UNBC JOINT HEALTH & SAFETY COMMITTEE October 26, :00pm 2:00pm Charles J McCaffray Hall Senate Chambers

Transcription

1 UNBC JOINT HEALTH & SAFETY COMMITTEE October 26, :00pm 2:00pm Charles J McCaffray Hall Senate Chambers Participants: Barb Daigle, (Employer Rep)- Co-Chair Erik Jensen, (Employer Rep) Blanca Schorcht, (Employer Rep) Aaron Olsen, (Employer Rep) Alternate Sean Kinsley, (Employer Rep) Alternate) Twylla Hamelin, (Employer Rep) Andrea Gorrell, (Faculty Positional) Matt Reid (Faculty Employee Rep 1) Hossein Kazemian (Faculty Employee Rep 2) Lydia Troc, (CUPE positional) Co-Chair Bethany Haffner (CUPE Employee Rep 2 Alternate) Deb Schweder, (CUPE Employee Rep 1 Alternate) Janelle O Meara, NUGSS Representative Conan Ma, Chemical Safety Officer Resource Jennifer Skaar, (Recording Secretary) Meeting Co-Chair: Lydia Troc Absent: Sarah Elliott, (Employer Rep) Alternate Kerry Roberts, (Employer Rep) Shelley Rennick, (Employer Rep) Helen Lapp, (CUPE Employee Rep 1) Joyce Henley, (CUPE Employee Rep 2) Vacant Health & Safety Manager, (Resource) Alternates: Trevor Smith, (Employer Rep Alternate) Vacant, (Employer Rep Alternate) Daniel Erasmus, (Alternate Faculty Positional Rep) NUGSS Representative -Alternate Round Table Introduction for new committee member: Conan Ma, Chemical Safety Officer and resource for the Committee. A. AGENDA a.1) Agenda items tabled for next meet due to absence of member C-2, 4, 5 & E-1 a.2) No other changes or additions to the agenda. - Accepted B. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM September 28, 2017 b.1) C.2-2 nd sentence replace We have with Management has to clarify who is referenced. b.2) No other changes, Blanca moved to accept the minutes all in favour. C. BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE PREVIOUS MINUTES c.1) Final Terms of Reference (TOR) for approval Lydia -Final changes to section 11 are: (a) Approved minutes will be posted and maintained on the Safety Website with the most recent minutes being posted on the JOHSC notice board. Reason: Posting on the Safety Website is acceptable according to WorkSafe BC regulations. All staff have access to the electronic copies through the website and there is not enough space on the notice board to post last 3 months. (B) Remains unchanged (C) Removed entirely. Reason: As per WorkSafe BC regulations, there is no requirement to post WorkSafe Orders for the past 12 months. - Bethany suggested to leave (C) in and remove reference under division 4 of the WCA. For transparency reasons, would be good to post copies of all WorkSafe Orders on the notice board as well as the website. Blanca agreed. -Lydia suggested that the copies be posted on the Safety Website. Notice board does refer people to the website for more information. -Barb suggested this be discussed further with Sarah. 1

2 -Lydia asked if the TOR can be approved with the understanding that 11-(C) is yet to be finalized. All agreed. c.2) c.3) Confirmation that the addition of 6.0 (m) in the TOR is already legislated Tabled for next meeting. Management response to the Safety Gap Analysis Report. Committee questions & comments. Barb -Barb is taking the response to the report to BOG at the November meeting. Some items have already completed, others being arranged. Some set-back due to the re-post of the Manager of Health & Safety position but the senior team are paying closer attention to Safety and are committed. Safety app and training orientations are on track and Sarah will be meeting with program chairs to deliver the orientation course shortly. -Bethany complimented management on the response report, felt it was well done. Question on the resources that will be needed in order to complete the recommendations given the timelines identified several of which are in December. Are there plans for additional resources other than the Manager of Health & Safety? -Barb advised that they have been working on restructuring the Safety department. Mid December is the unit action planning which is when the request for more resources will be submitted. Tracking dates may need some flexibility but there is commitment to see items completed. -Matt asked Barb for an overview of the training plan and how that will be rolled out. -Barb noted that Sarah can provide more details at the next meeting but the focus is from the top down based on the recommendations from the audit. President, Vice President s, Dean s, and the leading from the middle team (Directors, Assistant Directors, Department Managers) etc are the first group. Department requests for training have been coming which Sarah has delivered. This may continue to be the process until the Manager of Health and Safety position is filled. Responsibility also sits with those Deans, Directors, and assistant Directors who have received training to train their staff. Additional updates: -An online safety orientation will be ready to launch in December. Continuing Studies will have it ready for testing in November/ December. All new employees will be required to complete the orientation and it will eventually be set up for existing employees to complete. Barb will check with Continuing Studies to see if she can arrange a beta test at the next meeting. -Currently an existing safety orientation checklist is available online which is really good. The President and Vice Presidents have all completed it and they have all been taking it to the next level. It is an awesome resource because there are all kinds of links for safety. Some of the links need to updating and improving but there is way more there than originally expected. CSAM use this checklist regularly for new appointments and for all key request forms. Barb welcomed everyone to complete the existing checklist and to encourage everyone in their departments to complete them. -An online aboriginal awareness orientation is also being developed at the same time. Both this and the safety checklist were identified as two key things that we needed to address. 2

