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Citywide Contract — Safety &
Health
ARTICLE XIV — OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND
HEALTH
Section 1.
The Employer shall establish a Citywide Occupational
Safety and Health Committee, the members of which shall
be appointed by the Mayor and shall include union
representation. The Director of the Citywide Office on
Safety and Health shall serve, ex officio, as
Chairperson of this Committee.
The Citywide Occupational Safety and Health Committee
shall recommend citywide employee safety and health
policy to the Mayor and shall assume the duties and
responsibilities of the Occupational Safety and Health
Planning Task Force created by Mayor's Executive Order
No. 58, dated May 6, 1976, and shall also assume the
citywide safety responsibilities of the City Director of
Personnel contained in Mayor's Executive Order No. 109,
dated August 28, 1969. In addition, this Committee shall
act as the City's liaison with Federal and State
Agencies, in efforts to obtain grants to finance City
employee safety and health programs and shall perform any
additional tasks assigned by the Mayor.
Section 2.
- Adequate, clean, structurally safe and sanitary
working facilities shall be provided for all
employees.
- Motor vehicles and power equipment which are in
compliance with minimum standards of applicable law
shall be provided to employees who are required to use
such devices.
- Where necessary, first aid chests, adequately
marked and stocked, shall be provided by the Employer
in sufficient quantity for the number of employees
likely to need them and such chests shall be reasonably
accessible to the employees.
- A Labor Management Health and Safety Committee
shall be established in each agency. Each committee
shall be composed of not less than three nor more than
five labor representatives designated by the Union and
not more than an equivalent number of management
representatives designated by the agency. The
appropriate number of such representatives shall be
determined jointly. If agreement on the number cannot
be reached such number shall be determined by the
Commissioner of Labor Relations. The Committee shall
meet at least quarterly and shall meet at the written
request of the labor or the management representatives
for the purpose of discussing health and safety
problems in the agency and making recommendations for
their resolution to the agency head. The written
request for such a meeting shall indicate the specific
condition for which the meeting is called. In addition
to the above described committee, sub-committees may be
established on an ad hoc basis upon agreement of the
parties.
- The sole remedy for alleged violations of this
section shall be a grievance pursuant to Article XV of
this Agreement. Any employee who withholds services as
a means of redressing or otherwise protesting alleged
violations of this section shall be docked pay for any
unauthorized non-performance of work and may be subject
to any appropriate disciplinary action.
- In construing this section, an arbitrator shall
initially have the power only to decide whether the
subject facilities meet the standards of subsection (a)
of this section 2 but may not affirmatively direct how
the Employer should comply with this section. If the
arbitrator determines that the Employer is in violation
of this section, the Employer shall take appropriate
steps to remedy the violation. If in the opinion of the
Union the Employer does not achieve compliance within a
reasonable period of time, the Union may reassert its
claim to the arbitrator. Upon such second submission,
if the arbitrator finds that the Employer has had a
reasonable time to comply with the terms of this
section and has failed to do so, then and only then,
the arbitrator may order the Employer to follow a
particular course of action which will effectuate
compliance with the terms of this section. However,
such remedy shall not exceed appropriations available
in the current budget allocation for the involved
agency for such purposes.
- In any enclosed facility where employees are
assigned to work, the Employer shall make reasonable
efforts to provide for the personal security of
employees while they are working.
- When the Employer becomes aware of a safety hazard
which the Employer considers an imminent physical
danger to employees at a worksite, the Employer shall
remove the employees from the affected area.
- The Employer shall provide to the Municipal Labor
Committee a copy of the results of environmental
testing by the City of a City worksite and statistics
resulting from special medical testing of
employees.
ARTICLE XVIII — VDT OPERATORS
Section 1. Applicability:
Except as otherwise specifically indicated in this
Article XVIII, the terms "employee" and "employees shall
mean only a full-time worker who regularly and for
continuous periods of time operate VDT terminals 20 hours
or more per week."
Section 2. Alternative Work
Break:
Employees covered by this Article shall not be
required to continuously operate a VDT terminal for more
than two (2) consecutive hours without an assignment to
alternative work of a visually less demanding nature for
a period of not less than fifteen (15) minutes. Meal
periods and any previously established rest periods shall
count towards meeting the requirement for alternative
work, but this provision shall not be construed as
providing any additional non-work break time. The
provisions of this section shall also apply to part time
employees subject to the terms of the Citywide Agreement
who regularly and for continuous periods of time operate
VDT terminals 20 hours or more per week.
Section 3. Alternative
Work:
- Upon submission of proof satisfactory to the agency
head or the agency head's designee that an employee
covered by this Article is physically incapable from
operating a VDT terminal due to injury, disability, or
pregnancy, the Employer shall make every effort to
assign such employee to appropriate, alternative duties
in the same title for the period of such disability,
provided that such temporary assignments shall not be
required to exceed one year. If a suitable position is
not available, the Employer shall offer the employee
any available opportunity to transfer to another title
for which the employee may qualify by the change of
title procedure followed by the New York City
Department of Citywide Administrative Services pursuant
to Rule 6.1.1. of the Personnel Rules and Regulations
of the City of New York or by non-competitive
examination offered pursuant to Rule 6.1.9. of the
Personnel Rules and Regulations of the City of New York
or Rule 4.1.8 of the Health and Hospitals Corporation
Personnel Rules and Regulations.
