safety program,” Dias said in a letter to members.

Canada’s most dangerous industries

Looking at the 2012 statistics, here are the top six industries that suffered the most workplace fatalities:

  • Construction: 211
  • Manufacturing: 183
  • Government services: 108
  • Transportation and storage: 100
  • Mining, quarrying and oil wells: 69
  • Retail trade: 36