i LLL)

eErich Ewert

Bill Routley

e Verne McGregor

¢ Les Veale

I.W.A. standards for disability committees needed

At this year’s convention, the delegates passed
a resolution calling for national union standards
for the I.W.A.’s involvement in Disability Man-

agement Committees. Those standards are to be
. made available to management groups as well as
provincial Workers Compensation boards.

Erich Ewert of Local 2171, and a trustee of the
union’s Long Term Disability (LTD) plan, said
that he and fellow trustees have been working
for a number of years on developing a set of
guidelines to spell out the effective conduct of a
Disability Management plan.

He said the union trustees have been trying to
get some kind of ground rules in place so the
I.W.A. does not “get snookered into some sort of
a walking wounded program that this organiza-
tion has fought over the last decade...”

“This is tough slugging,” said Ewert, “and the
LTD trustees of the I-W.A. are moving very cau-
tiously...”

National First Vice President Neil Menard
reminded the delegates that, two years ago, the
union adopted a return to work policy at its
national convention.

He said that policy offered some good guide-
lines and direction for local unions who are
establish return to work programs with their
employers.

The union has developed a two hour seminar
on disability management and duty to accommo-
date which can be stretched to a full day.

Menard added that the union has to let plant
committees and safety committees know that
there is a duty to accommodate and that the
union has a responsibility to act.

Duncan, B.C. Local 1-80 President Bill Routley
said that “we all share in the responsibility of
moving forward in improving disability manage-
ment.”

He said there has been significant progress in
doing so at MacMillan Bloedel’s Chemainus

sawmill division where people are being put back
to work. One individual was off work for over
three years and the other four and a half years.

Their respective injuries were a chronic back
problem and a finger that was cut off in a con-
veyor accident.

“As a result of that (disability management)
committee working hard or forcing management
to make changes to the equipment to allow those
workers to come back to work, I’m happy to
report that they were successful in getting those
guys back to work. And it took the crew and the
committee working together to accomplish that.”

“We do have a responsibility to those disabled
workers and we do have to take the time and
energy and effort to help those dislocated and
displaced forest workers get back on the job,”
Routley added.

Verne McGregor, Financial Secretary of Local
1-423 and a trustee on the LTD plan, said that

the plan handles injured workers on a daily
basis and is working to get those people back on
the job.

He added that it is important to respect the
principle of seniority that exists in collective
agreements and work in innovative ways to
accommodate the disabled.

Les Veale, Safety Director for Local 1-3567
said that the national return to work policy
already exists and should be used by local unions
now.

“At the end of the day, its those activists in the
plants...who’ve got to deal with the employers to
try and implement this, either through the
Human Rights Commission or by agreement in
the plants,” he said.

Safety resolutions
get thumbs up

NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING - the I.W.A. will
pressure the appropriate levels of governments to
have April 28 recognized as a statutory holiday.

ONTARIO BILL 99 - the union will petition the
Ontario Provincial government to repeal Bill 99,
which created the Workplace Safety and Insur-
ance Board.

SAFETY COMMITTEE TRAINING - the organization
demands that health and safety statutes and/or
regulations in all jurisdictions in which union
members work provide for comprehensive manda-
tory health and safety committee members’ edu-
cation.

DISCIPLINE FOR INFRACTIONS - the union demands
that the B.C. WCB require employers to promote
training and education in the workplace and that

discipline measures not be promoted by the WCB
for occupational health and safety infractions.

SPECIALIZED SAFETY TRAINING - wherever special-
ized training is required, I.W.A. CANADA
demands such training be provide by the union’s
own representatives.

MANAGEMENT SAFETY EDUCATION - demonstrated
knowledge by supervisors and management per-
taining to the occupational health and safety reg-
ulations must meet a standard that is approved
By the WCB of the province before tee are
lowed to supervise.

WCB INSPECTORS - the union demands that all
occupational health and safety regulatory agen-
cies in all provinces hire more inspectors and
increase workplace inspections.

WORKERS COMPENSATION ACT AND APPEALS - the

delegates pasaed a resolution demanding that the

provincial government appoint more Boards of

Review to deal with the constant backlog of

appeals in order to increase fair enforcement of
ie Workers Compensation Act.

Continued on page twenty-five

22/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1998