By Mike Spelay
What would you do if your job was making you sick?
If everyday you faced going to work in the same confined, contaminated space?
If your fears were validated, would you continue to go to work?
When consulting firm Water and Earth Sciences found four types of mould – one of which is toxic – in three ParaTranspo buses, the drivers, who were already complaining of headaches, nausea and vomiting, staged a walkout.
That was January 11.
The day after, the drivers – who still felt uneasy in their vehicles were forced back to work by Human Resources Development Canada.
On the brighter side, Laidlaw Transit Ltd., which operates ParaTranspo under contract, has been ordered to clean up all 75 vans within six weeks.
The cleanup cost is $5,000 per vehicle.
That means the company will pay $375,000 to fix a problem that could have been prevented.
But in the meantime, the drivers will have to ride around in vans that are making them sick.
If they have health concerns about their place of work, it’s perfectly reasonable that their employers should listen to these concerns and deal with them promptly.
The walkout shouldn’t have been necessary.
The vans should have been cleaned as soon as the moulds were discovered.
It’s a shame that this walkout inconvenienced so many passengers.
Some service was continued during those days.
But many of ParaTranspo’s 3,000 passengers were left out in the cold — figuratively and literally.
Some passengers didn’t find out about the walkout until they had waited outside for their buses.
But what’s really maddening is that the vans were allowed to get this way in the first place.
Laidlaw is paid under contract to the City of Ottawa to run this system.
These are tax dollars. You paid $15.7 million in 2000, for this service.
Water and Earth Science Associates has suggested patching up the water leaks that are promoting the growth of fungus.
But that makes you wonder how long the vehicles have had those water leaks, and how they went unnoticed.
It suggests Laidlaw wasn’t doing its job — properly maintaining a fleet of vans that are an essential form of transportation for many people in Ottawa
The ParaTranspo situation is unfortunate for all these reasons.
The drivers lose out. The riders lose out.And the city loses out.
But in the end it’s Laidlaw