The La Ro­maine Sec­ondary School re­mains closed as teach­ers con­tin­ue to re­ject an in­struc­tion from the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Au­thor­i­ty (OS­HA) to re­turn to school.

A source from the OS­HA Agency said sev­er­al parts of the school were safe for oc­cu­pa­tion even though mi­nor works were con­tin­u­ing in oth­er sec­tions of the school.

Doc­u­men­ta­tion was sub­mit­ted to the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion but de­spite the of­fi­cial open­ing of the struc­ture on Mon­day, teach­ers have not re­port­ed for du­ty.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, pres­i­dent of the T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion Lyns­ley Doo­d­hai said teach­ers were ex­er­cis­ing their right to refuse to work un­der the OSH reg­u­la­tions.

He said it will be fool­hardy for the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to press charges against teach­ers be­cause they were act­ing in ac­cor­dance with the law.

Faulty wiring at the La Romaine Seconday School has caused teachers to remain off the job.

Doo­d­hai said un­less the Chief In­spec­tor at OSH pro­vid­ed doc­u­men­ta­tion show­ing the school was safe, the teach­ers will re­main away from the job.

"Since June teach­ers at La Ro­maine Sec­ondary school have ini­ti­at­ed a re­fusal to work based on safe­ty con­cerns aris­ing out of a fire in May. On Mon­day the school was opened and teach­ers re­port­ed for du­ty but they re­fused to stay on the com­pound for a num­ber of rea­sons re­lat­ed to safe­ty," Doo­d­hai said.

He added that teach­ers were baf­fled as to why the OSH Agency would de­clare the school safe for oc­cu­pa­tion when there were loose elec­tri­cal wires and un­cov­ered elec­tri­cal cir­cuits ex­posed in the school.

"On Fri­day there was a walk through with of­fi­cials from OS­HA and union rep­re­sen­ta­tives. We saw lots of loose wires and elec­tri­cal re­cep­ta­cles were not cov­ered. Our union reps were told by the OSH in­spec­torate that the school was fit for re­open­ing but when they asked for a copy of the OSH re­port the in­spec­tor said he had to get clear­ance first," Doo­d­hai re­vealed.

Faulty wiring at the La Romaine Seconday School has caused teachers to remain off the job.

He said the clear­ance from the Fire De­part­ment was al­so not sup­plied to TTUTA.

"We must be as­sured with­out a doubt that the school is safe for oc­cu­pa­tion. They need to fur­nish the re­ports to us. The law states that if we are dis­sat­is­fied with the OSH In­spec­tor, they can make an ap­peal to the chief in­spec­tor of the OSH agency. What they did was with­in the pro­vi­sions of the OSH Act," Doo­d­hai said.

He said pend­ing the ter­mi­na­tion of ap­peal by the Chief In­spec­tor, the teach­ers will not re­turn to school.

With re­gard to charges, Doo­d­hai said TTUTA won two cas­es in­volv­ing teach­ers from Tran­quil­li­ty and Long­denville gov­ern­ment schools who ex­er­cised their right to refuse to work in un­safe con­di­tions.

Doo­d­hai said he hoped the school could be re­opened this week.

On Mon­day, par­ents staged a plac­ard protests over the de­lays in school open­ing.

Min­istry of­fi­cials said the OS­HA and the T&TEC In­spec­torate gave clear­ance for the school to be oc­cu­pied to­day. He de­nied that there were ex­posed elec­tri­cal wires and pan­el box­es in class­rooms.

The source said the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion project was large and OS­HA agreed to lift the ban in ar­eas des­ig­nat­ed as safe for oc­cu­pa­tion.

How­ev­er, he said oth­er parts of the school, not oc­cu­pied by stu­dents, which were still un­der­go­ing mi­nor re­pairs.

"If a child gets elec­tro­cut­ed, the Min­istry will be re­spon­si­ble so we will nev­er let stu­dents en­ter ar­eas which are un­safe," the source added.