Community Services Divisional Council wraps up violence workshops
The council’s regional workshops on workplace violence
wrapped up in London June 13. OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas was in
town to promote the council’s anti-violence agenda with a news conference at
the London Regional Office. Deb Gordon, chair of the council, and Terri
Aversa, health and safety officer, also spoke at the news conference, which
received electronic media coverage throughout southwestern Ontario.
The event wrapped up the series of regional workshops held
by the Council this spring on violence in the workplace.
Earlier, the council polled 500 members on workplace
violence, asking how prevalent it was and who perpetrated it.
The council is asking for a regulation
under the Occupational Health and Safety Act that recognizes
workplace violence as a hazard and compels employers to take steps to
prevent it. The regulation should cover all workers and should define
workplace violence as being both verbal and physical.
It should include specific measures employers must take to
protect workers against violence, such as conducting hazard assessments;
establishing violence policies that include prevention programs;
establishing work practices and procedures to eliminate or minimize risk;
and establishing procedures for reporting; investigating and recording
violent incidents; and providing information, training, and support to
workers.
The Council also met with senior advisors in the Ministry of
Labour (Brad Duguid’s office) on June 4, to ask for this needed regulation.
The meeting with Susanna Zagar, Assistant Deputy
Minister, and Policy Branch, Julie Garner, Senior Policy Assistant to the
Minister, was productive.
Read the backgrounder on the poll
results.
Read the News Release
from the London event.
Read Smokey Thomas’s
remarks.
Read Deb Gordon’s remarks.
Read Terri Aversa’s remarks.
The Community Services Divisional Council
represents more than 11,500 members in
developmental services, children’s aid societies, child and family services,
child care, community agencies, corrections, and child treatment centres.
Our members provide services in diverse
settings such as: day treatment programs, group homes, youth custody
settings, early years centres and child care centres, women’s shelters,
client’s homes, supervised access centres, community outreach programs, and
schools, among other work environments.
