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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-0360.Forester.84-01-30i ON,ARIO CKJWN EMPLOYEES GRIEVANCE WTLEMENT IN THE MATTER OF AN ARBITIATIOic Under THE'CROWN EMPLOYEES COLLECTIVE B.\RGAIMIKG ACT Before THE GRIEVAI\'CE SETTLENENT BOARD OPSEU (J.Forester) Griever and The Crown in Right of Ontario (Ministry of Correctional Services) Employer Before : P.M.Draper Vice Chairman I.J.Thomson A!ember G.A.Peckham Member For the Grievor: P.Cavalluzzo Counsel iiessrs. Cavalluzzo, Hayes SL Lennon Barristers & Solicitors For the Employer: For the Employer: J.F.Benedict J.F.Benedict - - hi a nag e r , hi a n a LL e r . Staff Relations Staff Relations Personnel Branch . hij~nistry of Correctional Services Personnel Branch . hij~nistry of Correctional Services Hearing:. December 5, 1983 -2- DECISION The Grievor, Jack Forester, grieves that he is unjustly being denied the relief period provided by Article 18.5 of the collective agreement and requests that such period be granted. Article 18.5 reads: After each hour of continuous operation of a VDT, a VDT operator shall be relieved of such duties for a period of ten (10) minutes. The Grievor is a Security Officer employed at the Quinte Detention Centre in Napanee. The Centre has maximum, medium and minimum security areas, accommodates about 150 inmates and has a staff of 50 full time and 12 part time officers. The Griever's duties are carried out in a control module from which traffic through the front gate and the front door of the institution are monitored. TheGrievorhas both video and audio contact with the gate and the door. The module is a room approximately 12 feet by 6 feet with bullet-proof windows on three sides. The room faces the foyer into which the front door leads. The door by which the Grievor enters and leaves the module is locked and under the control of an officer in another module. The Grievor works a day shift Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. with a 45 minute lunch period and a 10 minute break morning and afternoon. He sits facing a panel on which are electricalcontrols for the operation of and audio contact with the gate and door. To his left I I are two ten inch television monitors (receivers), the screens , ,T 1 I j c’ -3- .~ of which show black and white pictures received from two fixed cameras, one focussed on the gate, the other on the door. The television monitors are not connected to any other equipment in the module. The module also contains controls for a metal detector used to screen visitors and an x-ray machine used to screen parcels which are operated by the Grievor. He must also see to it that visitors sign one of the several log books kept in the foyer, each being for a different category of visitor (e.g. inmate visitor, volunteer worker, police officers). Callers at the front gate signal him by means of a buzzer and state their business via an intercom. If he decides to admit a caller, he opens the gate, the caller proceeds to the front door, identifies himself again, enters, presents identification to the Grievor and signs the appropriate log book. Articles and clothing that are not to be taken into the institution are placed in a locker for which the Griever supplies a key. Visitors go through a second door also operated by the Grievor and wait for an escort. IYhen leaving the institution, visitors collect any belongings left in a locker, surrender the key, sign the appropriate log book and are let out through the door and gate by the Gricvor. The Grievor has telephone communication within the institution which he uses, for e>:ample, if in doubt as to the admission of a caller or to ask if an inmate is available to be visited. Gary Cwitco, called as an expert'witness by counsel to the Griever, holds degrees in history and political science and is a writer and educator in the field . of occupational safety and health. He testified that a television monitor is a kind of VDT and a person who is required to watch a television screen and to respond to what appears on it is operating a VDT. In his opinion, the difference between a broadcast television viewer and a VDT operator is the intensity of the concentration required of the latter; what the monitor is connected to is not important. He cited a recent survey conducted by the Canadian Labour Congress charting the relationship between health-related symptoms, such as those described by theGreivor, and VDT work. The September-October, 1980, issue of "Health Alert", a publication (now discontinued) of the Labour Council of Metropolitan Toronto, of which Cwitco was then editor, was filed in evidence by counsel to the Grievor. The issue discusses the health hazards associated with the operation of VDT's and contains .these general observations: Video Display Terminals (VDT'S) are becoming an increasingly common tool in Canadian workplaces. It is estimated that there are more than 250,000 units in place in Canada. The people who work in front of them may be processing a financial transaction at a bank, typing a letter, routing a telephone call, preparing a transcript for a university student, writing a story for a newspaper or any number of other functions. 