3 -Barb has been receiving questions on lack of an active shooter or emergency response training which will be a priority. In June 2018 the next session of the Violent Threat Assessment workshop will be taking place for both Level 1 and Level 2 (for those who already completed level 1). At the same time work will begin on the emergency plan framework. -Bethany asked if the Joint Health and Safety Committee thought about being more active with regards to doing Health and Safety drop ins at different departments, staff meetings, and things like that? There are checks done during building inspections but if there was a group from the committee available they could meet with departments and do area safety checks and a presentation on safety which may help raise awareness. -Barb suggested that Sarah would be best to have answer. The responsibility does sit with the supervisor in the area. We should be asking at every staff meeting for example if anyone has any safety concerns and also doing a walk around in our areas to identify safety concerns. Sarah can comment further. -Lydia indicated that when the building inspections and lab inspections are being conducted, people in the area are asked if they have any safety concerns or issues. Lydia is not sure if everyone conducting building inspections is asking that question but it is a check once per year. -Andrea commented that it is something she always does anytime she walks through a lab or space. If you see someone doing something unsafe, whether you are on the committee or not, you should remind them that they are not doing something properly. This is especially true for students working in the labs -it is important to tell them not to do what they are doing, remind them of why they should not do it, and advise how to do it correctly. It is part of the training process and you should always watchful. -Barb would like to see a safety newsletter or something similar that could be used to share information. If there were people on the Committee that would have the time and be willing to set it up, a way of getting it out to our community could be arranged. -Lydia agreed that a safety newsletter issued quarterly would be a good idea to remind people to be safe. -Matt likes the idea of a newsletter and he also likes the idea of dropping in for specific situations to have a look at what is going on. He has also liked the discussion today and would like to see the report remain as a standing agenda item to have continued discussion and track the progress and implementation of the items to the safety program. Barb agreed - updates to the committee can be provided by Sarah or herself on a quarterly basis. -Matt commented that the safety checklist is a very informative and he hopes that part of the training process for chairs for example will give them tools to train their faculty members. Matt put a working alone protocol in place this summer for students working in the lab. He was not sure what to do about it or if it was required but he was really happy that he did because a student ended up having a seizure (not in the lab) but it made him realize that it happened in the lab it could have been a serious problem and fortunately there was a protocol in place. He would not have thought about it previously if it had not been brought to his attention. -Barb indicated that the working alone protocols already exist in the safety checklist. 3

