Re King's County District School Board and NSTU
Document Type
Arbitration Decision
Publication Date
2-23-1996
Keywords
Teacher, Leave, Injury, Workplace, Environmental, Illness, Toxin, Performance
Abstract
The Grievor has been employed by the Employer as a teacher for 25 years. He claims that his Employer failed to place him on leave for injury on duty with full salary after he had become ill in the performance of his duties as a result of workplace conditions. He was unable to work because he suffered from environmental illness caused by exposure to the chemicals used in refinishing the gym floor, and mold in the air in the school. He should not have had to use his regular sick leave entitlements. The Employer takes the position that the word injured in the Collective Agreement does not apply to the contracting of illness due to workplace conditions; that neither anything involved in the refinishing of the gym floor nor any other toxin in the workplace caused the Grievor's illness; and that even if the Grievor's illness was caused initially by the refinishing of the gym floor or other toxin in the workplace, those causes of his initial illness did not cause the subsequent condition which he describes as environmental illness and which he says prevented him from working for the period in issue. They suggest that multiple chemical sensitivity is not a medically or scientifically recognized illness so that the diagnoses of the Grievor as suffering from it cannot be relied upon to show that his illness was caused by injury in the performance of his duties.
Recommended Citation
Re King's County District School Board and NSTU (1996), 1996 CanLII 19395, 42 CLAS 243 (NSLA) (Arbitrator: Innis Christie).
Comments
Case summary available on CanLii at the Sir James Dunn Library via Canadian Labour Arbitration Summaries. Full text available online at WestlawEdge Canada and Lexis+ (subscription required).