Main campus OHS inspections continue
The Athabasca-location joint workplace health and safety committee met in late November to conduct three inspections and follow up on hazards identified in the October inspections. Staff from facilities were very helpful in conducting these inspections as well as remedying hazards discovered in earlier inspections. The entire campus needs to be inspected quarterly.
December Inspection Results
This month’s inspections included the ARC boiler room as well as the second floor, boiler room, loading dock, vehicle bay, wood shop, and central stores in the main building.
Key hazards identified included 50+ tippy bookshelves, missing components from first aid kits, and significant tile damage and debris in the fire stairs. There was also no fire warden for the east wing of the second floor, and the working-alone app used by Facilities was not functioning properly.
The committee will review these hazards at its December meeting and make recommendations to the employer for remediation. Additional inspections to be completed in December include the main floor of the main building, the POC, parking lots, Observatory, and President’s house. You can assist the OHS committee with identifying hazards for control by filling out the incident report form.
Corrective Actions following October Inspection
A number of hazards were identified during the October inspection of the ARC building. Corrective actions taken include:
The committee adopted a 750mm standard for passage ways (based on Building Code requirements). Supervisors have been asked to address instances where furnishings result in narrower exit pathways.
Facilities is working with staff to remove, replace, or secure a large number of tippy bookshelves.
Facilities is cycling the sump well weekly and filling floor drains to prevent the sewage odor from recurring.
An administrative control for a working-alone hazard in the Archives has been implemented. An engineering solution is being explored.
Several staff have submitted ergonomic assessment requests.
A complaint about the locking of the interior gym door in the main building after hours creating the potential for entrapment (if a staff member does not have their pass card on them) was discussed. The committee recommended to AU the removal of this lock in order to eliminate this hazard.
Observations
The number of hazards being identified by inspections reflects that AU has under-resourced OHS for the past five years. While identifying hazards is the first step in preventing injuries, it remains to be seen whether AU is able to implement effective controls.
The bookshelves issue is a useful case to watch. The 100+ tall, tippy bookshelves in use at AU have not yet injured any AU employees. They are, however, hazards that pose a risk of significant injury and that have (somehow) gone unidentified and uncontrolled for at least the last 10 years. The risk of being struck or crushed by a tipping shelf can be remediated in several ways:
Elimination: Unneeded shelves can be removed from the workplace. Many shelving units are empty or store records that are rarely accessed.
Substitution: Lower, more stable shelves could be substituted to reduce the risk of the shelf tipping.
Engineering: Shelves can be secured to walls to prevent them from tipping over, although the weak interior walls of the ARC building may preclude using this control.
The OHS committee will be assessing whether AU is making adequate progress in controlling these hazards.
First aid kits represent another problem area. In the past, AU paid an outside firm to restock first aid kits. This work was then brought inside AU to reduce costs, and moved around between departments. Eventually, except for the few kits required to meet minimum standards, responsibility for the rest was offloaded to individual administrative units.
The results have been mixed. Some first aid kits are well maintained. Other first aid kits do not contain basic supplies (e.g., band-aids and alcohol swabs).
The distribution of employees in AU buildings (it is often hard to know which unit is responsible for maintaining specific kits) and the lack of any budget allocation to accompany the offloading of responsibility appear to be factors in poor kit maintenance.
Rhiannon Rutherford and Bob Barnetson
AUFA members, Athabasca-location Joint Health and Safety Committee