Health & Safety

AT WORK FOR

you

EVERY WORKER IN BRITISH COLUMBIA HAS THE RIGHT TO WORK IN A SAFE & HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT.

It’s important that all our members are aware of their four basic rights:

THE RIGHT TO KNOW

The right to know about any potential hazards in the workplace, as well as the right to training and information on equipment, working conditions and hazardous substances.

THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE

The right to participate in the process of identifying and resolving workplace health and safety concerns. Workers participate as members of Joint Health and Safety Committees and ensure concerns are reported to their employer.

THE RIGHT TO REFUSE UNSAFE WORK

The right to refuse unsafe work if the worker reasonably believes the task or environment is dangerous to their own health and safety or to another worker.

THE RIGHT TO WORKER PROTECTION IN RELATION TO PROHIBITED ACTION

The right to worker protection in relation to prohibited action, meaning that workers cannot be fired or disciplined for participating in Health and Safety activities.

CURRENT CAMPAIGNS

MEMBER INVOLVEMENT IN JOINT HEALTH AND SAFETY COMMITTEES

We are here to support UFCW 247 members interested in becoming workplace health and safety advocates. READ MORE...

Getting involved in health and safety issues in your workplace can be extremely rewarding. Joint Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Committees are excellent spaces where workers can speak up on issues that impact them and their coworkers.

UFCW 247 Joint OHS Representatives:

Gain new skills and knowledge through exclusive, paid training each year
Help to find solutions that can lead to important changes that improve the working conditions of coworkers in their workplace and beyond
Are protected against prohibited actions taken by an employer because of a worker’s health and safety advocacy.
Become workplace leaders. It’s worth noting that many of our most effective union activists and leaders started out as Joint OHS Committee members.

Interested? Read on for more information…

What is a Joint Health and Safety Committee

Most unionized workplaces have Joint Health and Safety (OHS) Committees, whether because of provisions in a Collective Agreement or because of the law.

A Joint OHS Committee is made up of representatives of the employer and the unionized workers at a workplace. They meet on a regular basis to identify and help to resolve health and safety issues in the workplace.

In a unionized workplace, the worker representatives on the Joint OHS Committee are appointed by the workers’ union.

Any UFCW Local 247 member interested in being appointed to a Joint OHS Committee should contact their UFCW 247 Union Representative.

We’ll let you know:

If there is presently a vacancy on the Committee at your workplace;
The process of being appointed by your union;
The educational and training supports available, both through the employer and through your union; and
Answers to any questions you might have.

What does the committee do?

A Joint OHS Committee gives workers a voice at the site level on identifying and finding solutions to workplace health and safety concerns. It is a formal committee with important duties and functions, including:

Identifying workplace hazards
Recommending how an employer should respond to those situations
Raising worker complaints so they can be dealt with effectively and promptly
Finding ways to improve workplace health and safety conditions
Making recommendations to ensure the employer is aware of and follows the OHS provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act and the regulations
Ensuring that incident investigations and workplace inspections are carried out
Participating in inspections, investigations and inquiries as required by law.

Is training available?

Every Joint OHS Committee member must receive eight hours of paid training and instruction when they are appointed.

In addition, all Joint OHS Committee members are entitled to eight hours of paid leave each year to attend occupational health and safety training.

UFCW Local 247 is happy to facilitate our Joint OHS Committee members’ access to training provided by the BC Federation of Labour Health and Safety Centre, which maintains a calendar of available courses on its website. Reach out to our Education Coordinator for assistance.

Is your Joint OHS Committee in need of support?

A key resource available to all UFCW Joint OHS Committee worker members is their UFCW 247 Union Representative. If something is happening that doesn’t seem right, you have the right to contact your Union Representative to ask about it.

Any worker can also contact WorkSafeBC Prevention Services to ask questions about possible workplace hazards, how the regulations work in certain situations, and possible ways of dealing with unsafe working conditions.

Joint OHS Committees are required by law (Section 3.26 of the OHS Regulation) to perform a written evaluation of their effectiveness every year. Committees can use this Joint Health and Safety Committee Evaluation Tool from WorkSafeBC, which covers all the information required by the Regulations.

Even though WorkSafeBC has exclusive jurisdiction over many aspects of health and safety issues in BC workplaces, if a Joint OHS Committee is not functioning the way it should under a Collective Agreement provision, we may be able to address this through a grievance or other process.

CUSTOMER VIOLENCE IS NOT PART OF OUR JOB

Find out what steps you should take when a customer becomes violent or abusive in your workplace. READ MORE...

Customer violence and abuse is fast becoming one of the most prevalent issues in retail workplaces.

Workplace violence is “the attempted or actual exercise by a person, other than a worker, of any physical force so as to cause injury to a worker, and includes any threatening statement or behaviour which gives a worker reasonable cause to believe that the worker is at risk of injury.”

When a customer engages in behaviour such as yelling, swearing, name-calling, stalking (or cyber-stalking), making verbal or physical threats, or physical violence towards a retail worker, they are engaging in violence in our workplaces.

Putting up with customer violence and abuse is not part of any retail worker’s job.

With our Not Part of Our Job initiative, we are engaging UFCW Local 247 members to raise their voices. By educating and empowering our members, we want to promote better enforcement of health and safety laws and push retail employers and legislators to take all necessary action to create safer workplaces for all retail workers in BC.

WHAT TO DO WHEN CUSTOMERS BECOME VIOLENT

There are some practical steps retail workers can take when customers become violent or abusive, including:

Getting to safety
Contacting management or 911 emergency services. It is often appropriate to call 911 in these situations.
Getting First Aid, if needed
Reporting the incident to your Union (UFCW 247 Workplace Violence Reporting Form or by phone at 1-800-667-2205), WorkSafeBC Prevention Services (Online or by phone at 1-888-621-7233), and Your Supervisor/Manager.
If you have been injured, be sure to report it to WorkSafeBC (Online or by Teleclaim at 1-888-967-5377). Remember, an employer telling you to not report a workplace injury or disease is against the law.
Getting help to deal with the trauma-related impacts of workplace violence, whether through a doctor’s referral to mental health services, your employer’s confidential Employee Family Assistance Program (if available), or WorkSafeBC’s Critical Incident Response program (Online or by phone at 1-888-922-3700).

HOW TO REPORT A VIOLENT INCIDENT TO YOUR UNION

UFCW Local 247 members can confidentially report an incident of customer violence and abuse to their union by getting in touch with the Union Representative, calling our head office at 1-800-667-2205, or submitting a report online:

Once we have reviewed your report, we will follow-up with you about the situation and work with you on how to proceed. All contact with us is confidential.

SPREAD THE WORD

Ask your Shop Steward or contact your Union Representative about resources available to UFCW 247 members to get conversations going in your store.

Along with access to online education through UFCW Canada’s webCampus, we also have a poster series and information cards to share with your fellow members.

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE?

The following links provide additional information:

WORKER’S COMPENSATION ADVOCACY

HAVE YOU BEEN INJURED ON THE JOB?

If you filed a claim and would like to appeal the Compensation Board’s decision, your union may be able to advocate for you, please contact your Union Representative.