Labour group in Hamilton offers work refusal guide for school employees

Employees in Hamilton who face the scenario of entering an uncleaned school whose custodians are off the job are being offered a step-by-step guide to refusing work they feel is unsafe.

The showdown between the Premier Doug Ford-led PC Party of Ontario government, and Education Minister Stephen Lecce, with an education support workers’ union representing 55,000 school employees appears to be changing by the hour. Reports today (Nov. 1) indicated that the province was willing to hear a counter-offer from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and return to mediation. That would be a pivot from imposing a four-year contract on Ontario’s least-paid education support workers through a back-to-work bill that might involve overriding Charter rights through use of the notwithstanding clause.

The Hamilton-Wentworth (HWDSB) public school board, at least as of Monday, was not planning to close schools if its CUPE-member employees walk off the job on Friday (Nov. 4). The Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic board (HWCDSB), which has more CUPE-member employees across a smaller number of schools in comparison to the public board, is planning to close schools Friday if a walkout happens.

Amid all that, the Hamilton and District Labour Council (HDLC) is detailing how “education or contracted workers who might feel at risk going into schools without custodians in the building.” It contended that if the custodians are off the job, cleaning and sanitization that helps reduce COVID-19 and respiratory disease transmission would not be completed. The HDLC quoted the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) to highlight that one worker can refuse work on their own.

“Any INDIVIDUAL might feel unsafe to enter a school board worksite Friday morning and exercise a work refusal,” HDLC stated in a Twitter thread. “A work refusal is done on health and safety grounds and there can be NO REPRISAL for any employee who exercises a work refusal.

“… Instead of entering the building, contact your principal and say ‘I’m exercising a WORK REFUSAL. I don’t feel safe entering the building because of the following…’ and then outline some of the reasons,” the labour council adds. “During this process, you will have to likely remain somewhere on site.

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“At that point, your principal/supervisor is required to have a conversation with your worksite’s union health and safety representative to see if they can agree on a go forward course of action.

“If the union and management disagree, the refusal needs to go up to the board’s health and safety representative with one of your local’s executive officers. If they disagree, they have to call in the Ministry of Labour who will have to make a decision on the matter.”

The HDLC pointed out that even in the event that an Ontario Ministry of Labour inspector got to the school site to hear the health-and-safety concern within the day, their ruling is still appealable.

If they have concerns, you should as well.
This educational lesson on the Occupational Health and Safety Act is being shared solely through the Hamilton and District Labour Council for the benefit of our affiliate members.

— HDLC (@hamiltonlabour) November 1, 2022

Local public health tracking describes the COVID-19 situation as “moderate and stable,” although the positivity rate was at 21.5 per cent at last report on Oct. 21. Hamilton, like all of Canada, is also expected to have much more intense influenza tranmission this winter than it did during the first past two winters, when many COVID-19 health protections such as masking and indoor capacity caps were in place.

Premier Ford and Chief Medical Officer of Health Kieran Moore scaled back most health protections in school buildings in March. The HWDSB was the lone school board in Ontario that kept a masking requirement beyond the end of the provincial direction.

The protections in schools, along with other public spaces, were lifted shortly after the end of the anti-public health Ottawa Occupation in the downtown of the nation’s capital. Ford’s daughter, Krista Ford-Haynes, participated in events in Milton in late January that supported participants of the eventual Occupation. The premier is also going to court to try to prevent having to testify in the federal Emergencies Act Inquiry that was required after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used the legislation in February to clear the capital’s streets.

The 34-year-old Emergencies Act is onside with the Charter. It was passed by former PM Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives in 1988, but was never invoked until this year.

The news that the Ford government was willing to hear a counter-offer was first reported in Toronto-area media outlets. It came hours after the Ontario legislature began sitting at 5 a.m. to speed up debate and passage of a bill that would impose a four-year contract and possible paycuts — annual pay raises that are below the current inflation rate — on the CUPE education support workers and ban them from striking.

The notwithstanding clause is Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It allows a provincial legislature to override Charter rights for a five-year term.

The last offer from the government involved a 2.5-per-cent raise for ed-support workers making under $43,000 and 1.5% for those above that figure. The offer from CUPE was 11%.

However, the current national inflation a rate is 6.9%. It has not been lower than 4.4% since Ontario’s Bill 124 took effect late last year. Bill 124 caps annual salary bumps for many public sector employees at 1%, and is also being challenged in court.

— with files from The Canadian Press