Chicago public school buildings are unsafe for school clerks and other employees, an arbitrator has ruled.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that arbitrator Jeanne Charles found that requiring school clerks and other employees to report to school buildings increases the risk of contracting Covid-19, and that increased risk of infection violates the school district’s contract to provide “safe and healthful” working conditions.
“The only way to eliminate the risk of Covid-19 infection and death is for School Clerks, School Clerk Assistants, and Technology Coordinators to work remotely,” Charles said in her decision.
She directed the Chicago Board of Education to allow these employees to do all work remotely when possible.
The Chicago Teachers Union raised the complaint against the school board Aug. 21. It argued that requiring school clerks and other employees to work full time inside schools violates the condition of providing “safe and healthful working conditions.”
“The path to a truly safe reopening of our school buildings is through engagement with parents, talking to school communities and negotiating with the educators who know these schools best,” said Union President Jesse Sharkey.
The school district says it will move to have the ruling reconsidered, CBS News Chicago reports.
“The arbitrator’s deeply flawed ruling substitutes actual public health standards for her own judgements and doesn’t find any actual deficiencies in the district’s plan or a single building where conditions are unsafe,” district spokesman Michael Passman says.
Video from CBS News Chicago:
