VANCOUVER ISLAND UNIVERSITY
JOINT OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY COMMITTEE
MINUTES OF MEETING
Thursday, May 14, 2009
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Building 250, Room 308
Name / Present / Absent / Name / Present / AbsentAlan Chapelle© - VIUFA / X / Shannon Evans - CUPE / X
Dan Lines - Admin / X / Mark Egan – HSS / X
Dean Cadieux - BCGEU / X / Carl Butterworth – HSS / X
Earl Tushingham - CUPE / X / Erin Bascom – HSS / X
Anne Marie Bjork – Cowichan - Admin / X / Sandy Elvy – Powell River / X
Mike Mann – Admin / X / Maggie James – CUPE / X
Peter Diamente – VIUFA / X / Kathryn MacLeod - Admin / X
Debbie Freeborn - BCGEU / X / Michael Braun - BCGEU / X
Stewart Ralph - Admin / X / Patrick Barbosa - VIUSU / X
Susan Stannard - CUPE / X / Chelsea Thiele – Recording Secretary / X
Ric Kelm – Admin / X
© = Chairperson for the meeting
HSS = Health and Safety Services
Meeting Commenced at: 12:10pm
1. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
Agenda was approved
2. APPROVAL OF THE PREVIOUS MINUTES
Minutes were approved with the following omissions under Health and Safety Report:
Health and Safety Services is technically the employee and the employer.
Union members who are familiar or have the certificates needed to represent employees with the procedures.
3. BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE PREVIOUS MINUTES
The Director of I.T. was to be notified of the untidiness of the server rooms on campus. Facilities Services is now in the process of thoroughly cleaning all of these rooms on campus.
4. FOLLOW-UP ON ACTION ITEMS
Ø Emergency Preparedness / Planning
There is nothing new to report at this time. It was decided that the plan does not need to be brought to the committee before it goes to MACO as the plan is in the strategic stage and not yet in the operational stage. Once the operational part of the plans has been drafted, it will be brought forward to the committee.
Bring Forward to next meeting of June 11th.
Ø Draft Plan for Drills
Bring Forward to meeting of August 13th.
Ø Hand Washing
The new up-to-date equipment was purchased by Facilities and shown to the committee. Worksafe BC has many posters that can be displayed regarding hand washing. The Nursing program is hoping to begin demonstrations in the Health and Wellness Centre in the fall. As there are many students on campus during the summer months, the committee has asked that the demonstrations begin earlier. Arrangements will be tentatively made to begin when the Nursing students return for their next semester.
Ø WCB Appeals Representative
It is only a suggestion made by Health and Safety Services that a union representative take on the task of this duty. As Health and Safety is no longer able to represent employees, they are still able to help. The appeal must come from the recipient. No representative has been decided.
5. REPORT FROM THE REGIONAL CAMPUS SAFETY COMMITTEES
a. Cowichan
No Report.
b. Parksville
No Report
c. Powell River
There was a fire in the Gymnasium two weeks ago on a Saturday. The fire was started outside, but did catch the building on fire. There were students in classes who were able to take the measures needed to contain the fire until the Fire Department arrived. The damage is estimated to be at $4,000. Three adolescents were seen running from the scene at the University, but no suspects have been noted. After the inspection it was found that the gymnasium did not have the proper heat or smoke detectors; these have since been installed. A similar situation occurred at the elementary school in Powell River, but no damage was reported.
Noted – Facilities is to be notified as soon as possible with incidents.
6. REPORT FROM FACULTY OF TRADES AND APPLIED TECHNOLOGY SUB COMMITTEE
The trenches that were made during the construction of the electrical building have been filled in by Facilities Services. This location has been noted along with other patch jobs on campus for future paving.
Facilities Services and Campus Development are currently working on possible resolutions for the Heavy Duty wash pad area.
7. REPORT FROM FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Minutes from the last meeting were distributed.
There have been some issues with not being able to find certain MSDS’s on the new website. Health and Safety was contacted to rectify problem.
