Joint Health & Safety CommitteeTraining for British Columbia

The Joint Health and Safety Committee training for BC is an 8 hour online course. The training is designed to introduce all the fundamentals of a Joint Health and Safety Committee and to provide JHSC members with the tools necessary to effectively carry out their general duties and OHS activities. This course is ideal for new and existing JHSC members, chairs, and co-chairs, JHSC alternates, and Worker Health and Safety Representatives.

WorkSafeBC requires all worksites in British Columbia with 20 or more employees to have a Joint Health & Safety Committee.

As of April 3, 2017, all new Joint Committee members must receive 8 hours of training on the following topics:

• the duties and functions of a joint committee
• the rules of procedure of the joint committee
• the requirements around conducting incident investigations
• the requirements around conducting regular workplace inspections, and how to make regular inspections
• the requirements around responding to a refusal of unsafe work
• the requirements for annually evaluating the joint committee

Participation in this course meets the requirements of section 3.27 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation.

COURSE DETAILS

Learning Objectives

Upon successful completion of this program, the learner will be able to:

• explain the purposes of the Act, Regulation, and Guidelines
• summarize the duties and functions of a joint committee
• explain the joint committee role in incident investigations
• differentiate between types of inspections
• apply procedures regarding right to refuse unsafe work to given situations
• summarize educational requirements for joint committee members (section 135 of the Act and section 3.27 of the Regulation)
• conduct an individual needs assessment for the purpose of selecting training in accordance with section 135 of the Act
• explain the prohibition against discriminatory action (section 150 of the Act)
• identify when an employer is required to consult with the joint committee
• differentiate between the roles of the committee co-chairs and joint committee members
• explain the purpose of a joint committee’s rules of procedure (terms of reference)
• apply policies and procedures outlined in joint committee rules of procedure
• plan appropriate regular activities for a joint committee
• explain the purpose of analyzing minutes from joint committee meetings
• create appropriate committee recommendations (informal and formal)
• list the traits of an effective joint committee and explain the purpose of conducting an evaluation of the joint committee’s effectivenes

Admission

• Recommended CLB 7 (Canadian Language Benchmark)—Equivalent to IELTS 6 or TOEFL 77-99
• Have access to a device that meets the system requirements to use Northwest Skills Institute online courses.

CAREER OCCUPATION

All workplaces that have 20 or more workers, need a joint committee. This includes any workplace where there are 20 or more workers employed at the workplace for longer than a month. WorkSafeBC may also order that a joint committee be established in any other workplace.

From the Workers’ Compensation Act:

An occupational health and safety program as outlined in section 3.3 must be initiated and maintained:

• a. by each employer that has
  • i. a workforce of 20 or more workers, and
  • ii. at least one workplace that is determined under section 3.16(2)(b) to create a moderate or high risk of injury, or
• b. by each employer that has a workforce of 50 or more workers.

INCLUDED PROGRAM MATERIALS

Joint Health & Safety Committee Fundamentals Participant Workbook (downloadable in NWSkills Online Learning Management System)