JHSC - Joint Health & Safety Committee
JHSC - Business Responsibilities
To achieve a strong culture of health and safety, everyone in the workplace must be dedicated to the company-wide reduction and elimination of workplace injuries and illnesses.
This cannot be accomplished by one singular group, but by a concerted effort by all because workplace safety is everyone’s business.
The Safe at Work Ontario strategy focuses on three basic initiatives; enforcement, compliance, and partnerships.
Joint Health & Safety Committee
A Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) is required at workplaces where twenty or more workers are regularly employed.
The committee must have two members who have completed Certification Training, one of whom is a worker, the other representing management.
For locations with more than 50 employees, a minimum of 4 JHSC members must be certified of whom half must be workers
JHSC Training Ontario
The Act states that at least two members of the JHSC committee (one representing workers and one representing management) be chosen for special certification training.
The W.S.I.B. certifies committee members once they complete Part 1 and 2 of mandatory training; Basic Certification and Workplace-Specific Hazard Training.
Certified health and safety committee members play a key role on the committee and have specific authority and responsibilities.
JHSC Construction
A committee must be formed at a construction project with twenty or more regularly employed workers, and where the project is expected to last three months or more. Members of the worker trades committee must represent workers employed in each of the trades at the workplace.
These members must be selected by the workers in the trades that they represent or, if a trade union represents workers, then the union selects the worker representatives.