Publicly identifying companies with the worst safety records would have a significant impact on making the Yukon's workplaces safer, a speaker at a joint labour/business symposium said this morning.

Wolfgang Zimmerman is the director of the National Institute of Disability Management and Research.

He said this morning he believes it's necessary for jurisdictions trying to improve their workplace safety records to name companies that are not safe places to work.

Zimmerman said while he worked with British Columbia's health and safety board, he saw positive changes to safety records occur when offending companies had their names and safety records published in the media.

'We ended up publicizing the names of those organizations that had terrible records and they were fined,' he said.

'It was absolutely published who they were. I'm a strong believer in institutional change, and that has to be part of that.'

Zimmerman will speak at this weekend's Return to Work Symposium, hosted by the Yukon Federation of Labour and the Yukon Chamber of Commerce at the Yukon Inn.

He said one example of naming names occurred when B.C.'s health and safety board published the identities and records of physicians whose patients experienced a poor rate of recovery after surgery.

'The B.C. medical association wasn't thrilled, but at the end of the day, it brought about some changes.'

Fellow visiting guest speaker Liz Scott, of Organizational Solutions, a company specializing in helping get injured employees back to work, said she also believes that companies with good safety records peer pressuring those with bad records could bring about effective change.

That peer pressure, she added, should only come after offending companies have been given the opportunity, knowledge and the tools to improve their safety records.

Scott said she put employers into three categories in terms of safety records: good companies, bad companies, and those that are confused about how to operate more safely.

Earlier this month, Valerie Royle, president and CEO of the Yukon Workers Compensation Health and Safety Board (WCB), said her office is considering releasing names, but not until all employers have had the chance to improve their safety programs.

She said the WCB has an incentive program in place, CHOICES, and would like to encourage employers to improve, rather than trying to punish them into changing.

'First it's the carrot, and then it's the stick,' she said.

The WCB reported the Yukon is on pace to rival last year's record of 1,984 injured people from the territory's approximately 15,000 workers, with more injuries being shown in youth, and among the restaurant, long haul trucking and retail sectors.

As of this morning, the sign indicating the number of reported injuries in front of the WCB's Strickland Street offices read 1,415.

Alex Furlong, the labour federation's president, said he also feels it is important to give employers a chance to change before making their safety records public.

'The moment you start boxing politicians into a corner, or in our question, employers into a corner, you've lost the focus.'