Joint Health and Safety Committee Training
Why have a Joint Health and Safety Committee?
In British Columbia, Joint Health and Safety Committees are required in workplaces where 20 or more employees are regularly employed or where otherwise required by order. But is the only reason to have a Joint Committee the fact that we are legally required to have one?
If that is how you feel about Joint Health and Safety Committees, it may help to learn about where they came from and why they were deemed necessary. We train a lot of Joint Health and Safety Committee members from our offices in Kamloops, and part of our training always deals with the why behind the requirements. In other words, “what got us here?” We are safety professionals after all, and a huge part of our job is to look at problems within organizational systems and ask the how and why questions.
As it turns out, the why behind Joint Health and Safety Committees can be traced back to 1974 at the Elliot Lake Uranium mine in Ontario. It was there that workers went on strike over health and safety concerns arising from high incidents of lung cancer and silicosis. That’s right, in this pre-right to refuse unsafe work work-scape you had to strike in order to demand a healthy and safe work environment. The video below explains the events in 1974 well:
Since the events at Elliot Lake, the role of the Joint Health and Safety Committee has evolved and expanded. Today the duties and responsibilities for committees in BC look like this:
Identify situations that may be unhealthy or unsafe for workers and advise on effective systems for responding to those situations;
consider and expeditiously deal with complaints relating to the health and safety of workers;
consult with workers and the employer on issues related to occupational health and safety and occupational environment;
make recommendations to the employer and the workers for the improvement of the occupational health and safety and occupational environment of workers;
make recommendations to the employer on educational programs promoting the health and safety of workers and compliance with this Part and the regulations and to monitor their effectiveness;
advise the employer on programs and policies required under the regulations for the workplace and to monitor their effectiveness
advise the employer on proposed changes to the workplace, including significant proposed changes to equipment and machinery, or the work processes that may affect the health or safety of workers;
ensure that accident investigations and regular inspections are carried out;
participate in inspections and investigations;
- carry out any other duties and functions prescribed by regulation.
Joint Health and Safety Committee Training Matters!
With so many duties and responsibilities it is no wonder that Joint Health and Safety Committee member require training to do their jobs effectively. We have developed a suite of Joint Health and Safety Committee training courses to assist our clients with establishing and maintaining a truly effective JOSH Committee. We currently offer the following classes for JOSH committee members:
JOSH Committee Fundamentals; learn about:
Committee roles and responsibilities
Committee composition
Making effective recommendations
Hazard Identification; learn about:
Identification, evaluation, and control
Risk and hazard assessment processes
Unsafe act intervention
Regulatory requirements
Accident Investigations; learn about:
Accidents that must be investigated
Preliminary and full investigations
Regulatory Requirements
How to draft a accident investigation report
Safety Culture:
Current work related to safety and workplace cultures
The new view vs. the old view of organizational safety
Measuring safety culture
Positive impacts
Phone our head office at 778-471-6407 or email us at info@ohandscanada.ca for more information about our Joint Health and Safety Committee Courses.