A chemical waste pick-up will be done next week. All departments within the Sciences are able to contribute to the waste for pick-up. Animal waste by-products are not picked up by the same company and therefore will be picked up at a later date.
WHMIS training is being set up for summer students in June.
Students will soon be equipped with their own fitted masks as they are often involved in the grinding of rocks that creates a very fine dust that can easily be inhaled. Health and Safety Services provides the training involved and will work with the department to have each student, that requires one, fitted for a mask.
Lab tours are set up for technicians/faculty to tour other’s lab areas in hopes that it will help to notice potential problems and concerns as well as to provide helpful suggestions.
Health and Safety Services conducted a walk-through of the Chemistry area to look at the accumulated signage and determine what is relevant and what can be disposed of. This will help to keep only up-to-date information and information that is relevant posted.
In July/August safety warden training will take place.
It was noted that there is no sprinkler system on the 2nd floor of Building 360. The Associate Director of Facilities Services will look into what is code for the building. Fire extinguishers and sand buckets are present.
8. REPORT FROM HEALTH AND SAFETY SERVICES
The day of mourning went very well. A moment of silence was held in the memorial gardens and 15 people gathered. Coffee and cookies were served. The Cowichan Campus also recognized the day of mourning and had 13 people turn out for a moment of silence. Great feedback was received for the event.
The Health and Safety office has been very busy with the recent cases of H1N1 (Swine Flu). Along with Facilities Services, the necessary precautions are being taken to protect individuals on campus. Hand sanitizer stations have been set up at high traffic areas on campus. Flu updates are available on the Health and Safety website.
Mark recently went to the Campus Security conference and reported that Vancouver Island University is a very safe campus. Compared to other campuses who have approximately a 15 minute response time for emergency personnel, VIU has a response time of approximately 5 minutes or less.
Automatic External Defibrillators were purchased for the campus in the past and recently, Health and Safety has been in touch with a medical director from the company Life Support B.C. who is able to provide the necessary training for our First Aid Attendants.
Health and Safety Services has been contacted by the B.C. Lung Association/Tobacco Reduction to inform that they will be donating monies needed to promote tobacco awareness on campus. A student will be hired to help with this project.
Recently WCB has been updating their on-line computer system, so delays have been expected; however, the system is back on-line and things should start to run smoothly again.
Mark will be attending the meeting of College & University Safety Association of Western Canada in June. This is a great opportunity to networking.
Health and Safety Services has been working closely with Western Student Housing to create better communication between them. Erin will be the primary contact for the Resident Advisors at Western Student Housing.
There have been no reports in the last month of the man who was indecently exposing himself on/around campus. The RCMP have been very efficient and are communicating often with the Health and Safety Office.
9. REVIEW OF SAFETY TOURS
It has become quite cumbersome when individuals do not show up or cancel on safety tours. It was decided that the Health and Safety office will send an invite for the safety tour to each individual so the date and time will be in their outlook calendar.
Building 155 was recently toured; it was found that although the building is very well organized, it is very tight for space. According to the size of the building, there should be approximately an 8 person capacity; however, the class size is 18 students.
10. REVIEW OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATIONS & SPECIAL REPORTS
A number of accidents were discussed.
11. NEW BUSINESS
Smoking is becoming problematic near the Automotive Shop. As long as the Dean approves, the department may make the area ‘No Smoking’. Recently the Carpentry Department has deemed their compound area ‘No Smoking’ and simply moved the ashtrays out of the compound which has forced smokers to move the location they smoke. The new site of the Gathering Place is also a ‘No Smoking’ area. Health and Safety may be contacted to ensure that any ashtrays that are moved are moved to a reasonable location.
The canopy of Building 165 collapsed after the last snow fall. It has yet to be repaired and continues sit there. Associate Director of Facilities will follow-up with removal/repair.
The Associate Dean of Trades and Applied Technology will be retiring after August. His replacement on the Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee will have to be decided by Adminsitration.
Meeting concluded at: 1:16pm
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