Health and safety committees need more respect

They might have different titles across Canada, but for the most part, joint health and safety committees have similar mandates. For this issue’s reader panel, we asked our panelists about how well their committees were working and what could be done to make them work better.

Of the panelists who responded, more than 60 per cent were on the health and safety committee at their firm. This means the following views and perspectives are from those on the inside, and also those on the outside looking in.

Question: Are you a member of your firm’s joint health and safety committee?

Question: How good a job do you feel your joint health and safety committee is doing at your facility at promoting and monitoring safety?

While the majority of respondents said their committee is doing a good job (64.3 per cent) or an excellent job (10.7 per cent) for a total of 75 per cent positive responses, more than 21 per cent said their committee is doing a poor or terrible job. So, there’s good work being done, and still lots of room for improvement. Here are a few of their comments:

 “Not focusing well on the issues. No one brings up ergonomic issues which is the number one problem.”
“Our JHSC is restricted in their movements by management to the point that they are ineffective.”
“The meetings are not effectively run and only take place because they have to. The meetings often turn into complaint sessions.”
“Our JOH&SC is very active at our organization. The one thing it needs to improve upon is  its communication and making all staff aware they exist and what they do.”
“Some union members are combative in their attitude at the meetings, making some members uncomfortable. The union feels management does not do enough, and therefore our committee spends a lot of time arguing, when we could be more positive.”
“We stay on top of major issues but are slow in correcting minor ones.”
“Members actively participate in meetings and inspections, but seem to lack enforcement of company policies, when they return to the plant floor.”
“Too much bias. It’s only functioning because of legal requirements, no buy in by middle management.”

Question: Do you think employees at your facility have respect for the JHSC and would treat its recommendations seriously?

We wanted to get a sense of whether the employees and management respected their committees and treated its recommendations seriously. For employees, only half of respondents said “most” employees at their firm would respect the recommendations from the JHSC, with 33.9 per cent saying “some” employees would, while 12.5 per cent said employees would dismiss recommendations.
The numbers were similar when reader panelists were asked whether senior managers would respect the committee’s recommendations. Less than half said most senior managers would, (46.4 per cent), while less than nine per cent (8.9 per cent) said senior managers would dismiss the recommendations.

Question: Do you think senior management at your facility have respect for the JHSC and would treat its recommendations seriously?

The comments help illustrate that while committees can be effective, they aren’t always viewed in a positive light by employees and managers.

“Senior management does not always take the JHSC seriously and at times ignore them or takes very long to respond back to written recommendations from the JHSC.”
“The committee can only make recommendations, and sometimes the recommendations are a bit overzealous.”
“Young and new employees greatly respect the recommendations of our committee. We do on occasion experience resistance from older, old school employees and are forced to go to management for help.”
“Not all senior management respects the JHSC. I have heard some senior management say ‘what a pain this committee is.’”
“For the past eight years have ensured the either the CEO or the Vice President are members of the committee at all times.”

Question: Does your company train its JHSC members on a regular basis?
 
It appears that companies are investing the time to train their members on a regular basis; with 60.7 per cent reporting they get regular training.

“We trained our certified members, provide occasional educational sessions at committee meetings, and send articles of interest to the co-chairs to share with the members.”
“More training must be done, but like most operations in Alberta manpower is a problem.”
“We send our safety committee members to provincial safety courses along with an annual occupational safety and health conference for educational purposes and networking with other companies.”
“We provide 40 hours of training annually to members of the JHSC.”

Question:  What activities have worked well at your workplace to get your JHSC working as an effective force?

“Documenting safety concerns at monthly meetings. When the MOL sees these items on our minutes after a year or two they will issue orders.”
“Who’s in charge of safety? We all are! If anyone sees a safety infraction, say something.”
“Bring in a safety meeting guest, someone who has lived through a bad accident and have them explain to the committee and management about how it affected their lives.”
“Involvement in NAOSH activities, involvement in safety investigations, involvement in policy/procedure and rule development.”
“Patience has paid off for our committee. Waving around a flaming sword or pointing fingers does not work. Including the employees and working to create a positive safety culture does.”