This is illustrated by the relatively small staff complements in departments like Purchasing and Human Resources who are very dependent on individual departments shouldering much of the workload for these areas of administration. Decentralization also applies to health and safety. At the Safety Office, we sometimes receive callers who are unaware of this and are somewhat puzzled when we advise them to call someone else to report a safety problem. You should report it first to the Dispatcher at Local 4555. For what we do, the official answer can be found in the form of the Safety Office mandate, Section D of the Administrative Handbook.
Safety is a responsibility shared by all.
The principal role of the Safety Office is to assist others in fulfilling their responsibilities. This may take the form of gathering and disseminating information on workplace hazards, evaluating work environments and assessing risks, and suggesting ways of improving safety in the workplace, but the ultimate responsibility for action usually lies with others, not the Safety Office. The Safety Office has 10 full time staff members, with 6 dealing almost exclusively with waste management. That leaves 4 people to deal with the myriad of occupational health and safety issues that arise in a university community. Our community consists of more than 30,000 students and employees working in either of two campuses, or any of the McGill affiliated research centres and teaching hospitals.