The killer at work
Bill 57 would gut Health and Safety Act, attack other protections

Somebody is going to die if this law passes.

On May 17, without notice, the Harris government introduced a dangerous new law into the Legislature. Bill 57 is a giant bill. If passed, it will amend 30 different laws. The most shocking changes will gut the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) and put the lives of all Ontario workers at risk.

“It took a century of union battles to build up worker health and safety protections in this province,” said OPSEU president Leah Casselman. “We cannot let one government wipe them away with the stroke of a pen.

“Bill 57 is very, very serious,” she said. “This bill targets workers, including OPSEU members, in the most dangerous jobs in society. Lives really are at stake. The time to speak up is now.”

OHSA changes

Among the proposed changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act are:

· Repeal of Section 43 (7). Under the current law, workers have the right to refuse unsafe work. They have the right to have the workplace investigated by a Ministry of Labour inspector. They have the right to be there during the investigation. The new amendment would allow an inspector to investigate over the phone and not at the workplace. An inspector could issue a ruling on a hazard without ever seeing it.

“This is insane,” said Casselman. “The police don’t inspect a crime scene over the phone. Without an evaluation by an independent inspector, employers could force workers to go back to work, without doing anything about the hazard.

“This change can only be meant to deter workers from exercising their right to refuse unsafe work.”

“Health and safety inspectors often find other hazards when they inspect the site of a work refusal,” noted Ron Elliot, OPSEU Region 1 Vice-President.  “Under Bill 57, those hazards may go unnoticed - until it’s too late.”

The change also violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, says Bob DeMatteo, OPSEU health and safety officer. Section 7 of the Charter prohibits taking away the right to security of the person without due process. In a 1998 decision, the Ontario Health and Safety Adjudicator ruled that a decision not to inspect a work site after a work refusal “immediately [brought] Charter values into play.”

· Repeal of Section 36. Right now, the OHSA says employers must keep an inventory of hazardous substances in the workplace. They must provide public access to this inventory. Not under Bill 57! Repealing Section 36 means workers and public health and fire safety officials will be denied access to information on hazardous materials.

· Subsection 3.2 (additional amendments to Section 9, subsection 3). This new section allows the minister to permit workers to designate other workers who are not on the workplace health and safety committee to conduct inspections and represent them during work refusals.

“This change is an assault on the trade union, and it’s also dangerous,” said Elliot. “It goes around the union after the union has invested thousands of dollars in health and safety training. It takes a lot of training to inspect a workplace. Two people can walk past the same site and see entirely different things.”

· Repeal of Section 52 (1). Right now, employers must report accidents to the Health and Safety Director within four days. The amended law would require this only if an inspector is notified. Inspectors rarely investigate minor accidents; these accidents will rarely be reported. The Director won’t know about dangerous workplaces - until something major happens.

Minor accidents in an area often precede major ones, Elliot noted.

This change also gives employers the ability to “play with the definition of a critical injury, and thereby avoid reporting almost everything,” he said.

· Repeal of Section 57 (10). Right now, health and safety inspectors must provide copies of their reports to workers who file complaints. The amended law would only require an inspector to provide this report upon request. If workers don’t know they have the right to the report, they may not request it.

· New Part III.1 “Codes of Practice.” This new part will give the Minister or Deputy Minister of Labour the power to approve or withdraw approval of “codes of practice.” A code of practice is a set of health and safety guidelines only. The amendment says that compliance with a code of practice can be seen as compliance with a regulation. However, failure to comply with a code of practice would not be, in itself, a breach of the regulation!

This is a clear weakening of enforcement. Last year, under intense political pressure after the Walkerton tragedy, the Ontario Cabinet toughened the Ontario Drinking Water Guidelines into regulations. Bill 57 goes the opposite direction. It turns strong regulations into weak guidelines and wipes out employer accountability for worker health and safety.

· Repeal of Section 34. Right now, employers must notify the Director of Health and Safety if they bring new chemical or biological substances into the workplace. They must provide information about what is in the new substance. Bill 57 removes these requirements. Right now, the Director can order an assessment of any new substance he or she suspects may be a hazard. Bill 57 would strip the Director of that power.

Thousands of new chemicals are introduced into Ontario workplaces every year. If Bill 57 passes, workers will be exposed to more and more to substances that have never been evaluated for their health and safety risk. Employers will not even have to think about measures to protect workers.

WSIA changes

· Repeal of Section 149(6): Section 149 deals mostly with offences and false or misleading statements. It deals primarily with workers and those who provide goods and services to the WSIB. Currently, the law provides for a two-year statutory limit in prosecuting offences under this subsection. By repealing it, the WSIB can go after workers whenever they choose.

· Addition of Section 157.1: Section 157 deals with corporate directors and officers’ liability. It says that if a corporation commits an offence, every corporate director or officer who went along with it is guilty, too. The new clause 157.1 (1) imposes a two-year statute of limitations on prosecutions. Compare this to the previous change. Under Bill 57, bosses can only be prosecuted for two years; workers can be prosecuted forever.

Bill 57 would axe arbitration in Developmental Services bargaining

Bill 57 could have a big impact on collective bargaining for OPSEU members in the Developmental Services sector.

If passed, it would make it impossible for workers in Associations for Community Living and other Developmental Services to conduct bargaining under the Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act (HLDAA). HLDAA (“Hilda” for short) is the law that bans strikes in certain areas of health care and social services. It allows contract disputes to be settled at arbitration.

Bill 57 says that:

• HLDAA will not apply to any agency that is funded under the Developmental Services Act.
• HLDAA will not apply to any agency that has an agreement with the Ministry of Community and Social Services to provide services under the Developmental Services Act.
• If a bargaining unit is in bargaining under HLDAA before the changes are proclaimed, has gone through conciliation, and is on the way to arbitration, HLDAA still applies for the current round of bargaining. HLDAA would not apply in future rounds.

There’s much, much more - call your MPP

The changes noted here are not the only ones in Bill 57 that affect workers. If it passes, the 112-page Bill will change laws covering everything from architects to trees. It will change the Employment Standards Act, Ontario’s most basic labour law. Bill 57 should really be 30 separate laws. Many of them - especially the ones dealing with labour law changes - demand extensive public hearings.

The Legislature is not sitting this week. MPPs are (supposed to be) in their constituencies. Phone your local MPP. Tell him or her to support public hearings into Bill 57. Better yet, tell them to scrap it altogether and go back to the drawing board.

For the full (first reading) text of Bill 57, check the Legislative web site at http://www.ontla.on.ca/documents/Bills/37_Parliament/Session2/b057_e.htm. Watch for more information from OPSEU and the Ontario Federation of Labour.

OPSEU ActionFax is an electronic publication of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. Original authorized for distribution by Leah Casselman, president.

Action Fax Archive
 

Ontario Public Service Employees Union, 100 Lesmill Rd. Toronto, ON M3B 3P8  (416) 443-8888  www.opseu.org