Health and Safety Representatives The Employer and its Employees will comply with Part 7 of the OHS Act – Representation of Employees in relation to the establishment of designated work groups and the election of Health and Safety Representatives.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND INSURANCE BOARD Clause 14.01
(a) When a probationary or regular employee, through employment with the Employer, suffers an injury or disability, or a recurrence of an injury or disability, the Employer shall pay the employee an amount, when combined with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board payment, equals the employee’s regular wage less deductions required by law, for a period of nine (9) months from the first day of absence.
(b) Pending receipt of payment from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, an employee shall receive advances up to the amount of the employee’s regular wage rate, less income tax deductions and shall continue to receive their regular wage rate during the period of absence up to nine (9) months provided that:
i. the employee will make reasonable effort to ensure prompt completion of necessary forms and information required to receive approval of Workplace Safety and Insurance Board payment;
ii. the employee will be expected to fully participate in alternate work, if recommended, by the employee’s medical doctor;
iii. the employee’s claim has not been disallowed by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, and;
iv. the employee agrees in writing, to sign over to the Employer the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board payments.
(a) The Employer shall continue to pay for a period of time not to exceed thirty (30) months from the first day of an injury or disability, the premium cost for health and insurance benefits as covered by Clauses 16.03 and 16.04.
(b) Should an employee return to work from an injury or disability for a period of six (6) continuous months and subsequently suffers a recurrence of an injury or disability, then the provisions of Clauses 14.02(a) and 14.03(a) shall apply.
(c) Notwithstanding Clause 14.02(b), if an employee having ceased to be disabled returns to work and again becomes disabled from the same or related cause within six (6) months, it would be considered as one (1) continuous period of disability as per Clauses 14.02(a) and 14.03(a).
(a) For a period of up to thirty (30) months from the first day of injury or disability, the employee shall be eligible to return to their same position classification if capable of performing the required work. If unable to perform the required work, the employee shall be given all reasonable consideration for any available job for which the employee is able and qualified to perform.
(b) Notwithstanding Part (a), if any employee’s position is declared redundant while on WSIB leave, the employee upon their return shall exercise normal bumping procedures as per Article 8.
Function of Joint Health and Safety Committee All incidents involving aggression or violence shall be brought to the attention of the Joint Health and Safety Committee. The Employer agrees that the Joint Health and Safety Committee shall concern itself with all matters relating to violence to staff.
Joint Health and Safety Committee (a) The Employer and the Union agree that they mutually desire to maintain standards of occupational health and safety in the organization, in order to prevent accidents, injury and illness. The parties agree to promote health and safety throughout the organization. The employer shall provide orientation and training in health and safety to new and current employees on an ongoing basis, and employees shall attend required health and safety training sessions.
(b) Recognizing its responsibilities under the applicable legislation, the Employer agrees to accept as a member of its Joint Health and Safety Committee, at least one representative from the bargaining unit. The number of committee members will be no less than that determined by legislation and the bargaining unit will be entitled to the same membership as any other employee group on the committees. The Union shall notify the employer of their representatives.
(c) Such Committee shall identify potential dangers and hazards, institute means of improving health and safety programs, and recommend actions to be taken to improve conditions related to occupational health and safety.
(d) The Employer agrees to cooperate reasonably in providing necessary information to enable the Committee to fulfill its functions. The Committee shall respect the confidentiality of the information.
(e) The Union agrees to endeavour to obtain the full cooperation of its membership in the observation of all safety rules and practices.
(f) Meetings shall be held every third month or more frequently at the call of either co-chair, if required. The Committee shall keep Minutes of all meetings and make the Minutes available for review.
(g) All time spent by a member of the Joint Health and Safety Committee attending meetings of the Committee and carrying out the members duties, shall be deemed to be time worked for which the member shall be paid by the Employer at the member's applicable rate of pay, and the member shall be entitled to such time from the member's work as necessary for those duties.
(h) The employer shall take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker. [Occupational Health and Safety Act, s. 25
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND INSURANCE 41.1 Where an employee is absent by reason of an injury or an occupational disease for which a claim is made under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, his or her salary shall continue to be paid for a period not exceeding thirty (30) days. If an award is not made, any payments made under the foregoing provisions in excess of that to which he or she is entitled under Articles 44.1 and 44.6 (Short Term Sickness Plan) shall be an amount owing by the employee to the Employer.
41.2 Where an employee is absent by reason of an injury or an occupational disease for which an award is made under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, his or her salary shall continue to be paid for a period not exceeding three (3) consecutive months or a total of sixty-five (65) working days where such absences are intermittent, following the date of the first absence because of the injury or occupational disease, and any absence in respect of the injury or occupational disease shall not be charged against his or her credits.
41.3 Where an award is made under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act to an employee that is less than the regular salary of the employee and the award applies for longer than the period set out in Article 41.2 and the employee has accumulated credits, his or her regular salary may be paid and the difference between the regular salary paid after the period set out in Article 41.2 and the compensation awarded shall be converted to its equivalent time and deducted from his or her accumulated credits.
