Description
Health & Safety Representatives are required to receive training to enable them to fulfill their role as a Health and Safety Representative. Every workplace that employs 20 or more workers, is required under Ontario Occupational Health & Safety Act to establish a Joint Health & Safety Committee (JHSC). At a minimum there must be at least 1 JHSC member representing workers and 1 JHSC member representing management that are certified by a CPO approved training provider like Industrial Safety Trainers.
JHSC Certification Training is broken into 2 parts:
JHSC Part One (1), which is a mandated 3 day or 19.5 hours of training
JHSC Part Two (2), which is a 2 day course or 13 hrs of training
Refresher Training is a course that is taken within 3 years after becoming JHSC certified. This is a one day course.
The role of a Health & Safety Representative, regardless who they represent (workers/ management) is to advise the employer and supervisors of area that may be in non-compliance with OHSA, standards and best practices. This is done by understanding what the safety laws say, what kinds of standards are out there, what kinds of hazards are found within a workplace. JHSC certification training provides participants with the knowledge and information they need to be an effective health and safety representative.
During the discussion based training, the following subjects are discussed and reviewed as part of this course;
- Understanding the Occupational Health and Safety Act including enforcement, offences and penalties for non-compliance
- The requirements for a business to have a Health and Safety Policy and Program
- Duties and responsibilities of all workplace parties
- How to identify a hazard in your workplace, and how to identify controls for those hazards
- The role of Safety Representatives and their authority in the workplace
- Work stoppages and work refusals
- How to conduct a Risk Assessment
- Workplace and accident investigation and inspections
- Requirements in the event of a workplace accident
- How to run an effective JHSC at your workplace
The next step is taking a Part 2 – Industry Specific Certification Training