The Federal Government announced that they would be encouraging and working with the provinces to bring in 10 paid sick days for workers. Obviously, this would be a significant improvement to what is presently allowable under the Employment Standards Act. That being said, it is a long road from Trudeau saying they encourage it to it actually being implemented in Ontario. Our local will be keeping an eye on this and will update members if changes to the ESA are made.
Last week the webinar our Local sponsored on the Ergonomics of working from home through CALM (Canadian Association of Labour Media) ran online. Unifor National has added this educational to their online webinar series. It will be running on June 3rd at 4 p.m. These webinars are free for all Unifor members, but you must RSVP. For more information or to register for this or any other offered webinar visit the Unifor Online Education Page. The first webinar was also recorded, so if you want to get the information you can watch the webinar at your convenience and get some valuable information and links to resources from it. It is posted on our Health and Safety Committee page.
One very interesting piece we learned, and was mentioned last week in our President’s Update, was that the OHCOW (Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers) is doing virtual assessments of your home workspace. They can do them either phone/email or video conferencing. Email ergo@ohcow.on.ca to get started.
The Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety has a StressAssess Survey designed to help you identify psychological hazards in your workplace. They have a workplace option and a personal option, and we know for many of our members, those have merged to be one and the same. We also remind you that we have number of resources on our Mental Well-Being Supports and Resources page.
Now that we have skipped right into summer, and with many people itching to get outside, we do want to remind our members of a few things to bear in mind. Heat stress can be dangerous, so pay attention to what your body is telling you. Drink lots of fluids, wear sunscreen and if you start feeling unwell, take a break from whatever you are doing. A good information guide on working in the sun has also been posted on our Health and Safety Committee page.