A state teacher’s union recently accused the administration of the University of Wisconsin-Stout of allegedly silencing two of its members after learning of an asbestos complaint on university construction grounds.

A UW-Stout employee responsible for overseeing asbestos removal at construction sites and the inspector who issued the asbestos report were told to keep away from construction areas, according to a statement issued by the union to administration at UW-Stout.

The inspector later released a report including 51 health and safety and workplace violations, according to UW-Stout spokesperson Doug Mell. Of those violations, the statement said 10 were due to asbestos exposures. The report was then later rescinded by the state Department of Commerce for re-evaluation.

“[The report] wasn’t up to the DOC’s standards,” Mell said. “There has never been a claim that anyone has been harmed.”

Mell said UW-Stout officials are cooperating with the DOC, and they will just have to see what the report says and go from there.

“We believe that we’ve done everything humanly possible to comply with every health and safety code. We’ve done that to the best of our abilities,” Mell said.

The re-evaluated report will determine which areas of campus will require additional attention for ensuring the future safety of faculty and students.

The supervisor of the inspector, as well as an administrator in the DOC, are currently working together to rewrite the report.

Mell said he hopes a lack of evidence on the union’s part will prevent the issue from escalating.

Meanwhile, many construction projects are underway on the UW campus. John Lucas, UW spokesperson, said very few construction hazards have been problematic for students and faculty.

He added an exception could be the unconfirmed incident involving a student who tried to climb into the South Memorial Union construction site and sustained a head injury about a year ago.

“We’ve taken a lot of steps to not only address [campus safety] but also form partnership between students and the law enforcement,” Lucas said.

Recent construction of such high-rise sites as the Lucky and Grand Central apartments, as well as Union South, have demanded extra awareness from pedestrians and drivers, with the traffic lanes being sectioned off, Lucas added.