Under an expanded initiative by the Ministry of Labour in Ontario, all workers must take basic health and safety training. Including theatre artists of all stripes. Including employees and independent contractors. In short: including you.
Perhaps the easiest way to take the training is online, where it consists of roughly 45 minutes of videos, information pages, and short quizzes. There is also a paper-based version.
The response from many in the community has been about what you'd expect…
"What a waste of time!"
"The material is boring."
"The questions are so simple, it would take an utter fool to get the answers wrong."
"I can see how this would apply in an office/factory/construction site/warehouse/etc., but it has nothing to do with me."
Well, it does.
In Ontario, there are three levels of responsibility for health and safety in the workplace. (I suspect it is similar elsewhere, too.) Business owners have their layer of responsibility. Supervisors have their layer. And workers have theirs. And the law says that you have to know, understand, and live up to yours. In fact, you have had this responsibility for a very long time, whether you knew it or not.
So, if you've managed this long without the training, why should you bother now?
Well, you could learn something about health and safety in the workplace, and your rights and obligations. That wouldn't be so bad. You could learn something about how to recognize an unsafe situation and respond, and save yourself from injury. That wouldn't suck too much, either. You could learn how to save someone else from injury or illness. Probably worth a few minutes of your time, no?
But if learning stuff and staying safe just isn't your thing, then consider the following. One of the owner and supervisor responsibilities is to ensure that all of their workers (including you) have the requisite training, and failure to do so is a huge liability for them. If something goes awry, and an MOL inspector wants to see copies of all the training certificates, the last thing any theatre will want to discover is that they don't have them on file for everyone involved. And so you can expect that theatres will begin to require these as a condition of engagement.
How's that for a reason?
So, invest an hour of your life in acquiring some useful knowledge, and a skill certification. You're going to need to show that piece of paper sooner or later, so don't forget to save or print it at the end of the course. (You don't want to have to watch those videos twice, do you?)
Each of Equity's agreements and engagement policies includes language about providing a safe and sanitary place of work. I wrote about this in some detail a few years back.
Upon being told about these rules, the most common question members then ask is: what about the midsize theatre, the name of which I will not mention, but which is close to [location] in the city of [name], where the actors have to share dressing room space with [name of vermin], and the [name of plumbing fixture] in dressing room [x] has not worked properly since [year]?
The answer to this is invariably: we didn't know, or we'd have done something about it.
What most members don't realise is that we don't have a stealth squad of health inspectors roaming the theatres of the country. However, we will deal with issues promptly if you tell us about them. That's right - you have to let us know that there is problem, and, please, not two years later as part of a random conversation.
If you are experiencing a health and safety issue, either with the work environment or the work you are being asked to do, speak up about it. First, talk to your deputy and/or stage manager, so that they aware that there is a problem. The fact that [name of vermin] are raising a family in your makeup tray will not spontaneously come to their attention.
And please, don't do it as an offhand comment at the bar - make a formal complaint and ask for something to be done about it. Engagers have both a legal responsibility under workplace safety legislation, and a contractual responsibility to Equity, to take action on workplace health and safety issues.
And if nothing is done, please get on the phone to staff promptly, and they will see to it. It's what you pay them for.
With Council deep into its insurance review, this seems like a timely article to share:
Performer Flying and other hazards
The results from our focus group work to date clearly point toward several improvements that members would like to see. However this article certainly highlights one of the great strengths of our existing plan: no one works uninsured.
All the same, insurance is one of those benefits that is best left unused. Be aware of hazards. If you're not sure: ask. Always exercise caution and common sense. Make sure you get to rehearse risky moves until you're comfortable. And, because we're all in this together, watch out for your colleagues.
Take care out (up) there.
As part of this blog, Council has asked me to include information on some of the many benefits and services offered by Equity to its members. This article is the first in that series.
First off, I hope everyone is aware that a summary of your membership benefits and protections is set out in the Ends section of our policy document. If not, you should give it a read sometime; the Ends statements outline Equity's commitment to you as a member. They're what you pay your dues for.
Ends policies state that (paraphrased):
All members will have protection, support and resources while under contract and while pursuing future contracts, including safe and sanitary places of work and audition.
I've condensed two parallel policies into a single statement here, so please forgive the somewhat awkward construction. In the policy document you will find it divided into "work under contract" and "pursuit of future contracts," because Equity needs to deal with these two conditions separately. I'll go into more detail below.
While under contract
All engagement policies and agreements include specific language setting out expectations for a healthy and safe work environment. Take the Canadian Opera Agreement as an example. It requires a safe and sanitary place of engagement, including clean and properly heated dressing rooms and washroom facilities; hot and cold running water; clean, safe, accessible and well-lit access to the stage door; enclosed access from dressing rooms to the stage; minimum temperature requirements met; well-delineated passageways in case of blackouts; safe rehearsal and stage surfaces; security from threats to personal safety; regularly cleaned costumes and hair pieces, etc.
You get the idea, and you can find the details listed under "Safe and Sanitary Places of Engagement." In situations where performances take place outdoors, more detail is added. Additionally, Equity has the right to inspect any venue on request to ensure compliance.
All other major agreements are similar. Smaller agreements, such as the Indie, include parallel language. Safety of the Artist is a frontmost concern. Always.
Finally, all major agreements stipulate adherence to provincially mandated health and safety requirements, or to the Ontario Health and Safety Guidelines for Live Performance where no specific provincial regulations exist. As of this writing, BC, Alberta, Ontario and Québec all have health and safety requirements geared toward workers in live performance.
While in pursuit of future contracts
Ensuring safe and clean places of work and audition is more complicated. Where a negotiated agreement exists, such as the Canadian Theatre Agreement with PACT, we include requirements for audition and associated warmup and other spaces, and these apply even in the absence of a signed contract.
Working with independent engagers outside such negotiated agreements is admittedly tricky. Without pre-agreed conditions for audition, we can't point to a piece of text and tell the engager that they must live up to those terms. We rely on engager common sense and goodwill, not to mention the fact that a large percentage of independent engagers are members or ex-members, and they don't need a lot of prompting to provide a decent audition environment. That said, we are certainly not shy about weighing in on the few occasions when we hear of poor conditions.
What to do if you feel that work or audition conditions are unsafe, unclean or otherwise dangerous
If you are under contract, tell your Deputy and your Stage Manager. The overwhelming majority of concerns can be addressed quickly and locally, once brought to the attention of these two. If your concern persists, or you are not yet under contract, then get on the phone to a business rep in either office. If the matter is urgent, you will even be able to contact someone outside of office hours.
Equity exists to help protect you, but we can't do our work if we are unaware of a problem. One of the most common answers to questions that begin "Why didn't Equity...?" is "We didn't know." Thankfully, issues of unsafe working conditions are few and far between, but if you find yourself in an unsafe or otherwise unhealthy work environment, and the problem is not cleared up pronto, get on the phone. We're there to help.
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