Pre Employment Screening Articles

On April 28, 2006 we once again “remember the dead and fight for the living.” For 21 years now, workers and unions have used this day to honour those who have died, suffered injury or experienced illness due to work-related causes. As we mourn for those who have suffered, we re-affirm our commitment to fight for safe and healthy workplaces.

In 1983, the Canadian Labour Congress declared April 28th as a National Day of Mourning. Eight years later, in 1991, the Canadian government formally recognized the day. Now over 100 countries mark April 28 as a day to mourn for those lost and to renew commitments to improve workplace health and safety.

Workers have the right to go to work and return home each day in the same condition. Too often they don’t.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) found in 2005 that in addition to job-related deaths, each year around the world there are some 268 million non-fatal workplace injuries in which the victims miss at least three days of work. In addition, 160 million workers develop a work-related illness each year. In Ontario, statistics registered 336 deaths in 2005 (108 more fatality claims are waiting for decision) and over 88,000 accepted lost time claims. The fatality numbers do not reflect the true toll taken by occupational diseases, estimated to be as high as 6,000 workers every year. In 2005, there were almost four times as many claims for fatal diseases as there were for traumatic deaths. And the overwhelming majority of the claims pending are for occupational disease.

OPSEU members face danger every day on the job. Working alone, traffic accidents, violence on the job, toxic chemicals, stress, caring for the sick and back-breaking lifting, are just some of the hazards OPSEU members face to keep Ontario running.

This year the members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union grieve for John Stammers, who died after being struck by a car while on picket duty on March 20, 2006. John was a professor of Accounting at Centennial College in Scarborough. He died while standing up for what he and other OPSEU members believe in—the right to a fair contract.

Another OPSEU workplace was touched by tragedy recently when an Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) member Lori Dupont, a nurse, was murdered on the job this year by a co-worker at Windsor’s Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital.

When a Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) driver was shot and lost the sight in his eye last October 15, 2005, the newspaper headlines screamed about increasing gun violence in Toronto. What about the fact that bus was the driver’s worksite?

Violence on the job is a health and safety issue and needs to be addressed by employers and the laws in Ontario. OPSEU will continue to work with the OFL and other unions to ensure that violence is recognized as a hazard in Ontario and that Ontario’s Ministry of Labour steps up to the plate to force employers to take precautions to protect workers from violence on the job.

In 2005, workers saw some Ministry of Labour initiatives to make their workplaces safer. The Asbestos Regulation was amended to make it more protective for workers. Employers now have to identify all sources of asbestos in the workplace, not just friable asbestos. Every employer in a building that contains any asbestos must have a Joint Health and Safety Committee, regardless of the number of employees, and regardless of whether the employer or employee is in the section of the building that contains asbestos. However, these changes are only stepping stones—our struggle will continue until asbestos is banned altogether and its removal compulsory. We will continue to press to substitute safe alternatives for all toxic chemicals even in the absence of absolute scientific certainty.

Also in 2005, the Ministry of Labour announced that it would implement a “Strains and Sprains” campaign instead of a regulation to address Ontario’s unacceptable repetitive strain injury rate. These debilitating injuries account for almost half of all accepted workers compensation claims in Ontario and cause workers a lifetime of pain. OPSEU will monitor the campaign, participate in developing an “Ergonomic Guideline” for Ontario, and continue to call upon the provincial government to compel—by regulation—employers to address ergonomics in the workplace.

Please join us for a minute of silence at 12 noon to pay tribute to all workers and families who mourn a loved one lost or suffering from illness or injury caused by work. Take a minute to think about John Stammers and Lori Dupont who have lost their lives this past year. Take a minute to think about what you can contribute to the fight for safe and healthy workplaces. Today, as we remember all those who suffer and who have suffered, we declare that we will continue our struggle to prevent deaths, injuries and diseases caused by unsafe workplaces.

Source; http://www.newsocialist.org/index.php?id=810

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By Marcel Bent

On December 14, 2005, Jamaica deposited with the Organisation of American States instruments of ratification for the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women “Convention of Belem Do Para”, effectively announcing to the world its agreement to be bound by and to actively uphold the obligations and responsibilities as set out. Thirty days later the convention entered into full force for Jamaica.

The convention defines violence against women as “any act or conduct, based on gender, which causes death or physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, whether in the public or private sphere”. Article 2 expressly recognises sexual harassment in the workplace, educational institutions, health facilities or any other place, as one form of violence against women.

While the convention does not define “sexual harassment”, the Caricom model legislation on sexual harassment, though directed specifically to employment, education and accommodation, can inform our understanding of the term as acts involving unwelcome sexual advances, unwelcome request for sexual favours or unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature towards another person, where that person reasonably believes that rejection, refusal or objection would cause him or her to suffer disadvantage in connection with the pursuance of any of the above.