4 -Matt stated that if a request to complete a checklist is made and a section is not checked off by the supervisor to complete as it is not relevant at the time, the training would be missed. -Hossein added that as a chemist, lab safety for physical science is known but proper training of supervisors and managers on how to deal with people is very important. Hossein only became aware that this was also part of safety after the safety course he attended. Supervisors and Managers need to be accountable for what they are doing. -Barb agreed that orientation for everyone in terms of good people practices is a huge issue and again there is a huge resource issue within the HR Department. Presently time is being spent on Managers training which includes Deans, Directors, and Managers. There are supervisors on campus that do a good job and others that do not but we are focused on training and it is being worked on. -Bethany wanted to comment that she was excited to see establish training schedules for critical safety officer positions on the list of items to be addressed on the report. c.4) c.5) Preview of the Safety App Tabled for next meeting Update on occupational training Tabled for next meeting D. INCIDENT REPORT SUMMARIES *Note for future, the report Lydia will be reading from will be attached to the minutes and will be saved under the Safety Committee file on the g-drive. d.1) d.2) d.3) Review of first aid incident reports Lydia (Information provided by Sarah) -See attached report Review safety investigations report- Lydia (Information provided by Sarah) -See attached report Other Reports -Lydia (Information provided by Sarah) -See attached report -Barb commented that it is important that everyone know the proper reporting process before going direct to WorkSafe and Committee members could assist helping to deliver that information. Lydia suggested it could be included in the newsletter. Following information taken direct from the Joint Health and Safety Committee responsibilities: Worker Complaints: The employee should be instructed that complaints concerning health and safety should be directed to their supervisor. However, if the situation is not handled to the employee s satisfaction, a Joint Health and Safety committee member should be contacted. The committee member can work with the supervisor and the JH&S committee, if needed, to resolve the complaint. It is important to keep the employee informed of the disposition of the matter. The Joint Health and Safety Committee must not be used as a grievance committee. Refusal of Work: Under OH&S regulation section 3.12, an employer must follow certain corrective steps in the event that an employee refuses to work if he/she considers the activity hazardous. The employee must first report the circumstances to his or her supervisor or employer. 4

5 The supervisor or employer investigates the matter and either corrects the unsafe condition or decides the report is not valid. If the employee continues to refuse to work, the employer or supervisor must investigate in the presence of an employee member of the Joint Health and Safety Committee. The employee member has a responsibility to see that the rights of the workers are protected. The member can do this by making sure that the proper steps of an investigation are carried out. As a member of the committee, the responsibility is to work with the employer to develop a solution. If the matter cannot be resolved, it must be referred to an Occupational Safety Officer of WorkSafe BC. E. INSPECTION UPDATES e.1) e.2) Building Inspection Report Tabled for next meeting Lab Inspection Report from the Lab Safety Committee Andrea -Lab inspections are on track and up to date. Conan advised that the next set of annual inspections will start Friday. There will be two annual lab inspections taking place -1 announced and 1 unannounced. F. NEW BUSINESS f.1) Use of lab space for external bookings Erik -There was lab space booked for a weekend event for which they were proposing to use various tools and some of the lab equipment bunsen burners etc. Question was raised what safety training is being provided to external people using lab space and equipment. Erik was not aware that lab space could be booked through Conference Services by external groups and he did not know the answer to the question. Erik took this inquiry to Sarah and has not yet heard back from her. -Andrea advised that there is a Visitor s to Labs procedure in place for when schools visiting the labs etc but anytime the school groups come in they are always supervised by a faculty member. It is direct under the faculty members supervision that the visit is permitted and the school groups take care of the permission slips at their end. -When Erik inquired through Conference Services about the booking they did know about safety training requirements. Andrea stated that Sarah had contacted her to confirm if there were any previous bookings of similar nature. Andrea verified that the chemistry and biology labs are blocked out and cannot be selected for a booking without getting permission from the chair to use those particular rooms. Andrea s first question is what do we have designated as lab space. Some rooms are called lab space but they are big rooms with large tables. -Erik verified that this particular booking was for the David Douglas Botanical Garden Society and was booked by a faculty member. The concern was not about this booking but rather the need to have something in place to address in the future. Andrea verified that this is on the agenda for the next Lab Safety Meeting. G. CO-CHAIR COMMENTS: -Barb would like to assign someone to help with a safety newsletter. Will table for the next meeting to discuss. 5

6 MEETING ADJOURNED AT 1:55PM ACTION ITEMS Item # Description Who Action 1 Terms of Reference discussion on 6 m Lydia & Sarah and 11 a & c. Final approval to adopt. 2 Safety newsletter development Barb 3 Management Response to Safety Audit action plan updates- standing item to provide quarterly updates to the Barb &/or Sarah Updates: January 25, 2018 April 2018 committee July2018 October Lab Safety protocols for external bookings Andrea 6