WORTH KNOWING
Welcome Back: 2021/22—Facing New Challenges
 
Throughout the past 18 months, Alberta teachers rapidly adapted in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their schools and classrooms. As teachers across the province begin a new school year, many serious concerns remain. The pandemic has taken a toll on Alberta teachers, their students and their school communities. The 2021/22 school year must include a focus on recovery to address the residual mental health, educational, social and other challenges.
 
While the rapid development and mass deployment of effective vaccines has fundamentally changed the face of the pandemic, it has not alleviated many of the concerns of Alberta teachers. Until vaccinations are approved for and administered to students under 12 years of age, as well as unvaccinated and/or vulnerable staff and community members, vigilance and support will continue to be needed in schools as students return in the fall of 2021. 
 
The work of teaching continues, despite:

• increasing case counts in the fourth wave of the pandemic; 
• a delta variant that spreads rapidly;
• uncertainty about potential restrictions;
• plans to eliminate testing, tracing and isolation protocols;
• a government that has delegated responsibility to school boards; and
• new changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act which come in to effect 2021 09 01 related to refusing dangerous work.

 
The professionalism, resilience and determination of Alberta teachers carried their school communities through the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic and will be needed again as the new school year begins. 
 
Alberta Education has released its 2021-2022 School Year Plan. Since the Association was not consulted on this plan, it is important for Alberta teachers to advocate on key issues and raise attention as students once again return to school with COVID-19 remaining active in the province.
 
The Association continues to strongly advocate for school safety, and the position of the Association is detailed in Priority Expectations of Alberta Teachers for the Return to School During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
 
For more information, please access the following links:
2021-2022 School Year Plan
Priority Expectations of Alberta Teachers for the Return to School During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Bill 47: Ensuring Safety and Cutting Red Tape Act, 2020
Changes to OHS Act Fact Sheet
 
WORTH SHARING
 
The professionalism, resilience and determination of Alberta teachers carried their school communities through the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic and will be needed again as the new school year begins. It is important for Alberta teachers to advocate on key issues as students once again return to school with COVID-19 remaining active in the province. #WEAREATA
 

​WORTH KNOWING
Hazard Assessments: Ensuring the Health and Safety
of Everyone at School
 
Hazard assessments, a requirement of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) legislation, play a key role in health and safety at the workplace. Hazard assessments must be completed before any work takes place at the school, and should be reviewed at regular intervals, or when something changes the way that the work is done. Typically, hazard assessments are done at the start of every school year. Under the OHS Act, school divisions have the obligation to include teachers (workers) and other workers in the building in conducting hazard assessments. Hazard assessments are specific to the work being done, and therefore some teaching assignments may have additional controls in place due to additional hazards associated with that particular assignment. School divisions (employers), via the principals (supervisors), must communicate known hazards and the controls in place so that everyone working in the school know how to work safely. 
 
OHS is always part of a teacher’s working conditions. While COVID‑19 amplified this, respiratory illness has always been included as a potential hazard identifiable in the OHS hazard assessment for work sites. It should continue to be a focus for controls in the upcoming school year. All workplace hazards, including those associated with COVID-19, should be on the hazard assessment, as well as the measures in place to eliminate or control those hazards. This information needs to be available to all workers in the building. School divisions must eliminate the hazards where possible. If it is not possible to eliminate a hazard, the hazard must be controlled to the lowest level of risk possible by following a hierarchy: 
·         First choice: Engineering controls to modify the worksite to isolate people from a hazard.
·         Second choice: Administrative controls to change how and when the work is done to control a hazard.
·         Third choice: Personal Protective Equipment provided to workers to wear to protect them while working.
 
While the controls are considered in a hierarchy, they are also frequently identified as a part of a suite of controls. This means it is the combination of controls that is required to ensure the hazards are controlled as effectively as possible. Employers can choose to strengthen controls beyond the minimum recommendations of the chief medical officer of health in order to ensure the health and safety of everyone in the schools.
 
Vaccinations can be part of the recommended controls included in the hazard assessment as a measure taken to reduce the hazards associated with COVID-19. As a teacher, you have responsibilities in ensuring the health and safety of everyone at your school. This includes providing feedback on the controls in place or suggesting additional controls, reporting unhealthy or unsafe conditions in a timely matter, and following the health and safety plan of your school.
 
If you have individual concerns that are not part of the OHS hazard assessment but have implications for your health and safety while at work, speak with your doctor. If your doctor identifies limitations and restrictions, you will be required to provide medical documentation from your doctor to your employer to ensure that accommodations are put in place. Call Teacher Employment Services for more information (1-800-232-7208).
 
The following links provide more information about the role of hazard assessments:
 
Hazard Assessments
 
Hazard Assessment and Control: A Handbook for Alberta Employers and Workers
 
COVID-19 as a workplace hazard
 
 
WORTH SHARING
Hazard assessments are a critical piece in ensuring the health and safety of everyone at the school. They need to be completed before the school year begins and then at regular intervals and when something changes in how the work in the school is done. #WEAREATA