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binx44 · Oct 16, 2008, 08:25 AM

My boyfriend (we have been together for 8 years) has worked for the same place for the last 6 years. He works for a town in the provence I work in (N.S Canada) he works cleaning the streets, repairing streets, works with septic stations and ponds (yes we all know what's in that pond don't we) they repair lines that have been sitting in human waste and things like that.
We know for a fact... that he is supposed to receive needles because of the line of work he does. There was one person (we're not sure if its 100% true or not.) but its said this person worked in the poop ponds (as I call them) and got quite sick. Over the years it progressed until it caused him to pass away.
My boyfriend has been asking about these needles for a long time. He is in a union.. and they keep putting it off on him. Saying they don't know if medical covers it or if they are paying for it. etc... he has offered to pay for them his self because he does not want to get sick and they said no... Also.. by Law they are supposed to be provided full body suits for this line of work and are giving nothing except for REGULAR SURGICAL gloves. Which as my boyfriend said. "they do nothing but fill with pee". Today the workers are going through a confined places course to take all liability away from the bosses. Now I hear there is a law in place to give workers the right to refuse unsafe working conditions. But he said if he refuses they would lay him off and get someone else. Is this legal. Is there anything we can do to prevent horrible sickness and get some where with this. I don't like worrying about his health day in and day out because they won't provide what the workers need. Is it just a hate on for him? The main top notch boss hates him with a passion and only dislikes him out of the whole crew. There has even been times where the boss has literally told him he was illiterate just because he said to one of his co-workers that he was going to take one of the notices he got once home for me to read too. ( I read at an extremely high level and always have since elementary school) he only brings things home for me to read when he doesn't completely understand something. He's a slow reader but he reads well. Would all of this just be a continuation of him not liking my boyfriend. Or could it be some underlaying legal hide it so no one sees it thing? What can we do. I don't want my boyfriend to get sick or die because work won't give them what they should have

JudyKayTee · Oct 16, 2008, 09:37 AM

If he is being discriminated against or verbally abused, then he has to contact whichever agency handles this type of complaint in Canada.

I don't know what you mean by "he is supposed to receive needles."

J_9 · Oct 16, 2008, 10:37 AM

What kind of shots is he supposed to receive? Any of the Hepatitis vaccines?

ScottGem · Oct 16, 2008, 10:43 AM

I'm assuming by "needles" you mean shots to immunize him against certain diseases.

I'm very surprised that his union is no help in this. This is one of the things that unions arose for and are very good at.

If you were in the US, I would direct you to a local OSHA office. So I googled OSHA Canada, and came up with the Canadian equivalent:

CCOHS: Canada's National Centre for Occupational Health and Safety information

You should be able to contact someone though this site to help with this.

binx44 · Oct 17, 2008, 04:36 AM

JudyKayTee/ his job requires imunization for certain diseases that can happen when you work with human feces.

J-9. he is also supposed to receive those too. On top of the other ones... but they were giving the choice to get the hep needles or not. He said yes though I guess many people at his job refused them. So he is not even sure if he is going to get them or not. Usually when a bunch say no. no one gets what they were going for..

He hates the way they treat him so much he's trying to figure out ways to shorten how much time he must continue to work there. They expect him to stay forever and take his fathers position (his father retires in a year or two). He says he's going to take as much overtime this winter as he can (since he also plows sidewalks in the winter) so we can pay off our truck loan and he can go take his excavator course and we can move out west like we plan to.