Kevin Laliberte
Editor, Smoky River Express

I thought I’d share an interesting article which I stumbled across last week which suggests that over half of Canadian critical industry workers may not show up to work during a flu pandemic. It’s a possible scenario which is prompting immediate action to ensure employee health and safety during an influenza pandemic, according to a national survey. Results of that survey show that 54 per cent of critical industry workers would be uncomfortable going to work if several people in their city or town were diagnosed with pandemic influenza. Gee, no kidding! Ninety per cent of respondents, meanwhile, said that they would be more likely to report to work if they knew their employer had plans to provide them with preventative flu medicines. Guy Holburn, Associate Professor at the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business, estimates that this level of absenteeism amongst critical industry workers, and the domino effect on other businesses, could cost the Canadian economy $9 billion. He says the survey indicates that a pandemic flu outbreak would create “an immediate and substantial negative impact on the economy, caused by high levels of absenteeism amongst critical infrastructure workers.” While only a minority of the labour force would miss work due to illness, a substantial proportion would not report to work due to concerns about exposure and possible infection. “The impact of this level of absenteeism in these critical industries would have a significant negative multiplier effect on the short-term performance of most other businesses, and $9 billion is likely a conservative estimate,” said Professor Holburn. “Economic activity in all industries depends on the reliable functioning of critical infrastructure sectors such as electricity, telecommunications and transportation. We tend to take these for granted, but without them the whole economy could grind to a stand-still.” The survey included utility and regional/city workers, transportation workers (including public transit, trucking, shipping and courier), banking, communication providers (telephone, mobile, cable and IT), grocery/food warehousing and medical product manufacturers (including pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, warehousing and distribution). Together, these sectors account for approximately 20 per cent of the economy – valued at more than $220 billion in 2006 and employing more than three million workers. The national survey, conducted by Leger Marketing and sponsored byGlaxoSmithKline, used a combination of telephone and online interviews with 1,300 workers in fields which are considered critical services sectors, and with 700 workers in healthcare fields. History shows that influenza pandemics have occurred three to four times per century. The last two influenza pandemics occurred in 1957 and 1968. These pandemics each resulted in more than one million deaths globally, which pales in comparison to the “Spanish flu” killed between 40 and 50 million people worldwide in 1918 and 1919, including about 50,000 in Canada.

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