Ham’s Report of the Royal Commission on the Health and Safety of Workers in Mines was instrumental in identifying issues of responsibility and accountability within the management system in the mining industry. The information contained in the report eventually led to changes in legislation and worker rights in Canada.

The Royal Commission report recognized the value and function of various groups within an organization, such as the joint labour-management health and safety committee and the “worker-auditor.” It indicated the need for them to be more proactive in communicating concerns related to health and safety in the workplace. It also described the advisory role of the health and safety committee as an important resource to help a company respond to changing working conditions.

The following tasks will briefly describe how your health and safety committee can assist your organization in improving its safety management system and its IRS.

The first step is assessing the roles of each individual group within the line organization.

Management has the ultimate responsibility of identifying and addressing safety issues within the company. This is normally accomplished through: assigning, directing and managing the work; allocating appropriate resources; creating a safety culture; developing safety programs; enforcing safety rules; managing labour relations; and managing facilities and equipment.

In turn, the supervisors and workers are accountable to management for performing the work and for assisting management in resolving issues or concerns.

To maintain a healthy safety culture, it’s essential that the line organization’s IRS be founded on this breakdown of responsibilities.

Issues or problems with the IRS usually develop when the line organization is seen as encouraging “production over safety” and not dealing with safety problems. This leads to workers becoming disengaged and frustrated with the management system. It also leads to other groups, such as worker union representatives or the health and safety committee, trying to resolve the IRS issues instead of the line organization.