Education Matters Online
Feature

Volume 4, Issue 1: October 3, 2005

All workers should be familiar with the TVDSB Employee Accident/Incident Report form and where it is kept in the building. Anytime a worker is injured, this form must be completed. Anytime there is a “near miss” where an accident occurred that could have resulted in injury, this form must be completed.

WHY? For several reasons:
1. First, all workers have the duty to report to their immediate supervisor (the principal, the coordinator) all hazards of which they are aware and any injury that has occurred in the workplace.
2. When an injury is reported, the supervisor can consider the cause and take their responsibility to address the hazard in their work site. This could be something as simple as having a repair request submitted by the custodian to a more complex investigation with the assistance of the Board’s Safety Department.
3. If a worker needs medical attention or is unable to work following the day of injury, this could result in a workers’ compensation claim to WSIB (Workers’ Safety and Insurance Board). If the Employee Accident/Incident Report is not completed, the WSIB forms don’t get completed by Disability Management at Human Resource Services and the school could receive a $500 fine for failure to notify WSIB of a workplace accident.
4. All the information from the Employee Accident/Incident Report is needed by the Joint Health and Safety Committees. By looking at the types of accidents and the causes of these accidents within TVDSB, the Main Committee can make recommendations for prevention methods (e.g. training, new procedures, new products used, changes in physical layout, etc.) so that similar accidents don’t happen again.

The focus of accident/incident reporting is always what can be done to prevent this injury from happening again. Reporting is not just a duty under the law. It is a moral obligation.

Critical Injuries

Critical injuries are a more severe type of employee accident. These injuries have special provisions under the law. These include:
■ Immediately report the injury, calling for first aid and emergency services as needed.
■ These injuries must be phoned into the Health and Safety Department by the supervisor immediately. Failure to do so could result in a fine to the school.
■ The Health and Safety Department contacts the Ministry of Labour and provides notice of a critical injury as required by law.
■ A member of the Main Committee that has certification training will be contacted by the Health and Safety Department to conduct an investigation which can include an onsite inspection and interviews of witnesses, supervisor, staff, and the injured worker (if possible).
■ The area of the accident is not to be cleaned in any way until the investigation has been conducted by the Certified Member of the Main Committee.
■ Field trip locations are the approved workplace of the worker and critical injuries at these locations must be reported in the same way (e.g. a teacher breaking a leg on a skating trip).
■ The designated Main Committee member writes a report on the critical injury including recommendations.
■ This report is forwarded to the Ministry of Labour within 48 hours.
■ A Ministry of Labour Inspector could visit the work site to follow up on the recommendations made to see if they have been put into place.

Critical injuries are defined under Regulation 834 as an injury of serious nature that:
■ Places life in jeopardy;
■ Produces unconsciousness;
■ Results in substantial loss of blood;
■ Involves the fracture of a leg or arm but not a finger or toe;
■ Involves the amputation of a leg, arm, hand or foot, but not a finger or toe;
■ Consists of burns to a major portion of the body; or
■ Causes the loss of sight in an eye.

Let us not take thought for our separate interests, but let us help one another.
(OSSTF Motto)

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