Professional Documents
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Comptalk Safety Committees
Comptalk Safety Committees
Preventing injuries
Minnesota | Iowa |
Nebraska | South
Dakota | Wisconsin
Guiding employers through workers compensation
Safety committees
The heart of your organizations safety efforts
Organizing or re-energizing a safety administer a joint labor-management safety
committee, whose sole purpose is to prevent committee.
injuries and accidents, can protect your Employers regulated by state-level OSHA
business from avoidable costs that directly with 25 employees or fewer, you may still be
affect your bottom line. required to maintain a committee, depending
A safety committee, as the heart of an on your companys safety record and your
organizations safety efforts, can: industry.
n Make managers aware of production or
operational safety issues. Safety committee make-up
n Help save time and money by improving Your safety committee should be made
everyday work activities. up of a mixed population of employees and
management with representatives from both
n Reduce the risk of OSHA citations or production and administration.
other state penalties.
Preferably, employee committee members
n Increase
employees safety awareness and should be elected by peers, or by their
knowledge. collective bargaining agent. If no employees
n Enable employees to actively identify and volunteer, the employer can select the
address safety issues directly affecting them. employee representatives.
n Make workplace safety a more If your company has multiple locations
formalized and important commitment. that all do essentially the same thing, one
n Show upper managements genuine committee is probably adequate. If you have
concern for employees well-being. multiple locations of 50 or more employees,
a safety committee should be established at
each one.
Who is required to
have a safety committee?
Committee functions
In states not regulated by OSHA on a state
level, employers are not required by law to A safety committees basic duties should
have a safety committee. However, it is a include:
good idea. n Conducting visual surveys of the
In states regulated by state OSHA such as workplace to identify safety and health
Minnesota, the law requires employers with concerns at least quarterly.
more than 25 employees to establish and n Implementing a system to gather safety-
CompTalk
and providing them with copies of the minutes people accountable and ensures that good
from previous meetings. It is beneficial to ideas are acted on.
have departing committee members train new
members. Members should demonstrate: 7) Lack of communication
n A general understanding of technical Publicize your successes to both employees
safety and health issues. and management. Use the minutes of the
n Familiarity
of data gathering and decision- meeting and your organizations publications.
making processes. Focus on positive things such as the number of
safety talks completed or safety observations
n Experience with group dynamics and made. Recognize members joining or
meeting participation and preparation. departing the committee.
SFM Companies
3500 American Blvd. West, Suite 700
Bloomington, Minnesota 55431-4434