A safety committee is where workers and managers look at the same hazards together. Federal OSHA has no general rule that requires one, but several states do, and Pennsylvania rewards a certified committee with a premium reduction. Here is how to run the meeting so it is useful, and so its records hold up.
Who must have a committee
OSHA's own 2016 review of state programs says there is no general OSHA requirement for a written safety program, and lists the states that require an employer/employee safety committee. Two examples, from the state rules:
- Oregon (OAR 437-001-0765): a committee or safety meetings; with more than 10 employees at a location, generally a committee. Equal numbers of employer-selected and employee-elected or volunteer members, at least 2 members up to 20 employees and 4 above, trained in hazard identification and accident investigation. Monthly meetings (quarterly for mostly office work), minutes kept three years.
- Washington (WAC 296-800-13020): a committee with 11 or more employees on the same shift at the same location. Employee-elected members equal or outnumber employer-selected ones, the committee sets its own schedule, and minutes are kept one year. Smaller employers may hold monthly safety meetings instead.
A one-hour agenda
- Open items from the last minutes: who did what, by when.
- Inspection findings since the last meeting.
- Injuries, illnesses and near misses: what happened, the root cause, the fix. OSHA's incident investigation guidance asks for root causes, not fault or blame.
- Hazards reported by workers, and the answer each one got.
- A five-minute quiz on the month's topic, played from phones: it shows what the crews actually understood, not only who signed the sheet.
- Recommendations to management, each with an owner and a date to respond.
Minutes and training records that hold up
Write down who attended, the date, the topics, the recommendations and who follows up; make the minutes available to all employees. Keep the training records with them: the members' own training (hazard identification, accident investigation) and the crew sessions the committee runs. Federal standards also ask for training with their own records, such as instructing each construction employee in recognizing and avoiding unsafe conditions (29 CFR 1926.21(b)(2)) or reviewing the emergency action plan with each employee (29 CFR 1910.38(f)).
Pennsylvania: a certified committee and a 5% premium reduction
Under 34 Pa. Code Chapter 129, a committee certified by the Department of Labor & Industry brings an initial 5% reduction of the workers' compensation premium, renewable each year for up to four more years. The committee must have operated for six full months before applying, meet at least monthly with a written agenda, attendance list and minutes available to employees, and its members are trained every year in hazard detection and accident prevention. Records are kept five years. The other state credits are on our workers' comp discounts page. Programs, rounds and rules change: check the current terms with the state agency before you plan on any money. Quizhat is an independent tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by OSHA.