The Occupational Health & Safety Committee of Local 333 was established in March 2004, to educate and ensure safety among our members.
Committee Chair:
Lori Johb – Phone: 306.286.3801; Work Phone: 306.682.8140; Email: lejohb@sasktel.net
Reports & Submissions:
SEIU-West’s Submission to the WCB Committee of Review
SEIU-West’s Response to the Questionnaire and Discussion Document Regarding Proposed Changes to The Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993
In this submission, an outline of our perspective and outstanding questions for each of the sections in the discussion document.
Click here for the full PDF of this submission: SEIU-West Submission 2011
SEIU-West’s Response to the Review of the Administration of The Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993
SEIU-West members place a high value on all matters related to Occupational Health and Safety and are keen to eliminate workplace hazards and prevent injuries, illnesses and fatalities.
In this submission, an outline of our perspective and outstanding concerns relative to the administration of the Act.
Click here for the PDF of the submission: SEIU-West Submission OH&S Admin September 2011
Newsletters & Memos:
2010
Worker Safety Newsletter – March 2010
Posters:
Asbestos Alert Fact Sheet March 2010
Occupational Health & Safety Education
Feb. 27 2006 Safety Engineered Needle Regulations – Feb 23, 2006
Feb. 27 2006 Revised Mandate (Dec 2005) of OH & S Committee
Workload Program
The single greatest health and safety threat to SEIU members has now become the deliberate and systematic understaffing of our workplaces.
If left unchallenged, SEIU members will continue to be forced to push their bodies harder and faster to perform their work with devastating and often permanent consequences to their safety and health.
Our members are finding it increasingly difficult to provide quality care to their patients/residents without risk to their own physical safety. In addition to increasing worker injuries the quality of patient care is suffering tremendously. Unreasonably high workloads and inadequate staffing levels are resulting in job stress.
SEIU is embarking on a National Safe Staffing Campaign from an OH&S perspective. They are planning to use a multifaceted approach advocating for legislative changes in conjunction with strong collective agreement bargaining provisions and aggressive vigilance regarding WCB entitlement for our affected members. SEIU Canada promised to develop comprehensive safe staffing level language for our collective agreements.
Last year, 15,000 Saskatchewan workers were off the job due to workplace injury and illness. It is important that our workplace standards and practices are effective in preventing these tragedies.
Our membership has expressed continued concern regarding workplace stress and workload and the impact on their health. We are asking for your help in completing a “Workload Tracking Form”. This was developed to provide valid documentation of the workload issues of our members.
It is anticipated that the results will be used to push for corrective measures to be implemented to improve our working conditions.
The information obtained from the Workload Tracking Form can be used to develop Contract Language, and to assess workplace injuries in relationship to workload concerns.
The first step in our Workload Tracking Form procedure is to:
discuss your workload concerns with your supervisor;
if concerns are resolved, communicate this information to all members in your department;
if the concerns are not resolved, fill out the Workload Tracking Form;
The forms should be filled out for every shift. That may mean three forms per day.
For clarification…
The bullet that asks did your supervisor prioritize/reduce your normal job duties? We want that information to determine how many times the supervisor changes your duties or moved these duties to another shift so as not to replace staff. For example – You’re short staffed today so some patients will not get their bath today, but the next shift will have to complete their duties as well as the duties that were omitted on your shift. Worse yet, in some cases these patients will not get their bath at all.
Please remember to document if workplace injuries occurred because of staff shortages.
NOTE: If workplace injuries or the potential for workplace injuries are occurring be sure to complete a Workplace Incident Form.
(Workplace Incident forms are found at your workplace).
The Workplace Tracking Forms DO NOT replace the Workplace Incident Forms.
The ongoing results obtained from the data will be posted on the Web at www.SEIUWEST.ca under Committees – Worker Safety. The first results should be available after July 30, 2004.
To succeed we need you and members in each department to regularly fill out this form.
Remember to return the Workload Tracking Form to your Union Chairperson or designate. The Chairperson should fax the form to:
1-306-652-1392 or 1-877-221-2212 (toll free).
The Chairperson should check mark the box where it states faxed, located lower left hand corner of the Workload Tracking Form, and then give the form to their Local Co-Chair of the OH&S Committee.
To succeed we need unity among our members.
We are the work force and we should have some say in how we are expected to work!
Workload Tracking Form Stats:
Jan. 28 2008
Mar. 09 2007
May 23 2006
Feb. 23 2006
Sep. 01 2005
Apr. 05 2005
Feb. 08 2005
Dec. 03 2004
Forms:
Exercising Your Legal Right To Refuse Unsafe Work
Under the Saskatchewan Occupational Health & Safety Act, workers are entitled to three rights of protection, commonly referred to as the three .R’s.:
the right to know (training and information) the right to participate (Joint Health and Safety Committees) and the right to refuse
Our health and safety legislation is designed and intended to protect you from dangers in the workplace. If and when the first two rights (the .right to know. and the right to participate.) have still not protected you from a danger in the workplace, a worker can and should resort to his/her last line of defense, which is the individual right to refuse dangerous work.
Anyone can exercise their right to refuse if they honestly and legitimately believe the work they are doing is in any way unusually dangerous. It is not necessary or required that the worker be proven correct in their belief that the work they are performing endangers them or co-workers – that will be ultimately determined by an Occupational Health and Safety Officer from the Occupational Health and Safety Division. The law only requires that a worker have .reasonable grounds to believe. the work is unusually dangerous, even if their concern is eventually proven wrong. Whether the work is ultimately determined as unusually dangerous or not, a refusing worker is protected by law from discipline (or any other punitive measure by the employer) when exercising their legal right to refuse.
The work refusal procedure is as follows:
1.The refusing worker notifies his/her supervisor that he/she is refusing work because he/she is concerned the work in question is unusually dangerous.
2.The refusing worker tries to resolve (to his/her satisfaction) the health or safety concern with the supervisor/employer (the refusing worker should not go home or leave the job site without employer permission)
3.The supervisor/employer can assign the refusing worker reasonable alternative work (at no loss of pay or benefits) pending resolution of the safety or health concern giving rise to the refusal.
4.The supervisor/employer can only request another worker do the work currently being refused by the first worker after informing the second worker that the work being requested is currently being refused by the first worker, and the reasons why the supervisor/employer believes the work in question is not unusually dangerous and further, that the second worker also enjoys the legal right to refuse such work. All of the above must be furnished by the employer to the second worker in writing.
5.If the problem cannot be resolved at the first stage, the worker can continue to refuse and the Occupational Co-Chairs of the Joint Health & Safety Committee should be called for assistance (they are only to try to help find a solution acceptable to the refusing worker, not to determine whether or not the work is unusually dangerous).
6.If the problem is still not resolved to the refusing worker’s satisfaction, the Co-Chairs are expected to call an emergency meeting of the Joint Health & Safety Committee to investigate the refusal. If necessary, the Committee will rule on whether or not the job is unusually dangerous however, the refusing worker still has the right to continue to refuse if he/she is not satisfied with the Committee’s decision. An Occupational Health and Safety Officer must then investigate and provide a written decision to the parties.
As an SEIU member, your Union is always available and willing to assist you with any health and safety concern. You are entitled to the protections of the occupational health and safety laws, including the right to refuse. If in doubt, don’t be hesitant to use it – it could save your life!
