JHSC HSC WORKPLACE JOINT HEALTH AND SAFETY COMMITTEE TRAINING BC ALBERTA MANITOBA QUEBEC NEW BRUNSWICK NOVA SCOTIA

In Canada, when an employer reaches a certain number of employees the occupational health and safety legislation for each province requires the establishment of a functioning Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) in the workplace. Failure to not have a properly functioning and trained Joint Health and Safety Committee in your workplace can result in fines, penalties, sanctions or stop work orders from provincial health and safety officers.

​A JHSC Committee is an advisory group, within a business, made up of employers and employees working together to improve occupational health and safety in their workplace. This advisory group is known as members of the OHS committee and these members meet at a minimum of once a month (in some cases every 3 months) to identify hazards in the workplace, discuss issues and concerns regarding OHS in the workplace, conduct incident investigations, conduct workplace inspections, make recommendations to the employer and follow up on safety issues which may arise. The occupational health and safety regulations for each province across Canada, require for all workplaces who reach a certain number of employees, including for high or moderate risk workplaces, to have a functioning Joint Health and Safety Committee established. OHS Regulations across Canada also require that all members receive adequate level of training. It is strongly recommended to re-certify your JHSC members every 2 years to ensure proper re-training due diligence. 

Some of the duties of a joint health and safety committee are to:

• Conduct regular workplace inspections
• Investigate accidents and incidents
• Communicate any work process or environment changes that may impact worksite health and safety to management
• Attend to worker concerns about worksite health and safety
• Identify potential safety hazards
• Inform management of corrections to potential hazards
• Consult and liaise with workers and management on all workplace health and safety matters
• Participate in refusing unsafe work 

How often do meetings need to be held?

• Must occur at least once a month
• Minutes must be recorded and posted in the workplace for at least three months. Provide a copy to the local manager or supervisor. The supervisor must make minutes available to the union
• Minutes must be retained for at least two years and be accessible to staff and WCB. WCB considers it acceptable to store meeting minutes on shared electronic drives or websites accessible to all staff.

What powers to JHSC members have?
The WCA Act throughout Canada sets out certain functions and powers that apply to the committee as a whole, and specific duties and powers that apply to worker members. The committee’s key functions are to:

• identify hazards in the workplace (hazard identification is done through such activities as workplace inspections, accident investigations and information analyses); and
• make recommendations to the employer on health and safety issues and on programs and procedures to improve health and safety. To carry out these functions, the committee has the power to obtain information from the employer on:
• Potential or existing hazards of materials, processes or equipment;
• The health and safety experience and work practices of other workplaces;
• Safety and health tests of machines, equipment and materials. The JHSC committee also has the power to obtain information about the company’s compensation claims from the the Workers Compensation Board across each province. 

Currently Empire Safety Solutions offers approved Online JHSC Joint Health and Safety Committee training across BC