Health & Safety

ETFO Provincial has a wonderful new health and safety website, etfohealthandsafety.ca, that is a fabulous resource and serves as wealth of information for topics such as workplace violence, infection prevention and control, as well as various hazards that may occur in a working environment.

If there is a concern, it is a worker's duty to inform their immediate supervisor of the issue.  The worker may then be directed by the supervisor to fill out an appropriate form, for the purpose of reporting an issue.  Below is a general overview of the types of incidents that need to be reported and the appropriate form to use:

For a general health and safety issueDSBN Employee's Report of Health and Safety Concern form, a member should fill out the which is available from the site supervisor.

Workplace Violence

Workplace violence, which is defined under the Occupational Health and Safety Act as the act of committing, attempting to commit, or threatening to commit an act using phyiscal force that does or would cause physical injury, must be reported.  The legislated requirement for reporting workplace violence is also set out under DSBN Administrative Procedure 5-27, Workplace Violence Prevention Program, and should be reported using the DSBN Employee Workplace Incident Report Form.  There is also a requirement under the Education Act for reporting serious student incidents.  A serious student incident is one for which suspension or expulsion may be required. Such incidents may include serious threats, assault requiring medical attention, bullying and  The reporting form for serious student incidents is the Ministry of Education’s document, Safe Schools Incident Reporting Form (SSIR).  This checklist format has two parts and requirements for both staff and principal.  Page one of the SSIR is for the reporting of the serious student incident.  Page two of the SSIR is provided by the principal to the person who made the report, it is an acknowledgement that the report was received and a record that actions may have been taken.  The form can be found in the DSBN Portal -> My Applications -> Policies and Procedures -> Admin Procedures -> Admin Pro 3-26 -> Appendix M

If a worker is injured or has lost time due to an incident of workplace violencethe incident must also be reported through the DSBN's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board procedures using DSBN Administrative Procedure 5-02, Reporting Employee Workplace Accidents.,  There are two forms for this procedure:

i)  Employee Incident or First Aid Report - to report an incident up to and including on-site first aid, not requiring health care from a medical professional and/or not resulting in lost time from work

ii) Employee Accident Report - to report an incident requiring health care and/or resulting from lost time.

If the incident involves a student, it must be also reported under the Education Act using DSBN Administrative Procedure 3-26, Student Discipline, using the DSBN Safe Schools Incident Reporting Form

Workplace Harassment

Workplace Harassment is defined as engaing in a course of vexatious comment or conduct against a worker in a workplace that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome.  It should be reported under the DSBN Administrative Procedure 7-01, OHRC and OHSA Workplace Harassment.  There are forms that are available for accessing both informal or formal complaint procedures.

If you are ever unclear about the nature of your health and safety concern or reporting procedures, please don't hesitate to contact one of your released officers.

© ETFO Niagara 2013