- If such an employee has ten (10) or more years of
retirement system membership service and is considered
permanently unable to perform all the duties of the
employee's title and no suitable in-title position is
available, the employee shall be referred to the New
York City Employee's Retirement System and recommended
for ordinary disability retirement.
Section 4. Training:
The Citywide Office of Occupational Safety and Health,
and the Union shall jointly develop a module on VDT
operational safety for inclusion in agency orientational
training programs. In the Health and Hospitals
Corporation, such training module shall be developed by
Human Resources (in conjunction with the Corporate Office
of Occupational and Environmental Health Services) and
the Union. Such training module shall also be offered to
current employees as part of any regular Right to Know
Training given in the normal course of business. The
provisions of this section 4 shall apply to all employees
subject to the terms of the Citywide Agreement regardless
of the number of hours of employment.
Section 5. VDT and Related
Equipment:
- A standing VDT Sub-Committee of the Citywide
Occupational Safety and Health Committee instituted
pursuant to Article XIV, section 1 of this Agreement,
shall be established with joint Employer and Union
membership. Such sub-committee shall study, issue, and
periodically review procurement and ergonomic standards
for VDT's and ancillary furniture and equipment. The
joint sub-committee's initial report and
recommendations shall be issued within three months of
the execution of this Agreement. A separate
labor-management committee shall be established in the
Health and Hospitals Corporation for such
purposes.
- Procurement and ergonomic standards shall be
implemented by Mayoral directive. In the Health and
Hospitals Corporation such standards shall be
implemented in accordance with existing procedures.
Agencies and facilities of the Health and Hospitals
Corporation shall purchase new equipment and ancillary
furniture and equipment in compliance with the then
current Mayoral directive or Health and Hospital
Corporation procedure.
- Agencies shall advise the Union of the installation
and proposed utilization of new VDT equipment, and
shall make service logs available on a reasonable basis
to qualified, authorized Union personnel.
- Employees may at any time informally discuss
alleged violation(s) of this section with their
supervisors. The Union may also seek to resolve any
alleged violation(s) of this section through the agency
Labor Management Health and Safety Committees.
- If a complaint alleging violation(s) of this
section cannot be resolved pursuant to subsection 5(d),
such complaint may be filed by the Union in writing
with the Director of the Citywide Office of
Occupational Safety and Health or the Director's
designee, or, in the Health and Hospitals Corporation,
the Director of Occupational Health and Environmental
Services or the Director's designee, who will
investigate such alleged violation(s) and issue a
determination within forty-five (45) days of the
receipt of the complaint. Upon determination by the
Director or the Director's designee that violation(s)
has occurred, the affected agency or agencies shall be
notified of the nature of the violation(s) and directed
to take steps to correct the violation(s) within sixty
(60) days. A complaint pursuant to the sub-section must
be brought within sixty (60) days of the initial
occurrence of the alleged violation(s).
- A dispute concerning a determination by the
Director of the Office of Citywide Occupational Health
and Safety or the Director's designee, or, in the
Health and Hospitals Corporation, the Director of
Occupational Health and Environmental Services or the
Director's designee may be appealed by the Union in
writing to the Commissioner of Labor Relations within
ten (10) work days of its issuance for resolution
pursuant to Article XV, section 11 of this
Agreement.
- A complaint concerning failure by an agency or
agencies to comply with a determination issued by the
Director of the Office of Citywide Occupational Health
and Safety or the Director's designee, or, in the
Health and Hospitals Corporation, the Director of
Occupational Health and Environmental Services or the
Director's designee may be filed with the Commissioner
of Labor Relations within ten (10) working days of the
expiration of the time limits set forth in sub-section
5(e) for resolution pursuant to Article XV, section 11
of this Agreement.
- The provisions of this section 5 shall apply to all
employees subject to the terms of the Citywide
Agreement regardless of the number of hours of
employment.
Section 6. Eye Examinations
and Corrective Lenses:
- The parties shall form a joint sub-committee to
develop a program related to the provision of eye
examinations and corrective lenses for VDT operators.
It is understood that said sub-committee shall be
charged with developing a program which will operate in
the most cost efficient manner possible.
- The guidelines under which the sub-committee shall
study the issues are:
- The provision of a base line examination with a
follow-up examination every second year.
- The provision of corrective lenses if necessary
due to the operation of a VDT terminal.
- Establishment of a cap on the costs of
providing the examinations and lenses.
- Allowance by the Employer to covered employees
of up to two (2) hours of time to take the baseline
examination and follow-up examinations.
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