This policy has been created to provide information pertaining to the duties and responsibilities of The West Egg Group Corp.’s Joint Health and Safety Committee. Each Canadian Province has established Health and Safety Legislation providing clear requirements in organizing the committee, the structure, meeting frequency and roles and responsibilities of committee members.
In the Province of Ontario, a JHSC is only required for those worksites where 20 or more employees are regularly employed, or as required by an order. The West Egg Group Corp. is committed to maintaining the health and wellbeing of its employees. As such, The West Egg Group Corp. has established a Joint Health and Safety Committee. The following document outlines the duties of this committee.
The committee/representative has four (4) principal functions:
Duty of Employer – The employer is responsible for providing a safe and healthy workplace and for taking all necessary steps to protect the safety and health of employees.
Duty of the Employee – Employees are required to take all reasonable and necessary precautions to ensure their own safety and health as well as that of their fellow employees.
To carry out its functions, the committee/representative is required to hold meetings and carry out regular inspections of the workplace.
The Joint Health and Safety Committee will hold a meeting at least once every three months during regular working hours and on urgent matters.
Minutes of each meeting must be recorded and available for review by a Ministry of Labour inspector. Minutes should contain details of all matters discussed, as well as a full description of issues raised, any action recommended by the committee members and the employer’s response to the recommendation(s). Minutes should identify members by title and not by name. Members’ names should be used only for attendance purposes.
The Joint Health and Safety Committee must ensure that the workplace is inspected every month. Other workers, as well as the employer, must give the Committee any information and assistance needed to carry out these inspections.
In some cases, the committee must also participate in the development of assessment reports and control-program reports required under the designated substance regulations.
Generally speaking, all committee members should be available to receive employee concerns, complaints, and recommendations; discuss problems and recommend solutions, and provide input into existing and proposed health and safety programs.
Members of the committee are entitled to time off from work for authorized activities related to the responsibility of the committee or representative
The Committee will review injuries and accidents.
The Committee has the power to make recommendations to the employer on ways to improve workplace health and safety. The employer must respond in writing to any written recommendations within twenty-one (21) days.
The Health and Safety Committee must be present at the investigation of work refusal. If a worker is killed or critically injured on the job, the Committee has the obligation to inspect the scene of the accident and any machine, equipment, substance, etc. that may be connected with the accident.
The Health and Safety Committee is entitled to request the annual summary of information from the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board about compensation claims related to the workplace of the employer.
This information includes:
The Committee may from time to time come across confidential information. The Health and Safety Committee may not:
It is the function of a committee and the committee has the power to:
Our Management Team supports our safety committee and has instructed our safety committee to:
The West Egg Group Corp. shall provide employees with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their safety and health.
The West Egg Group Corp. shall ensure that each employee is informed of every known or foreseeable safety and health hazard in the area where the employee works.
The West Egg Group Corp. shall train their employees to ensure that all hazardous substances are stored, handled, and used in the manner prescribed.
At The West Egg Group Corp., “Safety Posting Board” will include: