Canadian Occupational Safety

7 2019 APRIL/MAY WORKPLACE NEWS Ontario moving portion of JHSC training online T he Government of Ontario is reducing the five-day classroom joint health and safety committee training (JHSC) to three days, plus online learning. The change, introduced by Minister of Labour Laurie Scott, pro- vides more flexibility by allowing training to take place solely online for the first part of the learning and reduces the time that workers are out of the office. The government is also giving more time to complete the train- ing: Part 2 needs to be completed within one year of Part 1. Under the current system, Part 1 and Part 2 have to be completed within six months of each other. The changes affect around 50,000 workplaces and are esti- mated to save Ontario businesses and other organizations $5 million per year. "Joint health and safety committees are a cornerstone of a well-functioning workplace internal responsibility system. These improvements will help workplaces promote a strong health and safety culture by meeting the needs of both employers and workers," said Ron Kelusky, Ontario's chief prevention officer. Allowing the option of training to take place solely online — in addition to the existing options of classroom, distance and blended learning — reduces travel and accommodation costs for businesses, the provincial government said. But the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is rais- ing red flags over the decision, saying workers' safety will be at risk. "Sitting adults in front of a screen is not going to help them spot hazards or learn how to be an effective JHSC member," said OPSEU president Warren Thomas. The union said the change "dooms workers to more disease, injury and death" by providing fewer skills to JHSC members who hold employers accountable for safety in the workplace. Workplaces with 20 or more workers are required to have a JHSC with one certified worker member and one certified employer member. About 15,000 JHSC members are certified every year in Ontario. At press time, the provincial government had not yet announced when these changes would be in effect. of ways by their actions what the com- pany culture is," said Boucher."If you have a culture that accepts harassment, that's going to embolden harassers, and it's going to dissuade people from reporting harassment." Communicating an anti-harass- ment message to clients and customers is also crucial to preventing workplace abuse, according to Highnam. "Often, people don't realize that the obligations of creating a safe and respectful workplace extend to service providers and contractors." Even though employers might be reluctant to chastise customers for uncivil behaviour towards employees, it is a necessary endeavour, said Wendy Giuffre, president of Wendy Ellen HR consultancy in Calgary. "If you become aware of an abu- sive situation with a client, you have to show that you're protecting your employees and that you don't tol- erate that inside your organization or outside your organization," she said. "That's a tough one because that's money coming in the door — but you also have to show that you stand up for your employees." Suncor, union agree to random alcohol and drug testing By Sarah Dobson T he internal email went out Nov. 29 — Suncor announced it had reached a settlement with Unifor Local 707A and would proceed with random alcohol and drug testing. Workers in safety-sensitive positions at operations in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, which includes Fort McMurray, would be affected. The move was a long time coming. It was back in 2012 when Suncor introduced such a policy, citing drug- and alcohol-related safety incidents at its operations. Unifor, which represents about 3,800 Suncor workers, disagreed, saying there was no evidence of a widespread problem and this was an infringement of privacy. While a panel of arbitrators agreed with the union, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench sided with Suncor, saying random testing was permissible if the employer could establish there was a general problem with drug or alcohol use at the workplace, not just for unionized employees. It also said the testing was a bona fide requirement to ensure workplace safety. The union appealed the decision to the Alberta Court of Appeal, which upheld the Court of Queen's Bench decision, so the union appealed that decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, while obtaining an interim injunction prohibiting Suncor from carrying out the testing. But in June 2018, the Supreme Court denied Unifor's appeal. There are two key issues involved: safety and privacy, according to Loretta Bouwmeester, partner at Mathews, Dinsdale & Clark in Calgary. "Essentially… this move, this negotiated resolution, took the wind out of the sails of those that would challenge it," she said. "Now that one of the largest unions in the country said it's not going to stand in the way of random testing, what impetus would there be for another union to do so? That's why this is such a key decision." The concerns around random testing that existed before are still there, but it was better to find a compromise with Suncor than draw out the legal battle, said Scott Doherty, executive assistant to the national president of Unifor. "We came up with an agreement that both parties could live with… It was not in the sense that we gave up on the fact that our members have rights and we have concerns around random drug testing and whether or not it's effectively controlling safety issues," he said. "This is about addressing an individual issue at one facility. We have lots of manufacturing in other industries where there isn't random testing and we would fight random testing." The union recognized there have been serious safety issues in Fort McMurray for quite some time, said Doherty. "Circumstances have changed from when we originally were fighting random drug testing to today, and you have to be realistic about that," he said. "We may at some point in time have to take on that fight again. We're hoping that we don't have to, but we're not prepared to just give a carte blanche to Suncor either... It's our hope that random testing isn't going to happen at Suncor forever — I think it's Suncor's hope as well." ® HYDRATION IS 365! Your body needs to have the proper fluid balance to function properly year-round. Water alone won't get the job done. Sqwincher® is the ultimate solution. Sqwincher® can handle the daily grind keeping workers hydrated, fueled and focused... AND IT TASTES GREAT! 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