For Immediate Release
UFT files PESH complaint asking state to cite NYC DOE for heat hazards in schools
Jun 10, 2008 11:11 AM
On June 10, a day after the UFT asked the Department of Education to
establish reasonable procedures during a heat wave, the union filed a complaint
with the state Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau asking the agency to
cite the DOE for violating state health laws by failing to protect students and
staff in city public schools during the current heat wave.
“When schools are not properly air conditioned and the heat approaches 100 degrees, kids can’t learn and teachers can’t concentrate,” Weingarten said. “Asthma and other heat-related conditions or illnesses are exacerbated and could, under certain circumstances, lead to heat exhaustion.”
Weingarten went on to criticize the DOE for failing to respond to the union’s call on June 9 for protocols to protect students and educators. ( See Weingarten statement.)
“If the city Health Department can implement codes to protect carriage horses during periods of excessive heat, then the Department of Education should be able to take steps to protect our students and educators,” she said. “But instead of showing concern for students and staff suffering because of the stifling conditions, they instead have people make insensitive, flippant comments, whining that teachers will look to have a contract that says you can’t work when the temperature exceeds 96 degrees.”
The UFT received numerous complaints from teachers in dozens of schools across the city about excessive heat posing a health hazard to students and staff with asthma or other respiratory conditions. The union also asked the school system to issue protocols for excessively hot weather, but the DOE declined to do so. In fact, in many schools the DOE proceeded with giving students predictive tests that could have been postponed until Wednesday when the heat wave is expected to abate.
The Public Employee Safety and Health (PESH) bureau is a division of the New York State Department of Labor, giving it jurisdiction in such cases. The complaint specifically alleges that “The NYC DOE is in violation of the general duty clause (Section 5(a)(1) and has failed to protect workers from the serious and recognized hazard of excessive heat.”
John Dewey HS in Brooklyn was listed as the primary affected school for
purposes of filing the complaint. Attached to the complaint was a list of
additional schools that contacted the union yesterday to complain about
conditions. They included: Bronx – IS 135; Brooklyn – PS 95, PS 167, IS 281,
PS 442 and Clara Barton HS; Manhattan – PS 28; Queens – PS 127, PS 173 and
PS 256; Staten Island – Tottenville HS and Susan Wagner HS.
UFT’s PESH
complaint (Notice of Alleged Safety or Health Hazards)
