Joint Health and Safety Committee / Worker Health and Safety Representative...

The Occupational Health and Safety Act gives you the Right to Participate in health and safety decision-making in your workplace. Depending on the size of your workplace, you can participate through a Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) or as a worker Health and Safety Representative.

Virtually all workplaces covered by the Act with 20 or more regularly employed workers must have a JHSC made up of management and worker members. The committee members work together to identify and recommend solutions to health and safety problems. The main purpose of a JHSC is to make sure that all health and safety concerns are brought into the open and kept there until they are resolved. One of the committee's important duties is to do regular inspections for health and safety hazards in the workplace.

At least half of the JHSC members must be workers who are chosen by other workers or, where there is one, by the trade union. The employer selects management members.

Not all workplaces are required to have a joint health and safety committee. In workplaces or construction projects where 6 to 19 workers are regularly employed and where there is no Joint Health and Safety Committee, a health and safety representative of the workers is required instead. This Representative is chosen by workers, and deals with health and safety problems in the workplace in much the same way as the JHSC.

For all health and safety concerns, talk to your supervisor and your worker Health and Safety Representative or members of the JHSC. Ask questions and keep asking them until you get answers that you understand.