According
to the Occupational Health and Safety Act our workplaces are to be
inspected by a worker member of the School Health and Safety Committee
once a month. Each school has a School Site Inspection Committee (SSIC)
that has trained Health and Safety members on it from ETFO, CUPE and
OSSTF that are tasked to do this monthly inspection. One member of
the SSIC will walk around the school during regular instructional
hours while the kids are in school, checking for hazards in the workplace.
In addition to their own observations, the SSIC team is counting on
worker (CUPE, ETFO, and OSSTF) notices of hazards that any worker
at that site may have noticed. For example, Suzy Shier, a teacher
in a kindergarten class may have noticed that the seam of the carpet
in her classroom is loose and could pose a trip hazard. Suzy puts
a note in the mailbox of one of the SSIC members so that they include
that hazard in their monthly inpsection report.
Each month a monthly inspection report is created for that work site
and signed by all members of the SSIC. A copy is sent to Health and
Safety administration at the board office, and another copy should
be posted on the Health and Safety bulletin board at your school.
The custodian member of the SSIC team will enter work order requests
for the Health and Safety items to be fixed, and mark those work order
numbers on the monthly inspection report.
Only one worker member of the SSIC is required to do the monthly inspection
(principals or vice principals may accompany but they may not do the
inspection - it must be done by a worker); however, the quarterly
inspections require the full SSIC team's participation, including
the supervisor (principal). It is important to remember that the Occupational
Health and Safety Act requires inspections to be done by the worker
representatives, and that it must be done during normal work time.
That means the worker is not to give up their planning or lunch time
to do it, and it must be done when the students are in regular attendance
at school.
If worker reps of the SSIC are not being released to perform the required
workplace inspections, they should contact their representative on
the Joint Health and Safety Committee.
ETFO - Allan Kirby 905-244-0111
ETFO - Mike Jessop at Longworth PS
CUPE - Don Postar
OSSTF - Kevin Ogorman at Brookside.
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