Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Jamey Mills, PSAC-BC Youth Coordinator and BC Fed Young Worker’s Committee chair, was one of the determined volunteers who helped campaign to get the “Grant’s Law” approved. When told about the regulation’s approval, Mills commented, “I was so excited about this! It was such an empowering moment, it’s really sad it took such an unfortunate event to get a progressive change like this in place.”

• If you are a young worker and member of the Public Service Alliance of Canada and want to get involved and support similar work, please contact Jamey Mills at jamey_m@telus.net for more information.

VICTORIA – A regulation requiring a mandatory prepayment system at service stations throughout the province will be in effect Feb. 1, 2008, to help protect employees who work late at night, Labour and Citizens’ Services Minister Olga Ilich said today.

“Government’s priority is to protect all workers in British Columbia,” said Ilich. “We want to make sure that people return home safely after a day’s work.”

The regulation makes a prepayment system mandatory in service stations across B.C. 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This expands on other regulations brought in following the tragic death of station attendant Grant De Patie in 2005.

Minister Ilich thanked Grant’s parents Doug and Corinne De Patie, as well as grandparents Chet and Florence Crellin, for their tireless efforts to have British Columbians remember Grant through improved safety measures for thousands of workers throughout the province.

“On behalf of the De Patie and Crellin families, I want to thank the government for ensuring that something positive has come out of Grant’s tragic death,” said Doug De Patie. “Minister Ilich has been a real champion for this cause, and has kept up the momentum towards these changes during the past year. We are pleased and proud that the government has followed through with these new rules that will mean more safety for workers who face the kind of risks that Grant did.”

As well as a mandatory prepayment system, WorkSafeBC earlier amended requirements for orientating and training new workers, including those at service stations. As of July 2007, every new worker and returning worker must be given health and safety orientation and training that is specific to that employee’s workplace. With the regulation approved yesterday, on what would have been Grant’s 27th birthday, the second component of “Grant’s Law” will be in effect in February.

“Safety is government’s number one priority, whether you’re a forest worker, or a gas station attendant, or late night convenience store worker,” said Ilich. “We’ll continue to work with WorkSafeBC to help employers achieve safe work environments to avoid the kind of tragedy that took the life of Grant De Patie two and a half years ago.”