New statistics released by the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba (WCB) reveal that Manitoba’s health care and public sectors have the highest workplace injuries rates in the province said Manitoba Federation of Labour President Kevin Rebeck.

According to WCB’s Manitoba’s Injury and Illness Statistics Report – 2024, the health care and public administration sectors each had a time loss injury rate of 3.8, which were the highest rates in the province. A workplace time loss injury is one that is serious enough to cause a worker to miss work beyond the day of the injury.

“Right now, in Manitoba you’re more likely to be injured at work in a hospital or a public sector workplace than you are working in a manufacturing plant or on a construction site,” said Rebeck. “It’s time for health care and public sector employers to commit to immediate action to reduce injury rates and keep workers safe and healthy on the job.”

The time loss injury rate in the health care sector was down slightly from 4.1 in 2023, while the time loss injury rate for public administration was up slightly from 3.7 in 2023. The total number of time loss injuries in health care was 2,841, representing approximately 107,389 cumulative days of lost work from health care for the year. The number of time loss injuries in the public sector was 1,778, representing approximately 67,208 lost days of work.

“The number of workdays being lost to workplace injuries in health care and the public sector is staggering,” said Rebeck. “These high injury rates are not only hurting our health care and public sector workers, but they’re also exacerbating staffing shortages,” said Rebeck.

Rebeck noted that workplace injuries caused by violence continue to be a major concern and have increased by 40 per cent in the last two years. The report shows that there were 2,093 workplace violence injuries last year, up from 1,493 in 2022. He called on the provincial government to work in partnership with Manitoba’s unions on a strategy to reduce workplace injury rates and to address the epidemic of workplace violence in public sector and private sector workplaces alike in Manitoba.

“Unions have a lot of expertise and practical solutions to make workplaces safer, and we want to work with government and employers to make Manitoba workplaces the safest in the country,” said Rebeck.

There were 26,184 total workplace injuries in Manitoba in 2024, the highest number of workplace injuries since 2019.