Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters / 2003-2007 Contract / Article XX. Health and Safety

From CGEU

A. The University will meet with the AAUP at regular intervals five times during the course of the year to discuss employment-related health and safety problems. The University’s representatives shall be administrative officers of the University.

The AAUP may request the attendance of any administrative officer whom it believes can provide detailed information on a subject related to the health and safety of bargaining unit members. Such request shall not be unreasonably denied.

B. Bargaining-unit members are responsible for reporting health and safety problems to their dean or director and to the Rutgers Environmental Health & Safety Department. Such reports shall be filed on the Health and Safety Report Form. The University is responsible for promptly forwarding a copy of each Health and Safety Report Form filed by members of the bargaining unit to the AAUP. The University is responsible for maintaining a supply of Health and Safety Report Forms in every University department where bargaining unit members are employed.

C. The AAUP and the University shall jointly appoint faculty bargaining unit members to the Unit Safety Committees for academic departments.

D. The AAUP and the University shall jointly appoint faculty bargaining unit members to the Campus Safety Committees. At least one faculty bargaining unit member shall be appointed to each Campus Safety Committee.

E. No bargaining unit member shall be required to work under conditions where there has been a determination, on a reasonable basis in fact, that those conditions pose an immediate danger to health and safety. It shall be the responsibility of the University to make such determinations as rapidly as possible.

F. Information

1. The AAUP may request from the University information concerning health and safety matters affecting bargaining unit members, and the University shall provide the information requested.

2. In the event that the requested information is directly involved in pending litigation between the parties, the AAUP will not request the information under the procedure set forth in this Article but may rely only on any rights it has pursuant to the pending litigation.

3. In the event that the requested information is directly involved in pending litigation between the University and any other party, then the AAUP and the University agree to limit access to the information to a designated official of the AAUP. Such official may not be a party to or involved in the pending litigation. The designated official of the AAUP shall not disclose such information, either directly or indirectly, except in discussions with appropriate University officials and in arbitration procedures arising under Article IX of the Agreement. In the event it becomes necessary for the AAUP to disclose such information in an arbitration proceeding, the parties agree that such arbitration shall be closed and the record thereof sealed. This provision shall not prevent the AAUP from discussing the information with its counsel.

4. When the AAUP requests health and safety information, it agrees to cooperate fully with the University in the acquisition of such information.

5. The University and the AAUP agree that when such a request for information will require significant expenditure of time and/or funds, the parties shall bear such costs equally.

G. When the University determines to remove asbestos from a building or a portion of a building in which members of the AAUP bargaining unit work (and usually prior to the development of specifications for the removal project), the University shall inform the AAUP and, if the AAUP so requests, the University shall meet with the AAUP to discuss the effect, if any, of such removal on bargaining-unit members. Except for minor asbestos projects, the University shall notify the AAUP no later than ten working days after a contract is awarded for asbestos removal and identify the contractor; the AAUP will notify the University within one (1) working day of its receipt of notification of its desire to meet with the University prior to the beginning of the work.

(5) When air sample tests are made, the descriptions of testing procedures shall include the number of tests, the location of tests, and, for each sample, the type of microscopic analysis, the type of filter, the air flow, and the duration of the test.

When asbestos is being removed from a portion of a building and members of the AAUP bargaining unit continue to work in other portions of that building, the University shall forward to the AAUP promptly upon receipt all reports made by the independent safety monitor. Whenever an air test result exceeds the standard for PCM and TEM outside a containment barrier, the AAUP shall be simultaneously informed of the corrective steps being taken. Follow-up test results will be reported as soon as they are available. In addition, the University will make available to the AAUP promptly the results and descriptions of air sample tests,(5) if any, made by the Rutgers Environmental Health & Safety Department to monitor building conditions while the removal is in progress.

When a timetable has been established by the University for reopening a building in which members of the AAUP bargaining unit work, the University shall so inform the AAUP. Results and descriptions of all test procedures carried out to determine that the building is safe to reoccupy and a copy of the Certificate of Occupancy shall be provided to the AAUP. Prior to the reoccupation of the building by members of the bargaining unit, the AAUP will be informed by telephone of the receipt by the University of the Certificate of Occupancy.