There is no legislation in Jamaica which deals specifically with acts constituting sexual harassment. Such victims have little legal recourse but to lay charges of assault and/or battery against the perpetrators, where the acts have resulted in injury or have involved blatant physical aggression. The convention, by generally recognising sexual harassment as a crime of violence, may thus immediately impact on the situation of sexually harassed women in Jamaica.

Under the convention, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has competence to consider petitions submitted by any person or group of persons, or any legally recognised non-governmental entity and to recommend suitable redress to victims where necessary. It should be clearly noted, however, that this provision only grants the IACHR authority to consider complaints alleging violations of Article 7 of the convention by the state party.

Article 7 concerns the duty of states to implement domestic policies, programmes and legislation to address all forms of violence against women. Under this article, “each state condemns all forms of violence against women and agrees to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay policies to prevent, punish and eradicate such violence”. Several undertakings are then made by the state, including the following:

. To refrain from engaging in any act or practice of violence against women and to ensure that their authorities, officials, personnel, agents, and institutions act in conformity with this obligation.

. To apply due diligence to prevent, investigate and impose penalties for violence against women.

. To include in their domestic legislation penal, civil, administrative and any other type of provisions that may be needed to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women and to adopt appropriate administrative measures where necessary.

. To adopt legal measures to require the perpetrator to refrain from harassing, intimidating or threatening the woman or using any method that harms or endangers her life or integrity, or damages her property.

. To establish fair and effective legal procedures for women who have been subjected to violence which include, among others, protective measures, a timely hearing and effective access to such procedures;

. To establish the necessary legal and administrative mechanisms to ensure that women subjected to violence have effective access to restitution, reparations or other just and effective remedies.

The absence of domestic legislation to punish and prevent incidents of sexual harassment and the failure of the state to institute effective legal procedures and effective access to remedies for victimised Jamaican women presents a prima facie breach of Article 7 of the convention.

Immediately striking is that the state can be held directly responsible for acts constituting sexual harassment where the perpetrators are government agents. Petitions alleging sexual harassment by private individuals or other non-state agents may also give rise to state responsibility, not because of the act itself, but because of the failure of the state to provide legal procedures and access to remedies required under the convention.

Before considering the merits of a petition, the IACHR must first decide whether or not the petition is admissible. Perhaps the most important procedural requirement is that the petitioner must have exhausted all domestic remedies. This requirement poses little difficulty to the admissibility of petitions against the Jamaican state, however, since it is not applicable where “the domestic legislation of the state does not afford due process of law for protection of the allegedly violated right, or, the party alleging violation has been denied access to remedies under domestic law….”

While the present convention may afford one possibility to bridge the gap existing in our legal system with regard to sexual harassment, it does not bode well for the Jamaican state to have the convention or its complaint mechanism remain as the principal and primary arbiter in this respect. Aside from the obvious reason that a state should be the first to recognise and legally protect its citizens from all forms of abuse, other compelling reasons for this include the fact that:

. Violations of Article 7 are made the only remediable breach under the convention, clearly indicating that the convention strongly encourages the implementation of domestic legislation which will deal comprehensively with the various forms of violence against women.

. The requirement for the exhaustion of local remedies is a procedural requirement designed to allow the local machinery to run its course, thus permitting the majority of matters to be settled at the domestic level. Repeated petitions of the same nature, having almost mechanical admissibility, will create a negative pattern against the state, imply tolerance by the state of violence against women, bring unwanted international scrutiny and further affect an already tarnished human rights image.

. Unless legislation is implemented to allow private organisations and individuals to face the possibility of direct sanctions at the local level, the state alone will have to bear the financial responsibility to compensate or implement whatever remedies are recommended to the victims by the IACHR. Furthermore, extending the threat of sanctions to non-state entities may also act as an effective deterrent to private individuals and organisations.

. The present convention contemplates only acts against women. Local legislation would have the possibility to be non-gender specific.

No doubt the state apparatus is fully aware of the ramifications of the convention. Nonetheless, it must be emphasised that urgent attention should be given to any lacunae existing between the convention and the laws of Jamaica. Furthermore, the state, by immediately implementing and enforcing policies and legislation dealing with sexual harassment, can easily avoid detrimental consequences while, at the same time, meaningfully reinforce its stated intention under the convention, to seek to eradicate all forms of violence from the lives of Jamaican women.

The convention can be accessed at http://www.cidh.org/women/convention.htm and the Statute and Rules of Procedure of the IACHR at http://www.cidh.oas.org/basic.htm.

Marcel Bent is a Jamaican attorney, specialising in the International Protection of Human Rights.
marcelbent@yahoo.com

Source: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20060421T200000-0500_103038_OBS_SEXUAL_HARASSMENT_AND_THE__CONVENTION_OF_BELEM_DO_PARA_.asp

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