Year: 2020
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Dewey Funk has been an Occupational Health and Safety Advisor with the United Nurses of Alberta since 2012. His interview focuses on the right of nurses and other health workers to refuse unsafe work. UNA educates nurses regarding their legal occupational health and safety rights, including the right to refuse work when their lives might be threatened by particular patients, and supports nurses in battles with management over those rights. He reveals the extent of intransigence of management in complying with occupational health and safety legislation and regulations. The interview describes the legal processes that nurses make use of to protect themselves from management discipline when they exercise their right to refuse safe work.
Keywords: Alberta Workers Compensation Board; Edmonton Remand Wildcat Strike, 2013; Grande Prairie right to refuse case, 2011; Health professions; Occupational Health and Safety; Professional Responsibility Committee; Right to refuse unsafe working conditions; United Nurses of Alberta; Violence in workplaces.
Transcript: Download PDF
See also: Occupational Health and Safety in Alberta; United Nurses of Alberta