Workplace safety records go online this fall

The Alberta government promised Tuesdayit will begin posting workplace fatality and injury records for nearly every workplace in the province.

In June, Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk said the records would be online by September.On Tuesday, the minister said the records won't be posted until later this fall. For now, people visiting the site will see only atemplate showing the kind of information coming.

The statistics will come from the Workers Compensation Board and will list the number of lost-time claims, the lost-time claim rate and number of fatalities for each company.

The province will also provide the Alberta and industry-specificlost-time rates to give people a basis for comparison.

Nearly every employer in Alberta will be in the database, no matter how many employees they have.

Since the information comes from WCB files, it will list the thousands of companies covered by WCB legislation, which Lukaszuk said makes up 98 to 99 per cent of employers in the province.

"It's comprehensive information that will allow every Albertan to look at a specific employer. It's a searchable database," Lukaszuk said.

Earlier this year, Lukaszuk came under fire from opposition parties for not immediately releasing the names ofemployers singled out by the auditor general for ignoring workplace safety orders.

Lukaszuk has promised to release those names once he determines that doing so would not break any privacy laws.