Joint Health and Safety Committees – Special Report

Canadian OHS laws are intended to give all stakeholders a role in ensuring a safe workplace rather than allocating most of the responsibility to employers the way the US and most other industrialized countries do. The Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC), in which members of management and workers from the site work together to identify, assess and control hazards, is one of the centerpieces of this Internal Responsibility System (IRS). That’s why the OHS laws of every jurisdiction include specific, detailed requirements to ensure that a JHSC is established and allowed to carry out its functions. Here’s a 16-step Game Plan you can follow to ensure compliance with JHSC requirements while maximizing the effectiveness of your own committee.