Ontario’s labour ministry says it’s investigating health and safety complaints at Western University after the school’s faculty union filed a complaint about equipment in laboratories and other high-risk communal areas not being tested and inspected, amid an ongoing facilities workers’ strike.
The ministry told CBC News on Thursday that it received two health and safety complaints from the university on Sept. 24, and has assigned an inspector to investigate.
“The ministry prioritizes worker health and safety, enforcing the Occupational Health and Safety Act to ensure compliance. While the investigation is in progress, we cannot provide further details,” a spokesperson told CBC News in an email.
The University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA) said Wednesday that its members have pictures of at least 20 areas that should have been inspected but haven’t since the strike began last month, including eyewash stations in labs.
Western University said trained teams continue to inspect fire extinguishers and test emergency showers. A spokesperson for the university said weekly checks of eyewash stations inside labs are the responsibility of lab staff, not CUPE 2361 employees.
“Western’s faculties and support units have been given a direct line to our leaders in facilities management to receive any urgent support and to identify other concerns,” wrote Stephen Ledgley in a statement on Thursday.
Members of CUPE Local 2361, which includes caretakers, groundskeepers and landscapers, walked off the job on Aug. 30 after contract negotiations with the university broke down.
“Spot checks of the medical sciences building, the dental sciences building, and the health sciences addition revealed that eyewash stations had not been tested nor inspected,” UWOFA said. “Failure to maintain them in working order poses a significant health risk to faculty, staff and students.”
The faculty union, which represents 1,600 members, including full-time and part-time faculty, librarians and archivists, said the lack of inspections, proper safety training, and other violations raise concerns about Western’s safety standards.
In a statement, university officials say the school is complying with its health and safety responsibilities.
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“Faculty members have a duty to report any hazardous working conditions to their supervisor, chair or dean, as outlined in the UWOFA collective agreement. Unresolved issues can be escalated to Western’s health, safety, and well-being team or the joint occupational health and safety committee,” the school said in a statement, adding that to its knowledge those reports have not been made, despite being mandated in the contract.
“It’s uncommon for initial safety reports to be directed to the ministry, the UWOFA website and social media.”
Western is compliant with its responsibilities to ensure the health and safety of campus community members – and this remains true during the current labour disruption.
Earlier this month, Western students told CBC News that since the strike began the campus has been dirty and unkempt.
Faculty ‘alarmed’ by safety infractions
The faculty union also said HVAC systems in student residences are malfunctioning and replacement workers aren’t wearing adequate personal protective equipment. Fire extinguishers and safety showers are also not being maintained on a monthly basis as required, and lights in the visual arts building haven’t been repaired, faculty union officials said.
“For a replacement worker, the difference between a sneaker and a safety shoe is very significant when a heavy or sharp object falls on their foot,” said UWOFA president Johanna Weststar.
“A malfunctioning eye wash station could mean blindness for faculty, staff or students who work with hazardous substances. Western works because CUPE workers do. We need them back now.”
The two sides were bargaining for two months before CUPE 2361 voted in favour of a strike, with increased wages and hiring the main sticking points. The union said a caretaker currently earns $23.32 per hour at Western, while other institutions of similar size pay upward of $29.
The faculty union said it’s “alarmed by the potential for asbestos exposure in older buildings, where water and steam leaks occur frequently and require special precautions that may not have been properly communicated to replacement contractors.”
“This poses an unacceptable risk to those workers and to others on campus. These lapses indicate a broader disregard for the health and safety of the campus community and beyond,” said UWOFA.
But the university disputes this concern.
“There is no reason to suggest that asbestos-related hazards have increased during the current strike – and the University is not aware of any contracted employees exposed to any hazardous conditions,” said Ledgley.
“In the unusual circumstance that asbestos abatement work was necessary, it would be conducted by individuals properly trained in asbestos work with proper personal protective equipment and the worker would be monitored by Workplace Health.”
The union is urging Western to return to the bargaining table with a fair settlement so the university’s standards of cleanliness, maintenance and safety of campus facilities remain intact.
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