Occupational Health and Safety Committee
(a) The parties agree that a joint occupational health and safety committee will be established. The Committee shall govern itself in accordance with the provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations made pursuant to the Workers Compensation Act. The Committee shall be between the Employer and the Union, with equal representation, and with each party appointing its own representatives. The Union agrees to actively pursue with the other Health Care unions, where more than one union is certified with the Employer, a joint union/employer committee for the purposes of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.
(b) Employees who are members of the Committee shall be granted leave without loss of pay or receive straight-time regular wages while attending meetings of the Joint Committee. Employees who are members of the Committee shall be granted leave without loss of pay or receive straight-time regular wages to participate in joint workplace inspections and joint accident investigations at the request of the Committee pursuant to the WCB Occupational Health and Safety Regulations. Committee meetings, workplace inspections and accident investigations shall be scheduled during normal working hours whenever practicable.
(c) The Occupational Health and Safety Committee shall have as part of its mandate the jurisdiction to receive complaints or concerns regarding workload problems which are safety-related, the right to investigate such complaints, the right to define the problem and the right to make recommendations for a solution. Where the Committee determines that a safety-related workload problem exists, it shall inform the Employer. Within 21 days thereafter, the Employer shall advise the Committee what steps it has taken or proposes to take to rectify the safety-related workload problem identified by the Committee. If the Union is not satisfied with the Employer's response, it may refer the matter to the Industry Trouble shooter for a written recommendation.
(d) No employee shall be disciplined for refusal to work when excused by the provisions of the
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.
Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee The Employer and the Union recognize the role of the joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee in promoting a safe and healthful workplace. The parties agree that a Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee shall be established for each Employer covered by this Collective Agreement. The Committee shall govern itself in accordance with the provisions of the Industrial Health and Safety Regulations made pursuant to the Workers’ Compensation Act. The Committee shall be as between the Employer and the Union, with equal representation, and with each party appointing its own representatives. Representatives of the Union shall be chosen by the Union membership or appointed by the Union. All minutes of the meetings of the Joint Occupational Health & Safety Committee will be recorded in a mutually agreeable format and will be sent to the Union. The Union further agrees to actively pursue with the other Health Care Unions a Joint Union Committee for the purposes of this Article. The Employer agrees to provide or cause to be provided to Employer members of the Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee adequate training and orientation to the duties and responsibilities of committee members to allow the incumbents to fulfil those duties competently. The Union agrees to provide or cause to be provided to Union members of the Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee adequate training and orientation to the duties and responsibilities of committee members to allow the incumbents to fulfil those duties competently. Such training and orientation shall take place within six (6) months of taking office.
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
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.
Grievance Commissioner System This is to confirm the discussion of the parties during collective bargaining that they are committed to encouraging early discussion and resolution of labour relations issues at the local level and seek to resolve grievances in a timely and cost efficient manner. To that end, this is to confirm that pursuant to Article 8, the parties agree that the Employer and Union at individual nursing homes may agree to utilize the following process in order to resolve a particular grievance through the utilization of a joint mediation-arbitration procedure:
Health and Safety Committee Where required a committee will be formed and will meet where required by the Employer’s safety policies and by statute.
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.
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.
Occupational Health and Safety Act The Employer, the Union, and the Employees recognize they are bound by the provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, S.N.S. 1996, c.7, and appropriate federal acts and regulations. Any breach of these obligations may be grieved pursuant to this Agreement.
