Over the years, I have written extensively about what we call in Canada Joint Health and Safety Committees. One of the things I do is interview leaders of successful committees and gather up their best practices. I am writing a book summarizing my findings that will be published this fall. Here's a small taste of some of the best practices I will cover in the book. There's also a form in the Tools section of SafetyXChange that you can use to assess whether your own committees are using any of these best practices.

Why Change the Way Your Committee Runs?

It's all too easy to accept the status quo and run your committee the way it always has. After all, if your committee meets the basic legal requirements, why change it? (Editor's Note: In Canada, joint health and safety committees are mandatory and must meet certain legal requirements. The item immediately after the feature story explains the situation in the U.S.)

But is just meeting legal requirements enough? Based on my research of committees, I suggest that it is not. I have found that just about every successful committee goes beyond mere compliance. So if you're settling for a committee that does no more than the law requires it to, you're not getting the most out of your committee. Why not consider improving it?

The Starting Point: Going Beyond Legal Compliance

The thing that safety committee best practices have in common is that they start from the premise of voluntariness. That is, they go beyond what the law requires. The prerequisite of having a successful committee is the willingness to embrace this spirit of voluntariness.

Examples of Best Practices

Here are some examples of best practices that committees have adopted:

1. Having a Committee Even Though It's Not Legally Required

In Canada, a number of smaller companies that don't have enough employees to reach the regulatory threshold in which it becomes mandatory to have a committee (generally 20 regular employees) have nevertheless established committees. And, of course, in the U.S. where committees are not generally required, companies have voluntarily created them.

2. The Tiered Committee Structure

Another best practice is to implement a tiered safety committee. For example, a U.S.-based plant has benefited from a multi-tiered safety partnership that includes not just the usual employee and management representatives but special union representatives. This partnership is part of a safety system that is based on key principles of the Voluntary Protection Program, a voluntary health and safety audit system sponsored by OSHA for U.S. workplaces.

3. Dispute Resolution Procedures

I've observed a number of successful committees put in place an alternate dispute resolution system for working out problems that might otherwise reach the Ministry of Labour, OSHA or other regulatory authority. The committee plays a leading role in this system. A successful example of this is the procedure created with the help of the safety committee system at Ontario Power Generation.

4. Improved Inspections

Workplace inspections are an integral role of safety committees and generally required by law. But successful committees go beyond the standard routine and do a number of things to make inspections more effective. This includes:

• Implementing cooperative inspections that include workers and management representatives;
• Making inspections fun and gratifying by noting not just the negative but the positive conditions in the workplace; and
• Issuing rewards to departments with successful inspections results.

5. Frequent Meetings

Most successful committees meet more frequently than the law requires. This can be as often as once a week and never less often than once a month.

6. Publication and Communication

The final best practice I'll mention is the publication of regular communications to management and workers. Many successful safety committees publish annual reports outlining their achievements, for example.

Conclusion

The message is that if you want an effective safety committee that is integrated into the workplace health and safety management system, you must go beyond the basic legal requirements. This means looking at what the successful safety committees do and developing your own best practices based on what will work in your organization. I hope the form in Tools will help you perform this function.

SAFETY COMMITTEES IN THE U.S.

By Glenn Demby

Unlike Canada, OSHA laws don't require companies to establish health and safety committees at their workplace. However, U.S. companies are also subject to state law and there are 14 states that do make safety committees mandatory. These states include:

1. California
2. Connecticut
3. Michigan
4. Minnesota
5. Montana
6. Nebraska
7. Nevada
8. New Hampshire
9. North Carolina
10. Oklahoma
11. Oregon
12. Tennessee
13. Washington
14. West Virginia

In addition, five states recommend the implementation of a safety committee:

1. Alaska
2. Hawaii
3. Pennsylvania
4. Vermont
5. Virginia

POP QUIZ

The First Safety Committee

Q: Who invented the safety committee?

A: Apparently, the first safety committee was established by George Eastman at Eastman Kodak in 1911. At least that's the first reference to a safety committee I could find. If any of you SafetyXChange members know of an earlier example, please e-mail me at glennd@bongarde.com and we'll print a correction.

CORRECTION

EPL for Hexavalent Chromium

Speaking of corrections, I need to issue one for last Monday's article about the new OSHA standard on Hexavalent Chromium.

The Error: The article states that the standard doesn't apply to employers who can demonstrate that exposure levels would ever exceed 0.5 micrograms per cubic centimeter of air.

The Correction: Section 1910.1026(a)(4) actually says the standard doesn't apply if the employer can demonstrate exposure levels below 0.5 micrograms per cubic - meter as an a 8-hour-time weighted average under any expected conditions of use. (emphasis added)

My thanks to Erica M. Gunderson for pointing out the error.

Glenn Demby
Editor-in-Chief
SafetyXChange

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