Posted By Mike Parks
My employers have a safety committee (I am not a memeber of it). They also have a joint committe with employees to dicuss non-H&S subjects.

I have noticed that the joint committee minutes are regularly posted on the notice boards in the factory, yet the H&S committee's minutes are not.

My question is relatively simple. Is the company required to post these minutes under the informationrquirements of the regs, or as they do just issue a copy to each of the committee members.

Mike

Posted By bereznikov
Good morning Mike,

The regulations covering this are The Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996, specifically regulations 3, 4 and 5.

In a nutshell, the employer has a duty to consult with all of his/her employees on matters relating to H&S, either directly or through an elected H&S Representative.

If currently there is no procedure for communicating the company H&S issues to all employees then the Employer is not fulfilling his legal duty.

Also, Regulation 5.—(1) states that:
"Where an employer consults employees directly he shall... make available to those employees such information, within the employer’s knowledge, as is necessary to enable them to participate fully and effectively in the consultation."

...This can be through the displaying of H&S minutes, but also toolbox talks, departmental meetings, training etc etc.

SO, to wrap it up, although displaying H&S meeting minutes is not an absolute legal requirement, it is very effective way to comply with the consultation requirements, and i would recommend all employers (within reason)to do so...together of course with a selection of other consultation arrangements (training, meetings, poster campaigns, presentations etc)


Hope this helps Mike,

bereznikov