Rejection of JHSC Recommendation Notice

Here’s a template you can adapt to reject a JHSC recommendation that you consider unrealistic, based on a hypothetical situation in which a JHSC recommends adopting the CSA lockout standard, which is very expensive to implement. You’ll obviously have to adopt the form based on the facts of your own situation. The important thing to take from this form, though, aren’t the substantive details but the approach of explaining how you deliberated over a recommendation, why you rejected it and proposing more suitable alternatives.

A. BACKGROUND

The Joint Health and Safety Committee of [list workplace address] (‘Committee’) held its monthly meeting on July 11. The Committee recommended that XYZ Company make a commitment to fully implement the Canadian Standard Association, CSA Z460 Control of Hazardous Energy’Lockout & Other Methods, by July 31, 2024, at the latest.

B. NOTICE OF DECISION

I and the other members of ABC Company management wish to thank the Committee for its recommendation. However, after careful deliberation, we have decided not to adopt the recommendation. The purpose of this notice is threefold:

1. To describe the deliberations that led to this decision;
2. To set forth the reasons for the decision; and
3. To reassure Committee members that we take the safety concerns voiced in the recommendation very seriously and describe the efforts the Company is taking to address those concerns.

C. MANAGEMENT DELIBERATIONS

I received the Committee’s report, including the recommendation of the adoption of CSA Z460, on July 13. On July 15, I sent a memo to members of management notifying them of the recommendation and expressing my views on its adoption. I attached a copy of CSA Z460 and a summary of its provisions to my memo. A copy was sent to the following officers…