ENTRENCHING CONTRACTUAL CLAUSES FOR SAFETY IN THE EDUCATIONAL WORKPLACE INTO THE COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT: THE NEW FRONTIER IN EMPLOYMENT LAW
JONATHAN L. BLACK-BRANCH AND WENDY LAMONT
DOI: 10.2190/RX5X-VER6-7QKX-QCLV
Abstract
Public sector teachers are becoming more concerned with issues of personal safety and security in the educational workplace. While many teachers working in inner-city urban schools have long recognized such concerns, this is somewhat of a new concern for those working in rural and suburban settings. It seems that for the first time teachers in all schools, rural, suburban, and inner-city, are increasingly sharing such concerns. The findings in this research study indicate that teachers in all three settings increasingly feel they are being denied a duty of care and thus safety protections enshrined in their collective agreements and contracts. Indeed, they are invariably demanding workplace safety as a priority in collective negotiations. Teachers want school boards to be legally bound by contract to adopt policies that would designate schools as safe-havens, whereby risk assessments are carried out, necessary precautions are taken, and security equipment is installed to ensure a minimal threshold of safety in the workplace. In fact, many call for special insurance policies for injury that may be sustained as a result of violent attacks; others want pay bonus incentives for working in certain high-risk school settings. Ever employer has a common-law duty to take reasonable care for his employees' health, safety, and welfare at work: he may be sued in the courts for damages if an employee is injured through the employer's negligence...(definition of the duty of care as per the Oxford Concise Dictionary of Law [1, p. 368].
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