Section 1: Principle
Employees and the Signatory Company are to comply with established safety rules as amended by the Joint Safety Committee from time to time. Employees will not be expected to operate with unsafe equipment or under unsafe working conditions. Employees are expected to report immediately any unsafe equipment. An employee who has reasonable cause to believe that an unsafe condition exists may refuse to work under such conditions without being subject to discipline.
Section 2: Joint Safety Committee
The Local Union and the Company shall cooperate in selecting one or more safety committees which will meet at least once a month to consider safety problems.
Section 3: Safety Education
(a) The Union undertakes to promote safety and occupational health education among its members in an effort to overcome accidents and occupational health problems.
(b) The Company undertakes to promote safety and occupational health education among all its employees in an effort to overcome accidents and occupational health problems.
Section 4: Joint Labour / Management Safety Conference
(a) A Joint Labour / Management Safety Conference of two (2) days will be held annually.
(b) It shall be the basic principle of this Conference to assist the delegates in the development of an effective safety program through the promotion and implementation of best practices for an effective safety program in each mill.
(c) To accomplish the implementation of an effective safety program in the mill, each Local Union shall have two (2) delegates in attendance at the safety conference. The two (2) delegates shall be compensated by their respective employer for any loss of wages. Travel and hotel expenses of the delegates shall not be paid by their respective employers.
(d) A senior management representative shall attend the conference. Senior company officials and representatives of WorkSafe BC will be encouraged to attend. Additional delegates of either labour or management will be permitted to attend on an observer basis.
(e) The agenda shall address issues that will promote occupational health and safety in their respective workplaces. Agenda items shall be submitted to the respective representative no later than November 30th prior to the conference.
(f) The Planning Committee shall initially meet no later than one hundred and eighty (180) days prior to the established date of the conference and then schedule follow up meetings in accordance as required by the planning committee.
(g) The Planning Committee shall be comprised of the following members:
i) One (1) Unifor Local Union member
ii) One (1) PPWC Local Union member
iii) One (1) Unifor representative from the Regional Office
iv) One (1) PPWC representative from the National Office
v) One (1) Employer representative from the employer group
vi) One (1) Industry representative
vii) One (1) Conference Facilitator
(h) The Occupational Health and Safety Conference shall be funded on the basis of an industry contribution of three cents ($.03) per employee per hour worked into a Jointly Trusteed Occupational Health and Safety Conference Fund.
The funding shall provide that when the monies in the Joint Trusteed Occupational Health and Safety Conference Fund reach Four Hundred Thousand Dollars ($400,000.00), the funding will be discontinued until the fund has been reduced to Two Hundred Thousand Dollars ($200,000.00).
The Jointly Trusteed Fund will be used for the payment of wage loss for Local Union planning committee attendees and conference expenses.
The Union will provide a quarterly statement of accounts to the Company