The Fight for Safe Reopening of
Schools in Ontario
Education Unions Say Reopening Plan Fails to Meet Legal Health and Safety Requirements
Parents and Education workers set up Ford's
"COVID classroom" on
Queen's Park Lawn, August 12, 2020.
 Ontario's four
main education unions take the position that the
Ministry of Education has violated the Ontario
Occupational Health and Safety Act
by failing to implement health and safety
measures that "take every
reasonable precaution necessary" to protect the
health and safety of
their members working in elementary and
secondary
schools, school authorities and staff at other
public educational institutions
in Ontario. The legal challenge was issued in an
August 13 letter to
the Minister of Education and the Minister of
Labour signed by the
Association des enseignantes et des enseignants
franco-ontariens
(AEFO), the Elementary Teachers' Federation of
Ontario (ETFO), the
Ontario
English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA)
and the Ontario
Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF).
In their letter, the unions say that given the
absence of scientific
consensus or certainty on significant aspects of
COVID-19, the
government has a duty to apply the precautionary
principle to protect
the health and safety of their members, and
request an immediate
meeting with representatives of the government
and the Ministry of
Labour's
health and safety inspectorate. They assert that
the government's Guide
to Reopening Ontario's Schools is in fact a
Direction to school boards,
and that in directing school boards' plans the
government now has
responsibilities as the employer under the Occupational
Health and Safety Act.
Furthermore, the unions argue that they have a
duty
to raise this matter as they have not been
properly consulted in the
development of the government's Direction to
school boards.
Specifically they identify the following areas
of concern which they
argue constitute the government's violation of
the Act:
- the refusal to
require physical distancing in elementary
schools, which would require reduced class sizes
- not ensuring
minimum measurable standards for ventilation in
schools
- failure to
establish a mask wearing policy for children
under 10
- failure to follow
guidelines for cohorting by allowing up to 100
students in secondary schools to be in contact
- failure to provide
adequate screening measures for students
- failure to provide
adequate safeguards for student transportation
on buses.
The letter states that by re-opening schools
without appropriate
measures in place that address these critical
issues and others, the
Ministry has placed the health and safety of
their members, students
and the entire school community "in significant
and imminent danger."
The unions are demanding that the government
therefore amend its
Direction to include measures that address these
"significant
deficiencies" before school reopens on September
8. Any failure to make
the necessary changes will represent a serious
danger or hazard to the
health and safety of teachers and education
workers, the unions say.
This language specifically is in line with the
conditions required for
a
worker to refuse to perform unsafe work.
The unions point out that since the spring of
2020 they have
attempted to engage with the Ministry of
Education in meaningful
discussion about plans to reopen schools and
have been ignored. As a
result, they say they have no alternative but to
invoke the protections
of the Occupational Health and Safety Act
to affirm the rights of
their members.
The unions state that they would be prepared to
go directly before
the Ontario Labour Relations Board before
schools are reopened in
September to obtain a final determination on
whether the government's
Guide complies with its obligations under the
legislation "to take
every reasonable precaution" to ensure that
schools are a safe
workplace
for teachers and education workers. The letter
can be seen here.
This article was published in
Number 56 - August 27, 2020
Article Link:
The Fight for Safe Reopening of
Schools in Ontario: Education Unions Say Reopening Plan Fails to Meet Legal Health and Safety Requirements
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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