Occupational Tragedies – Activism of Those Left Behind

This panel presentation will discuss a new activism coming from family members and support groups of workplace fatalities and serious injuries. Grieving family members and friends of occupational fatality victims are often faced with poor information, defensive companies and little support to help move them forward after their tragic losses. The rights of families to complete information about the incidents that have robbed them of their loved ones is often poorly defined and inadequate to answer the important questions related to the cause of the incident. Family members have described themselves as being left alone with little advice, support or compensation to help cope with the chaos that has been brought upon them. Family members of workplace tragedies and professionals will describe these events and identify some measures that need to be in place to fill these critical gaps. Family members are joining together to support each other and advocate for new rights so that their losses will not be in vain. In doing so, they are helping to energize all health and safety activists for the prevention of occupational injury and disease.