ETFO First Vice-President Susan Swackhammer presented the federation’s submission to the legislature’s pre-budget hearings on January 16, 2014. There were seventeen recommendations including a recommendation for the funding of health and safety training of principals and educators. Read the preamble and the recommendation below. Find the ETFO Pre-Budget Brief at (link http://www.etfo.ca/Publications/BriefstoGovernmentAgencies/
Documents/2014Pre-budgetBrief.pdf)
Safer, healthier places to learn and to work
Ensuring that our school communities are safer and healthier places to learn and to work is an important factor in student achievement and educator excellence. Longstanding health and safety issues such as lack of training, workplace violence, poor indoor air quality, incomplete emergency planning, and risks of exposure to hazardous materials such as asbestos remain leading concerns with significant potential to impact the wellbeing of people in the school community. There are practical solutions to all of these issues based upon legislation, policy, best practice, common sense and stronger working relationships between education partners. The quality, frequency, and duration of legislated health and safety training vary considerably among school boards across the province. There is a lack of clarity about how legislative requirements under both the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Education Act are to be met.
Recommendation:
That the Ministry of Education allocate funding for the health and safety training of principals and educators to ensure that school boards meet the requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Education Act.
