Joint Health and Safety Committee
Worker Health and Safety Representative
The act gives you the right to participate in health and safety decision-making in a workplace through a Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) or a worker Health and Safety Representative.
Virtually all workplaces with twenty or more regularly employed workers must have a JHSC made up of management and worker members. They work together to identify and recommend solutions to health and safety problems. They are required to inspect the workplace monthly. 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.
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.
In workplaces where there are between 6 and 19 regularly employed workers, a JHSC is not usually required under the Act. Instead, a health and safety representative is required. This representative is chosen by workers, and deals with health and safety problems in the workplace in much the same way as a JHSC.
For all health and safety concerns, talk to your supervisor and your worker health and safety representative or members of your JHSC. Ask questions, and keep asking them until you get answers you can understand.
See a video about JHSC. (RealVideo)
Return to Worker's Legal Rights.
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