On Wednesday, June 29 BCGEU representatives met with senior Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) representatives as a follow-up to a meeting held in February to discuss ongoing violence against correctional officers in the province's jails.

Representing the BCGEU was Dean Purdy Component chair, Tony Tessari Component second vice-chair, Wiho Papenbrock BCGEU staff, and union health and safety officer Sheila Moir.

WCB provided the union with a report on the numbers of reported injuries or claims filed and the numbers of inspection reports on provincial correctional facilities. They also provided an update on their investigation into violence at the North Fraser Pre-Trial Centre (NFPC).

The union pointed out that their statistics did not reflect the true number of violent incidents and the resulting injuries. "It was clear to us after reviewing their statistics that there is clearly a discrepancy in claims and they are looking into that," said Purdy.

WCB staff agreed and said they would investigate the discrepancies further and provide more accurate statistics. Purdy also requested statistics on the numbers of claims filed by correctional officers.

The union was successful in getting WCB to agree to the following:

1. To reconsider their enforcement strategy and modify their approach with a result of increasing the monitoring of compliance in the provincial correctional facilities.
2. To revise the requirements of the risk assessments to include consideration of the practices of double-bunking inmates, direct supervision model, and officer-to-inmate ratios as contributing factors to workplace violence.
3. To form a tri-partite committee with WCB, the employer and the union to discuss the issue of increasing incidents of violence, its causes and what corrective measures should be implemented. The committee is contingent on the employer participating.

"We think it was a productive meeting for both sides, in the sense that we were able to paint a picture as to what it's like to work in the direct supervision model in the jails that we have in B.C.," said Purdy. "They have heard the experiences and the stories about the working conditions from front-line officers."

"Correctional Officers face violence every day. For example, an officer was punched in the head a number of times by an inmate just last night at the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre," said Purdy.

The union will follow up on the progress of these initiatives and will report back to members. Members should check the union's website for ongoing reports.