NORTH BAY –
The discipline of members at North Bay Jail over a health and safety
refusal last January has angered and appalled OPSEU President Warren
(Smokey) Thomas and he is again calling on Corrections Minister Monte
Kwinter to investigate his managers’ actions.
In an incident
last January, unprotected staff refused to confront an inmate, armed
with a razor, while management ignored requests to activate the
facility’s specially-trained team that deals with these types of
occurrences. Subsequent to the refusal, the Ministry of Labour issued
seven orders against the employer for their mishandling of the incident.
Yet despite
the refusal being ruled valid, the employer has now issued discipline
against members who participated in the refusal, including disciplinary
letters and suspensions. These types of reprisals are expressly banned
under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
“The employer,
specifically the Regional Director, Midge Ravensdale, has disciplined
our members because of their ‘behaviour’ during the work refusal,”
Thomas said. “Our members were forced to go through the refusal process
for almost 13 hours before a labour inspector was finally called. All
during that time, management refused to acknowledge the refusal or live
up to their legal obligations under the Act. And now, they want to
punish my members for protecting themselves.”
Thomas is
immediately filing charges with the Ontario Labour Relations Board and
is calling for Corrections Minister Monte Kwinter to meet with the union
before the situation gets any worse.
“Most of the
problems at the facility can be traced back to an egotistical,
vindictive, desk-bound bureaucrat in North Bay who doesn’t know the
first thing about working in a jail and wants to run the facility as a
dictatorship,” Thomas said. “Minister Kwinter needs to get involved now,
and know that I will back our members with the full weight and resources
of this union.”
