New Certificate of Recognition (COR) program will enable businesses to receive financial benefits while improving workplace health and safety.
October 4, 2010, Vancouver, BC – go2, BC’s tourism and hospitality human resource association, is pleased to announce the launch of its Certificate of Recognition (COR) Program and new health and safety resources now available on the go2hr.ca website.
Working in partnership with WorkSafeBC, go2 is the health and safety resource and the certifying partner for the COR Program for BC's tourism and hospitality industry.
“Workplace health and safety is especially important because our industry employs many young workers who are statistically more likely to have accidents on the job than older and more experienced workers. Ultimately, our goal is to help employers to reduce workplace accidents and injuries and establish the industry as a leader in best health and safety practices,” said Arlene Keis, CEO go2.
The new COR program is now available for businesses with 20 employees or more. A similar program for companies that employ fewer than 20 employees is expected to be available in the future. In addition to providing safer, healthier workplaces, and helping injured employees return to work, the program enables employers to receive up to 15% in rebates off of their annual WorkSafeBC premiums.
The process for becoming COR certified includes developing or modifying health and safety programs to meet the COR standards and requirements. Once this is complete, an external auditor is brought in to ensure criteria are met and maintained.
“We worked closely with industry operators to create the audit tool used for the COR evaluation and certification,” said Keis. “The program needed to meet very high safety standards, while still being reachable for businesses to achieve.”
The COR program has been long-awaited and major hotels and resorts including Whistler Blackcomb, Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel and Mount Washington Alpine Resort have already signed up.
“By having go2 develop a health and safety tool kit, and being responsive to our questions and needs, it makes a good safety program attainable for the average tourism business,” said Kate Dodd, Director of Finance, Mt. Washington Alpine Ski Resort. “COR has us particularly excited because it's designed to encourage us to develop a system as opposed to a set of rules. It’s a chunk of work at the beginning, but the pay back is immediate with the 15% rebate. The real win will come as we see our WorkSafeBC rates come down and our safety record improve.”
go2’s website has been updated with a host of new information, weblinks and resources specifically related to industry health and safety. The section includes legal obligations, implementing an OH&S program, information on the regulations on Young and New Workers and Working Alone, COR program details and industry specific information for hotels, ski areas and more. For a direct link to this section, click here.
Canada’s Healthy Workplace Month encourages Canadian organizations to promote the benefits of workplace health, throughout the month of October. Organizations are invited to participate in a series of fun weekly challenges and can also track their results against other workplaces, visit the Resource Well for helpful information and links, and share their success stories and event photos to show what they’ve done to create a healthier workplace. For more information, visit www.healthyworkplacemonth.ca.
About go2
go2 is BC’s tourism and hospitality human resource association responsible for coordinating the industry’s Workforce Development Action Plan, a key component of the industry’s growth strategy. Tourism is one of the largest resource industries in BC comprising 18,000 mostly small to medium-sized businesses which directly employ over 131,000 British Columbians. For more information, visit www.go2hr.ca.
Media Contact:
Joyce Lam, go2
604-633-9787 ext. 227
jlam@go2hr.ca
