Teachers Deserve a Safe Working Environment (From The General Secretary)

Teachers are professionals whose foremost commitment is to their students. Teachers aim to provide their students with the best possible instruction and the best possible learning environment. They make sure their classrooms provide a stimulating atmosphere for students. They take seriously any threat to student safety.

In part because they work in a caring profession educators are less likely to focus attention on their own working  environment and working conditions. Generally, educators don’t see themselves as workers exposed to occupational hazards in the same way that industrial workers are, and they often don’t recognize that the schools in which they work can be dangerous to their own health and wellbeing. Because of budget cuts that began the mid-1990s schools have deteriorated physically and the people working in them are subjected daily to such things as poor quality air, mould, and electrical and trip hazards at every turn.

There are known and relatively simple remedies for the workplace health and safety hazards you face. But first you yourself have to recognize that you can do something about workplace hazards.

At a recent ETFO health and safety conference, lawyer Howard Goldblatt outlined his “commandments for health and safety.” They included this important advice.

1. Know your rights. There’s no substitute for knowing your rights as provided for in health and safety legislation and in your collective agreement.

2. Take advantage of your rights. There is an arsenal of weapons at your disposal. Engage in work refusals if necessary. Call in the Ministry of Labour representative. Use the grievance procedure.

3. Be persistent. You can expect to get negative replies from your employer and the Ministry. Ensure that the board investigates complaints and follows up. Ministry officials need to be educated about the circumstances in schools. Their orders are often incomplete or otherwise inadequate and can be appealed. Make sure any expert brought in is truly independent and knows the area of concern.

4. Be creative. Your working environment is your students’ learning environment. Enlist the support of natural allies like parents and the press. Get the information out.

5. Take ownership. ETFO members must be leaders. No other union will represent your rights as well as your own.

If you have concerns about the safety of your working environment make sure you take action. Start by informing  yourself, then inform others, especially your school steward and your local’s health and safety committee. As ETFO found when addressing mould issues in the Lambton-Kent District School Board (see the collective  bargaining column on page 31) achieving a satisfactory outcome means following the five health and safety commandments above. You deserve a safe workplace.