Rights and duties of school staff in Minnesota

Every worker in a school has legal rights that protect their health and safety, and every worker, supervisor and employer has legal duties. Knowing them is not about being ready for a fight. It is about knowing what you can ask for, what is expected of you, and what to do when something is wrong. This lesson sets out the law that applies to school staff in Minnesota, explains the duties of the employer, supervisors and workers, and walks through the right to refuse unsafe work, which works a little differently in schools than in other workplaces.

In Minnesota, the main law is the Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Act and the rules made under it. Unlike federal OSHA, which does not cover state and local government employees, Minnesota runs its own state plan, called MNOSHA, which covers public employers including school districts, along with private employers in the state. It applies to teachers, paraprofessionals, custodians, food service workers, office staff, bus drivers employed by the district and other staff. MNOSHA is part of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, which also oversees workers' compensation. Minnesota adds some rules of its own, such as the requirement for a written workplace accident and injury reduction (AWAIR) program and joint safety committees, covered in Lesson 12.

Sharing responsibility inside the workplace

Minnesota's law does not use the phrase internal responsibility system, but its approach is similar: the employer has the main duty, employees have duties to follow the rules, and the AWAIR program and safety committee are meant to find and fix problems inside the workplace. MNOSHA inspections are a backstop. In a school, that means the district, principals, staff and the safety committee are expected to work together on hazards every day.

Duties of the employer

The employer here is Riverbend Public Schools as a whole, acting through its trustees, superintendents, managers and principals. Its duties are broad. The table sets out the main ones and what they look like in a school.

The 'general duty clause' in Minnesota's law requires employers to keep the workplace free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm. It covers hazards for which there is no specific standard, and MNOSHA can use it for hazards such as workplace violence. When something goes wrong, the question an investigator asks is whether the hazard was known and whether there were feasible ways to reduce it that the employer did not use.

Duties of supervisors

Minnesota's law does not define supervisor duties in the same way, but in practice principals, assistant principals, head custodians and others who direct staff act for the district. The district is responsible for what they do and fail to do. A supervisor is expected to make sure staff follow the rules and procedures, use the protective equipment required, know about the hazards of their work, and are trained. When a supervisor knows about a hazard and does nothing, the district can be cited.

For Marion, this means she cannot treat safety as something the district office handles. If she knows the stairs to the music room have a loose tread, she must act: tape it off, ask for a repair, and warn staff and students. If Victor tells her a custodian on the night shift is mixing cleaning products, she must deal with it. And if Jenna's principal at Willow Park knows that a student has hurt staff before, she must make sure the staff who work with that student know about the risk and have a plan.

Duties of workers

Workers have duties too. In plain terms, every staff member must:

• Work in compliance with the law and the employer's procedures.
• Use or wear the equipment, protective devices and clothing the employer requires, such as gloves for bodily fluids or eye protection in a lab.
• Report any hazard or defect in equipment they know about to their supervisor.
• Report any injury, however small, and any violation of the law they know of.
• Not remove or make ineffective any guard or protective device.
• Not use equipment or work in a way that endangers themselves or others.
• Not engage in horseplay, pranks or rough behavior at work.

These duties apply to everyone, including principals as workers. They also explain why a teacher who props open a fire door, a custodian who takes the guard off a floor machine, or a coach who skips a spotter is not just making a personal choice: each is breaking a legal duty that protects others.

Three rights

Minnesota's law and rules give employees several basic rights. They are often summed up as the right to know, the right to participate and the right to refuse.

• The right to know: employees have the right to be told about hazards in their work, including the hazards of chemicals through labels, safety data sheets and training under the federal Hazard Communication standard and Minnesota's own Employee Right-to-Know rules. Minnesota's rules expect hazardous substance training to be refreshed at least once a year.
• The right to participate: employees can take part through the safety committee, can ask MNOSHA for an inspection, and can accompany an investigator during an inspection.
• The right to refuse: Minnesota law protects an employee who refuses in good faith to work under conditions they reasonably believe present an imminent danger of death or serious physical harm, after asking the employer to correct the hazard.

There is also protection against reprisal. An employer cannot fire, discipline, threaten or penalize a worker for following the law, asking for it to be followed, reporting a hazard or injury, or using their right to refuse properly.

In Minnesota, an employee who believes they have faced retaliation for a safety complaint or refusal can file a discrimination complaint with the Department of Labor and Industry within a short deadline, usually 30 days. Many school staff are covered by collective bargaining agreements and may also be able to grieve.

The right to refuse in schools

Minnesota's law protects an employee who refuses work in good faith when they reasonably believe there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical harm, have asked the employer to correct the hazard, and there is not enough time to remove the danger through normal channels such as an MNOSHA inspection. The employee should stay available for other safe work, explain the danger clearly and, if the problem is not fixed, may ask MNOSHA to inspect. The refusal is protected against retaliation, but only when those conditions are met. Refusing because a task is unpleasant or inconvenient is not protected.

Minnesota's law does not have a special rule for teachers, but the duty of care that every school employee owes to students still matters. A staff member who believes a situation is imminently dangerous should get students to safety, call for help and follow the district's procedures, rather than leaving students alone in a way that puts them at risk. In practice, refusals in schools most often involve equipment or building conditions, such as an electrical fault or a structural problem, or situations involving violence where the district has not put in place the plan or support that staff need.

In practice, formal refusals in schools are rare, and the better outcome is almost always that the problem is fixed before anyone needs to refuse. But knowing the process matters. Staff who do not know their rights tend either to keep working in conditions they should not accept, or to walk away in ways that are not protected.

Supply staff, student teachers and volunteers

Schools rely on people who are not there every day: occasional or substitute teachers and paraprofessionals, student teachers on placement, coop students, contractors and parent volunteers. The law's protections and duties reach most of them, and the gaps are where incidents tend to happen. A supply teacher who arrives at 8:20 for a class she has never met may not know that one student has a safety plan, where the eyewash station is, or how to call the office from the portable. A contractor fixing the gym lights may not know that the gym is booked for a class at 10:00.

Riverbend Public Schools uses three simple measures. Every school keeps a one-page orientation sheet for supply staff with the emergency procedures, how to call for help, and a note to check the day book for any safety plans. Principals or office staff point out any student safety plans before the day starts, giving only the information the supply worker needs to stay safe. And contractors sign in at the office, are told about any hazards in the area they will work in, such as asbestos or a class in session, and are told who to contact. Volunteers are not employees, but the district still has duties to them as people in its building, and it gives them a short briefing too.

Student teachers and other students on placement may not be district employees, but they work alongside staff and face the same hazards. Their placement agreement usually spells out who is responsible for training and for reporting injuries, and the district should brief them just as it would a new employee.

What an inspector can do

An MNOSHA investigator can enter a school at reasonable times, review records, take photographs and samples, interview employees in private and issue citations with penalties and dates by which hazards must be corrected. Inspections may be planned, prompted by a complaint or a serious injury, or follow up on earlier citations. A district that does not correct a cited hazard can face further penalties.