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Question: My district is asking all employees to fill out lengthy “Hazard Assessment” forms. Does completing and signing such forms place me at risk? If I sign them does the liability change from the board to me as the teacher?
Answer: Questions about occupational health and safety (OH&S) usually involve two parts. First, what does the Occupational Health and Safety Code require of me? And second, what liability would I assume?
Compliance with the OH&S Code is not optional for employers. Across the province, Teacher Welfare is recognizing an increased focus on OH&S compliance and the involvement of teachers in that compliance. Section 7 of the OH&S Code refers specifically to the employer’s responsibility to identify hazards, prepare reports on those observations, and initiate plans to control or eliminate the hazards identified. These actions must be performed periodically even when there have been no changes. Section 8 of the OH&S Code states that employers must involve workers in the hazard assessment and in the control or elimination of hazards identified. All employees are workers; this includes teachers but not students (except in certain specific circumstances). The employer should be able to indicate which workers were meaningfully involved and to what extent. The Code also requires workers to cooperate with the employer for the purposes of the health and safety of not only the worker, but of other workers engaged by the employer as well as other workers present. Workers are expected to participate. It is important to remember when completing hazard assessments that the teacher is doing them for the workers on site, not for students. To illustrate, playground hazard assessments are for hazards to workers, not to students. The obligations of OH&S are often confused with our duty of care for students.
This means that you are an important part of the employer’s compliance with OH&S standards. Unlike the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP), where the focus is on obtaining the minimum amount of information necessary to complete a task or function, the Occupational Health and Safety Code asks employers and workers to actively exceed the baseline level of hazard assessment where possible.
Teachers are protected from liability in a number of ways. Section 144.1(1) of the School Act specifies that employees are not liable for loss or damage when acting in the good faith performance of their duties. Compliance with employers’ OH&S plans is a duty. Section 60 of the School Act directs boards to carry insurance that indemnifies their employees from damages as a result of litigation.
Questions for consideration in this column are welcome. Please address them to Gordon Thomas at Barnett House (gordon.thomas@ata.ab.ca).