41.4 Where an employee receives an award under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, and the award applies for longer than the period set out in Article 41.2 (i.e. three (3) months), the Employer will continue subsidies for Basic Life, Long Term Income Protection, Supplementary Health and Hospital and the Dental Plans for the period during which the employee is receiving the award. The Employer shall continue to make the Employer’s pension contributions unless the employee gives the Employer a written notice that the employee does not intend to pay the employee’s pension contributions.
41.5 Where an employee is absent by reason of an injury or an occupational disease for which an award is made under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, the employee shall not be entitled to a leave of absence with pay under Article 44 (Short Term Sickness Plan) as an option following the expiry of the application of Article 41.2.
Health and Safety Representative Meetings A Health and Safety Representative will be allowed reasonable paid time during working hours to attend to on the job occupational health and safety matters affecting Employees he/she represents providing that the Representative informs their manager and agreement is reached. At all other times the Representative will perform productive work within his/her range of qualifications and competencies.
Health and Safety Committees In order to provide a safe and healthful workplace, local unit level LMCs shall establish Health and Safety Committees. Each committee will be composed of an equal number of representatives appointed by the Union and the Employer and will be co-chaired by a Union and Employer representative. A Union representative must be a member of the unit but either party may be accompanied by staff and/or other subject matter experts who may participate, but not vote, at meetings. Each party shall prepare and submit an agenda to the other party one week prior to any scheduled meeting. If neither party submits an agenda, the meeting shall be canceled. Each committee’s general responsibility will be to provide a safe and healthful workplace by recognizing hazards and recommending the abatement of hazards and educational programs. Each committee will:
1. Meet on an established schedule;
2. arrange periodic inspections to detect, evaluate and offer recommendations for control of potential health and safety hazards;
3. appoint members of the committee to participate in inspections, investigations, or other established health and safety functions to the extent necessary;
4. receive and review a quarterly summary of job-related health and safety reports including accident reports and make appropriate recommendations;
5. investigate all types of employee job-related accidents and all types of occupational illnesses and make recommendations;
6. promote health and safety education;
7. study the use of VDTs and make appropriate recommendations to ensure the health and safety of employees regarding such use;
8. maintain and review minutes of all committee meetings; and
9. review the availability and adequacy of first aid supplies and equipment and address any inadequacies. In cases where summary reports are provided, a committee member may request and receive an individual case file or report. In no case will an employee’s records be provided when the law forbids disclosure. In addition, employees’ names will normally be deleted but may be provided to all committee members in instances where committee members need to know the name(s) of employee(s) to effectively represent the bargaining unit(s) and disclosure of name(s) is not prohibited by law. The Employer may require committee members and union representatives to sign confidentiality statements. Members of each Health and Safety Committee will be paid by the Employer while performing committee duties, including travel time, and will also be paid for any time spent in committee approved training related to health and safety. The Committee will develop an annual training program for its members. Each Health and Safety Committee will establish rules consistent with the above principles. A mechanism to coordinate the efforts of individual Health and Safety Committees will be established at each agency.
Cooperation on forestry matters and environmental protection 1. The aims of cooperation on forestry matters and environmental protection will be, but not limited to, as follows: (a) establishing bilateral cooperation relations in the forestry sector; (b) developing a training program and studies for sustainable management of forests; (c) improving the rehabilitation and sustainable management of forest with the aim of increasing carbon sinks and reduce the impact of climate change in the Asia-Pacific region; (d) cooperating on the execution of national projects, aimed at: improving the management of forest plantations for its transformation for industrial purposes and environmental protection; (e) elaborating studies on sustainable use of timber; (f) developing new technologies for the transformation and processing of timber and non-timber species; and (g) improving cooperation in agro-forestry technologies.
2. To achieve the objectives of the Article 149 (Objectives), the Parties may focus, as a means of cooperation and negotiations on concluding a bilateral agreement on forestry cooperation between the two Parties. Such collaboration will be as follows: (a) exchanges on science and technology as well as policies and laws relating the sustainable use of forest resources; (b) cooperation in training programs, internships, exchange of experts and projects advisory; (c) advice and technical assistance to public institutions and organizations of the Parties on sustainable use of forest resources and environmental protection; (d) facilitating forest policy dialogue and technical cooperation under the Network of Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Rehabilitation in Asia- Pacific Region, initiated at the 15th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meeting; (e) encouraging joint studies, working visits, exchange of experiences, among others; and (f) others activities mutually agreed.
Compliance with Federal and State Work Authorization and Immigration Laws The Contractor and all subcontractors, suppliers and consultants must comply with all federal and state work authorization and immigration laws, and must certify compliance using the form set forth in Section 7 (“Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act Affidavits”). The required certificates must be filed with the Owner and copied maintained by the Contractor as of the beginning date of this contract and each subcontract, supplier contract, or consultant contract, and upon final payment to the subcontractor or consultant. State officials, including officials of the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, officials of the Owner, retain the right to inspect and audit the Project Site and employment records of the Contractor, subcontractors and consultants without notice during normal working hours until Final Completion, and as otherwise specified by law and by Rules and Regulations of the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts.
Workplace Safety and Insurance Act It is understood that payment of income protection is for the sole and only purpose of protecting employees against the loss of income during time of such illness. Seniority and service will accrue and the Employer shall continue to pay its share of the premium for the benefit plans during the period of the income protection noted in this provision.
