Mission Statement

            The mission of the PEF Health and Safety Department is to achieve safe and healthy environments in every PEF-represented worksite. We demand that employers comply with all applicable federal, state, and local health and safety standards and laws. However, the true measure of success is where we are able to go beyond the minimum standards and develop innovative approaches to health and safety.      

            To achieve our mission the Department works with elected leaders, staff, and committees in four main activities:

•  Providing service, information, technical assistance, research, and referral on health and safety matters;

•  Enhancing skills, knowledge, and awareness through training, education, and communications;

•  Developing initiatives to improve working conditions of the membership; and

•  Participating in national, state, and local forums that advocate for improvements to occupational health and safety through legislation and political pressure.

Overview

            The hallmark of the Health and Safety program has been its ability to mobilize the membership to design and implement proactive programs that address workplace hazards which cause injuries and illnesses.

Funding

            The 2001/2002 NYS Department of Labor grant award is for $169,772 from August 1, 2001 - July 31, 2002, a decrease of $9,228 from the previous year. The department administered $250,000 per year in joint funds on behalf of the Article 18 Statewide Health and Safety Committee from 1995 - 1999. It was anticipated that this program would continue once the 1999-2003 PS&T successor agreement was in place, however GOER has not agreed to PEF’s continued administration of these funds and has not offered alternative methods for providing these programs to date. PEF is participating in a three year NIOSH grant to conduct a workplace violence prevention pilot intervention study at four OMH facilities under the direction of Jane Lipscomb, PhD, RN, University of Maryland. The Health and Safety Department is a partner on a NIOSH research grant to assess needlestick injuries for non-hospital healthcare workers. The Principal Investigator on this grant is Robin Gershon, Ph.D., of Columbia University. The three-year grant will assess the risk of needlestick injuries for PEF’’s non-hospital based healthcare workers as well as identify intervention strategies for preventing them. Most PEF nurses will be surveyed in the course of this project. The PEF Health and Safety Department has been helping to organize focus groups of nurses as part of this project.

Health & Safety Staff

            The Department currently has four full time and one part-time staff. Recently, Ross Aronson was appointed as Statewide Committee Chair. The other members of the Statewide Committee are Matt London and Robert Purtell.

            The Department currently has six full time-staff and one part-time staff and a Statewide Committee Co-Chair.

        Title                                              Funding Source(s)

         Director                                        PEF Budget                            100%

        H & S Chair                                 Article 18                               100%

        (not in place as of 8/1/01)

        H & S Trainer                               DOL/PEF Budget             50%/50%

        H & S Trainer                               DOL/PEF Budget             50%/50%

        Secretary                                      DOL                                      100%

        Clerk/Typist (part-time)                 PEF Budget                            100%

Activities and Accomplishments           

            The Infection Control Certification Training has been ongoing since April 1994. The Department has trained a faculty of over 290 who have certified over 18,000 licensed healthcare workers. PEF has been re-certified by the State Education Department to provide this program for an additional four years. Requests for this training have been increasing lately and a train-the-trainer for OMRDD workers was held in April.

            The Department is working with the Statewide Nurses Committee in facilitating a PEF Needlestick Prevention Task Force to mobilize PEF healthcare workers around the issue of needlestick prevention. The task force mobilized members, in collaboration with SEIU, and successfully lobbied state Senators to support S. 4936 – The Safe Needle Bill. Governor Pataki signed the bill into law on December 20, 2000. The law requires medical providers to use engineered sharps and requires the State Health Department to establish guidelines for the use of such equipment. The Health & Safety Department has been working with PEF Divisions to make sure state agencies comply with the requirements in the new state and federal rules.

            The DOCS train-the-trainer program TB/ Bloodborne curriculum revision has been completed.  Train-the-Trainer sessions began in June 2001. This is a very important program for the department and DOCS. Over 23,000 state employees are trained yearly as a direct result of this program.

            The department and the Article 13 Workers’ Compensation Committee continue to conduct PEF Navigator trainings across New York State. This program, established by the state AFL-CIO, is designed to assist injured members in dealing with the workers’ compensation system as well as mobilize members to fight cuts proposed in workers’ compensation legislation. A three-hour add-on module on Article 13, benefit issues, and Civil Service Law Section 71-73 was developed to provide PEF-specific information. A one-day training was developed for 360 EAP Coordinators for a statewide training sweep beginning in September of 2001 and ending in March of 2002. The department also provides direct assistance to injured members when local Navigators aren’t available.

            An initiative to develop a violence prevention program at OASAS’s thirteen residential alcohol and drug treatment centers has been launched and is being supported by the Department. The project includes development of training, policies, as well as implementing the OSHA violence guidelines in two pilot facilities. Additional programs are being conducted at SUNY Stonybrook and are beginning at Central NY PC.

            The OSHA Ergonomics Standard was voided by a Resolution of Disapproval, under the Congressional Review Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in March 2001.  This repeal disallows re-promulgation of the same standard. The ergonomics standard was critically important to PEF employees, especially those who experience musculo-skeletal injuries due to computer use or from patient lifting. PEF is collaborating with other unions to get state legislation to provide ergonomic protection.

            The department also provides staff support to the Full Staffing Committee. Coordination of a “Full Staffing Toolbook” and preparation of legislative testimony are some of the main activities.

            PEF successfully appealed the Industrial Board of Appeals’ decision supporting the Department of Labor’s refusal to provide full access to Occupational Injury Logs (DOSH 900 logs) to PEF.  The Albany County Supreme Court ruled that all the information contained in the DOSH 900 logs must be turned over to union representatives.  This case was initiated by the Labor Department’s refusal to provide the full Log of Injuries and Illnesses records to Executive Board and Statewide Health and Safety Committee Member, Ronald Goldstein. This is a precedent setting case addressing basic worker rights and affecting all public employee unions. The state has appealed the decision.

            The department conducted training for more than 1,400 members and responded to over 600 technical requests on such issues as confined space entry, infection control, asbestos and PESH complaint procedures.

            The 2001 Health & Safety conference was cancelled due to the lack of funds.