When are a safety committee and safety representatives required?

Who this applies to

A workplace that is a "plant" for the purposes of Chapter Two of the Law — that is, a place to which the Safety at Work Ordinance applies, wholly or partly — employing at least 25 people.

What it means in practice

• The committee threshold is 25 employees, not 50. It is lower than the threshold for appointing a safety officer, so an organisation can owe a committee long before it owes an officer.
• Representatives are not a smaller committee. Where a committee exists, the workers' representatives on it are the safety representatives — the same people, not a further body.
• Under the regulations, committee members and representatives are appointed or elected for three years, and may be reappointed.
• The regulations require the safety committee to convene at least eight times a year. A committee meeting once or twice does not meet that, however tidy its minutes.
• Workers' representatives are appointed by the workers' committee; where there is none, they are chosen at a workers' assembly.
• The committee's statutory functions are substantive — investigating the causes of workplace accidents and recommending prevention, monitoring safety and hygiene conditions, receiving representatives' reports, and accompanying labour inspectors on their visits.

What is usually needed

• The number actually employed, and whether the workplace is a "plant" for the purposes of Chapter Two.
• Whether a workers' committee exists — it determines how the workers' representatives are appointed.
• A list of current committee members and representatives with the dates their terms began, to track the three-year period.
• Minutes of the past year's meetings, to check against the requirement of eight convenings a year.
• A record of the decisions taken and what was actually closed.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the committee threshold matches the safety officer threshold. It is lower.
• Treating the committee and the representatives as two separate duties with thresholds of their own. The Law links them.
• Convening the committee "as needed". The regulations set a minimum of eight convenings a year.
• Leaving committee members in place indefinitely. The term is three years.
• Keeping minutes without tracking closure. The committee's statutory functions are substantive, not documentary.

The tool that continues from here

• Annual Safety Plan BuilderBuilds an annual safety plan from Hoshen's guide: ten domains, tasks with an owner and a target date, status tracking and a printable report.
• Risk Assessment BuilderA register for recording a risk assessment: hazards, grading, controls and residual risk, with a printable report.

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