Month: May 2020

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Ontario Bricklayers Agreement-Travelling Members

In Ontario the Ontario Provincial Conference governs agreements for BACU Locals and IUBAC Locals. IUBAC Local 2 BC has arranged reciprocal arrangements with the health and welfare and pension plans for all locals in Ontario. Attached here (click) is the BACU Agreement and here (click) is the IUBAC Agreement. The terms are the same essentially. For reciprocity you will have to sign reciprocity papers to bring your money home for the benefit plans.

Safe travels if you are heading that way. If you have any questions call the union hall or the president.

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Site Specific Indoc at Home

May 23, 2020 Update…CIMS Project Manager at Domtar says doing the indocs at home are optional (We say NO period). If you ended up doing one at home record the day and time you started and the finish time if longer than 4 hours. If your pay detail doesn’t show the hours for the indoc notify the union hall.

The statement below was sent to the CLRA and Contractors via email this evening. (May 21, 2020) re: On Site Indoc Only

Doing site indoctrinations from home is not contemplated in our collective agreements and thereby has to be negotiated or enabled.

Our position is that no member can be required to provide a computer or laptop just to do an indoctrination.

Indoctrinations are work for the employer and therefore have to be paid.  They are subject to a minimum of 4 hours pay or time worked if over 4 hours.  They are subject to overtime rates as per collective agreement for work outside of the normal work week which amounts to double time.

Members cannot be compelled to do these indoctrinations at home because they have not been negotiated and have to be mutually agreed to under enabling.

In the past BAC Local 2 BC has enabled online indoctrinations for members who were capable as long as they were paid 4 hours minimum.  Since the contractors have now insisted that [they] do not have to pay four hours minimum, we do not … therefore withdraw the enabling of this, to the extent any such enabling has existed. 

Indoctrinations can be done on site only unless some other enabling agreement is reached with the Union.

This union and some other trades are willing to sit down and discuss negotiating some sort of enabling specific to an upcoming job or jobs and perhaps to other jobs generally.

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BC Building Trades Unions Go After Construction Site Sanitation Conditions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 19, 2020

Building Trades Council calls for public inquiry into construction site sanitation

Pandemic has exposed a “culture of non-compliance”

The BC Building Trades Council is calling for a public inquiry into health and safety in the construction sector.

The inquiry is one of the council’s recommendations to the Premier’s Economic Recovery Task Force, which brings together leaders from labour, business, First Nations and the non-profit sector to inform the province’s economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic has exposed a culture of non-compliance in certain segments of our industry,” said Andrew Mercier, BCBT executive director. “Construction site sanitation only improved after WorkSafeBC launched an aggressive inspection initiative in response to the concerns we raised.”

Mercier warns that without continued enforcement, sanitation practices will return to their poor pre-pandemic state.

“The legacy of COVID-19 should be safe and healthy construction sites where sanitation and hygiene practices abide WorkSafeBC’s occupational health and safety regulations, and the orders of the public health officer,” said Mercier. “Construction sites that fail to do so should not be tolerated.”

BCBT, which represents 35,000 unionized construction workers, has been advocating on behalf of construction workers from across the sector (members and non-members) on site sanitation since the start of the pandemic. Workers called and emailed the Building Trades to report inadequate washroom facilities, a lack of running water, no soap or hand sanitizer, workers sharing tools and working too close to each other, and workers coming to their sites visibly sick.

“We have had no hand sanitizer, no provisions for hand-washing, and no safety talks about hygiene and the pandemic,” wrote one worker. “People are sneezing and coughing and obviously sick and are not being asked to go home.”

Another worker reported the only hand-washing station on a site with over 50 people being a hand-crank garden hose attached to a piece of wood offering only cold water.

WorkSafeBC introduced a new “inspectional initiative” to address sanitation on construction sites, which was a positive first step, said Mercier. While acknowledging those contractors who prioritize worker health and safety and ensured their sites were compliant with regulations and public health orders, Mercier says industry regulators must remain vigilant to prevent a backslide.

“We must do everything we can to ensure people are working safely,” said Mercier. “The construction sector is essential to our economic recovery – ensuring construction workers are safe and healthy isn’t optional.”

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