1.   Indiana University recognizes its responsibility to provide a safe and healthy working environment, including making reasonable efforts to promptly investigate and address health and safety issues, ensuring that employees are not required to perform tasks that are dangerous to their health and safety without first providing adequate training and safety equipment as required by law, and by making information on hazardous materials readily accessible.

2.   AFSCME Local 1477 recognizes its responsibility to cooperate with the university in maintaining and improving a safe and healthy working environment.

1.   Employees who observe a dangerous working condition that requires immediate corrective action should notify their supervisor at once.

2.   Once informed, the supervisor should take immediate action, including notifying the department head, to determine the corrective action to be taken.  If an employee observes that the department has taken no action, Environmental Health and Safety should be notified immediately.

3.    Environmental Health and Safety will determine if a dangerous condition exists which requires immediate attention and if it does, make the final determination on the corrective action necessary to alleviate the dangerous condition.

1.   An employee or group of employees who refuse a work assignment due to a reasonable belief that the work constitutes a danger to physical safety beyond the normal hazards of the occupation or a violation of governmental safety standards, should use the complaint procedure set forth in Section B. above.

2.   No employee should be required to resume the disputed work until the alleged hazard is corrected, the complaint process is completed or a determination has been made by a qualified person stating the work is not unsafe or dangerous.

3.   No employee who refuses to perform work in accordance with this section shall be disciplined or retaliated against or lose the right to perform the work once the alleged hazardous condition has been corrected.

4.   Pending the decision by the university concerning the work in question or the removal of the hazardous condition, employees may be assigned to any other work available without loss of pay or benefits.

1.       A campus-wide safety committee will be established by Environmental Health and Safety.  A representative from AFSCME is to be included on this committee.

2.   The committee will be chaired by a representative of Environmental Health and Safety and will be convened as necessary to address health and safety issues. 

3.   The committee’s objectives will be determined by its members; however, in general the committee will be responsible for:

a.   Overseeing OSHA compliance

b.   Making policy recommendations on safety issues

c.   Establishing a process to handle non-emergency safety            complaints

d.   Reviewing specific non-emergency situations

e.   Conducting after-action reviews to evaluate responses to emergency situations

f.    Providing input on specific safety programs

1.   Employees who observe an unsafe working condition, which does not appear to require immediate corrective action, should complete an Unsafe Working Conditions report being as detailed as possible. The form is to be given to the immediate supervisor.

2.   The supervisor has three working days to investigate the matter and take appropriate corrective action as needed.

3.   If the employees disagree with the action taken, or if the supervisor takes no action, they will then have two working days to appeal to the dean or director.

4.   The dean or director has five working days to investigate the matter and take whatever corrective action is needed.

5.   If the employees disagree with the action taken by the dean or director, or if no action is taken, they have two working days to appeal to the campus-wide safety committee by notifying the committee chairperson.

6.   The campus-wide safety committee will have five working days to meet, investigate the matter and take appropriate corrective action as needed. The committee will issue a written response to all complaints brought to its attention.

Adopted July 2006

Numerical Index