0 0 0 The video display ter-minal consists of a keyboard attached to a television screen known as a cathode ray tube (CRT). - 5- The introduction to a publication of Health and Welfare Canada, "Investigation of Radiation Emissions from Video Display Terminals", filed in evidence by the representative of the Employer, contains the following: A video display terminal is essentially a television monitor that displays information received from a computer system or word processor rather than from a television broadcast signal. It is an integral part of the electronic data handling system making up a word processor. Together with a keyboard, the VDT constitutes the interactive element between the operator and the microprocessor: In some home computers, the TV set is used as the display terminal. An article by Dr. Ernest Letourneau of Health and Welfare Canada, published in 1981 in the Canadian Medical Journal and reproduced in Barrs, 345/81, describes VDT's as "low-power monochrome television sets that are hooked up to keyboards and electronic data-handling systems." The article also refers to non-radiation effects on health of VDT work caused by tedium, cramped quarters and visual concentration. In the same case it was noted that in 1979,regulations made under the Radiation Emitting Devices Act were amended to enlarge the definition of television receivers to include "video monitors and video display systems." What is to be decided here is the correct inter- pretation of Article 18.5. This poses the question: Does the Griever operate a VDT (video display terminal) within the meaning of the article? Counsel to.the Grievor submits -6- that the television monitors used by the Grievor are VDT's by definition; that they operate continuously though the Grievor does not look at them full time; and that the Griever's ailments - eye strain, headaches and irritability - are those which studies have shown to be associated with the operation of VDT's. It is argued for the Employer that the television monitors used by the Grievor are comparable to those which receive broadcast television; that VDT's not only have a screen but a keyboard by means of which they are connected to a computer or a word processor; that the Grievor does not operate the monitors since they are connected to cameras which produce the pictures shown on the screens; and that even if the Grievor could be said to be operating the monitors, he does not do so continuously. Counsel to the Grievor was frank to say that we are not concerned here with the possibility of radiation. It is to be noted, as well, that no medical evidence was adduced in respect of the ailments to which the Grievor testified, and that Cwitco is not competent to testify that the television monitors are the cause of those symptoms but only that they are similar to ailments reported by operators of VDT's. It appears that for purposes of scientific evaluation and classification and, in particular, in connection with the study of radiation, VDT's are grouped with televison monitors. This is presumable because they are both electronic i appliances that utilize cathode ray tubes (CRT'S) to display signals received by one or another means of transmission. We are not persuaded that this methodology should determine 0 the meaning of the term VDT as it appears in Article 18.5. For present purposes, the interpretation properly to be given the acronym VDT is that which best represents the sense in which it is used in Article 18.5. In arriving at that interpretation we must take into consid- eration its usage "in the trade", so to speak, and in common parlance. We do not believe that Article 18.5 can be said to apply to any employee who, in the course of his or her duties, looks at a television screen. In our opinion the VDT's contemplated by the article are the now familiar items of equipment consisting of a television monitor and a device which enables the operator to produce and control the images that appear on the monitor. Further, the operators of such VDT's do not simply "look at" an image on a monitor, they must "read" the characters (letters or figures) their operation of the actuating device has caused to be displayed. These strike us as being crucial distinctions between the two appliances under discussion. Parenthetically, we note that such attention as the Gricvor is required to give to the television monitors is necessarily divided between them. Could it be seriously suggested that he is operating two VDT's in the sense conveyed by the language of Article 18.5? In the result, we find that the Grievor does not operate a VDT within the meaning of Article 16.5 of the collective agreement. The grievance is accordingly dismissed. Kc are inclined to think that the Griever's real complaint stems from the general physical discomfort he experiences because of the conditions in which he works. His work place is small, enclosed and cluttered. His movement is greatly restricted by the lack of open space. His ailments might possibly be as traceable to illumination, ventilation or work place design as to the television monitors, Perhaps recollection of its obligation to make reasonable provisions for the safety and health of employees might prompt the Employer to consider possible ways in which the Griever's working conditions could be improved. DATED at Consecon, Ontario this 30th day of January, 1984. P.M. Draper Member 4 G.>. Peckham Nember