Safety committees employee involvement

Joint/labor management committees Employee safety representatives Employee involvement Safety bulletin boards Use of computers... 

While Eaton and Nocerino (2000) find the existence of safety committees associated with higher injury claim rates, they also find that greater worker involvement in safety committees leads to better safety outcomes. This is consistent with our expectations concerning employee decision making, including both the number of dimensions (decision making, financial returns, and safety process) that woikers participate in and the degree of that participation. 

Safety committees provide a formal channel through which management and the employees can communicate with regard to process safety issues and overall company culture. There are many references to the involvement of employee representatives in the OSHA standard. These would usually be on the safety committee. If the facility is nonunion, it is essential that the employees representative is selected by the employees, not appointed by management. But it is important to ensure that the committee is not isolated the effective implementation of this element requires that everyone participate in the process safety program. 

Finally, encourage the development of a safety culture. Adopt policies and procedures that encourage drivers, and all employees for that matter, to become actively involved in the safety of your workplace. Treat employees fairly, set up safety committees, confer with employees on safety issues, and encourage and reward the reporting of safety problems, or imsafe driving behaviors. 

One way to make the most of employee involvement is to develop safety committees to make safety recommendations. Such committees, chaired by a supervisor, are an easy way to... 

Walters, D., and Gourlay, S. (1990) Statutory Employee Involvement in Health and Safety at the Workplace A Report of The Implementation and Effectiveness of the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977, London HSE. 

Well-trained health and safety officers/advisors/coordinators can play an important role in issue resolution by providing an impartial and skilled source of advice on the hazards and risks involved in the issue, on applicable standards and possible control measures. They may do this through informal contact with management, health and safety representatives or employees. They may also operate as one of the management nominees on the health and safety committee and be asked by the cormnittee to research the issue and so assist the committee to resolve it. 

During issue resolution, health and safety representatives, where they exist, may be involved in liaison with employees and the employer, and referral to the health and safety committee of any matters that should be considered by the cormiuttee. An inspector may be notified where issues are umesolved and the issue is considered a serious or imminent risk. 

Tabulating inspection results and presenting the conclusions and ai comments made by the employees involved - for example, the workgroups involved or safety committees - for the purpose of enabhng others to determine appropriate actions based on findings. 

The size and make-up of the investigation team is usualfy dictated by the accident s serionsness or complexity. The health and safety representative or committee members, where these exist, with the help of the employees involved, usually investigate minor injnry or property damage. 

You may also choose to ask the safety committee to study one or two difficult safety problems that management has been unable to resolve. Once the committee is established and functioning successfully, it will be in a position to suggest other ways to involve your employees in the safety program. One last committee could not be a short-term committee to solve a specific issue. Employees will probably get more involved if they can see the light at the end of the tunnel (one or two month assignments). 

This is one of the ways to get all employees involved in the safety process allowing them to participate in the inspection process. Refer to Chapter 7 for more information on how to use employees in the process. One way to get employees involved is to form employee committees or joint employee-management committees to help conduct routine inspections. By implementing these methods, you can ... 

Reviewers can be drawn from the safety department or the safety committee. The best reviewers will be individuals or employees who possess a new or fresh vision. These individuals should not be involved in the day-to-day operations of the facility. For example, some reviewers can be corporate safety professionals, another worksite, insurance companies (many loss-control sections of an insurance carrier offer their clients the services of a certified safety professional and a certified industrial hygienist), or OSHA s consultation to help review the system or for applying for VPP... 

Employees have been educated about the various ways they may be involved in safety. When asked, employees know who their safety committee representative is. They understand safety suggestion program procedures. They participate in job hazard analyses. 

In the most effective safety cultures, everyone is involved in monitoring hazard controls in the workplace. It s not usually adequate to simply rely on the safety director or safety committee to monitor hazard controls. Employees and supervisors, especially, need to be directly involved in this activity. 

You can accomplish this by involving your safety committee in the goal-setting process. If you do not have a safety committee, assemble a mixture of employees from different departments to help set up the goals. 

Does it say how employees are to be involved in health and safety matters, for example, by being consulted, by taking part in inspections, and by sitting on a safety committee ... 

Safety committees have traditionally been used as a focal point of employee involvement. An effective safety committee can readily spread a positive influence for safety-related activities and efforts rapidly through an organization. To develop a positive safety committee, a charter of its mandate and structure, training on the basics of holding a meeting, and core training on the safety management system are needed to sustain its effectiveness. 

The committee must continue to show its value to the organization. If this cannot be maintained, neither leadership nor employees will want to remain involved because they will feel that the safety committee is not a productive use of their time. 

Ad-hoc committees are formed to complete specific projects and are limited to a specific time frame. One of the concerns that has been expressed about safety committees is that a number of employees do not want to become involved in committees that are long term. However, as projects are developed by the central safety committee, short-term projects appeal to different employees having different expertise and experience. Some employees may like the central committee, where they can use their skills in administration and organizing. Other employees may join an ad-hoc committee on a topic of interest. 

A member of the central safety committee should be designated to guide and administer the JHA process. This person would use cross-functional ad hoc teams to develop and maintain diversity and expertise for development of a portfolio of JHAs. The JHA ad hoc teams would develop specific JHAs based on the risk assessment list developed using the risk guidance card. They would draw on experience and expertise of employees and supervisors in the department or area where the job resides. Refer to Chapter 8, Getting Your Employees Involved in the Safety Management System . 

Use a charter to clearly define how they will operate and use the JHA process. The charter should be authorized by the leadership team as approved by the central safety committee. Refer to Chapter 8, Getting Your Employees Involved in the Safety Management System and Appendix O. 

Note The above are not legal duties on ROES and they do not absolve the ROES of their duties as employees under relevant legislation. It is becoming increasingly common for employers to involve ROES in safety committees, critical incident investigation and workplace inspections in the same way that union appointed safety representatives are and such good practice should be encouraged wherever possible. 

The safety process was designed much like the process detailed throughout this book and included peer-to-peer observations. All employees were asked to conduct one observation per month. Managers and supervisors conducted observations twice per month. Data were sent from the field locations to the steering committee for review and problem solving. Summaries and trends were sent back to each location for field crews to discuss and plan their own safety action plans. In addition, locally planned celebrations were conducted based on the number of observations made, percentage of employee participation, and team achievements involving safety (there were no formal incentives based on accident statistics). To aid communication, both a newsletter and an online system were utilized that provided information about safety accomplishments and listed ideas and... 

Neither federal nor state safety and health regulations require companies to form safety committees. However, they are widely recognized as an effective tool in generating employee involvement, raising employee awareness, and strengthening a company s overall safety and health program. One source that covers safety and health committees is contained in 29 CFR 1960, Federal Employee Safety and Health, Subpart F-Occupational Safety and Health Committees. Listed below are general provisions from safety and health committees required for Federal employees ... 

Safety committees can be very helpful in getting employees involved in a safety and health program. The employees who work the jobs every day have a good idea of the safety issues within a particular task and can aid in correcting the problems. This is discussed in more detail in Chapter 5. 

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