Hi Renata – I work evening/night shift and am an HSR and a member of my company’s health and safety committee (HSC). The company runs its HSC meeting during the day. The agenda of the next scheduled HSC meeting is predominantly aimed at consultation for HSRs regarding major changes to process. They have provided a link for me to join remotely, When I questioned management regarding pay for attending outside of my rostered work hours, they said attendance would be voluntary. Is this right? Am I not entitled to attend on paid time?
Your employer’s duty relating to health and safety committees (s.72 OHS Act) require them to ensure that at least half the membership of an HSC must be employees (and, so far as practicable, HSRs or DHSRs) of the employer. They must also ensure that the HSC meets at least once every three months, or more frequently if determined by the members of the HSC.
WorkSafe advises in its publication Guide to Part 7 - Employee representation handbook for workplaces (p67) that “the employer should ensure that work arrangements are such that all employee members of the HSC are able to attend, during paid time”. How your employer achieves that is a matter to be determined by the HSC itself – rostering accommodations, timing of meetings, overtime payments are examples of options to achieve maximum attendance that the committee could consider including in the committee’s terms of reference.
Also, under s.69(1)(d)(i), employers have an obligation to release HSRs on paid time to exercise their powers under the Act. Those powers include ‘monitoring control measures taken by their employer’ and having ‘access to information relating to actual or potential hazards’ - see section 58 (2)(b), section 59 and section 69 (1)(a)(i). Attendance at HSC meetings enables HSRs to exercise these powers.
This may be a good time to talk about reviewing the terms of reference for your health and safety committee – under s.35(1)(d)(ii) and 35(1) your employer has a duty to consult with HSRs and employees when making decisions about procedures for consulting and when ‘determining the membership of any health and safety committee’.
Section 72(5) specifically states that the Health and Safety Committee is to regulate its own procedures. The procedures should be agreed between the parties after consultation on the following items:
- size of committee – how many in total, how many HSRs/DHSRs. The committee should not be too large (e.g. having 12 HSRs plus however many management reps would probably be too large)
- how the employee reps will be selected – preferably NOT by management. It would be appropriate for the HSRs to decide which of them will be on the committee. The other members could be proxies or stand-ins if any of the committee member HSRs are unable to attend (e.g., if they are ill or on leave).
- how the committee functions, how often and when it meets, its procedures, roles (including who chairs it) and so on.
- how HSR member work rosters will be managed to enable HSRs to attend the meeting – online and outside of your rostered hours is not ideal. Arrangements could be made, in consultation with you, for your roster to be varied on meeting days to enable you to attend in person. If attendance is required outside of your rostered hours, overtime or penalty payments, and mandated rest periods, may become relevant.
Holding HSC meetings at a time when it is difficult for HSRs to attend also raises the possibility of the HSC meeting failing to achieve the requirement of s.72 of the OHS Act - that the committee consist of at least 50% employee members.
You can find more information about HSCs on our Health and Safety Committees - OHS Reps page, and guidance on employee representation in our Getting OHS Representation Right - A Guide for Workers booklet. WorkSafe also has a Health and Safety Solution resource that you may find useful on Running effective health and safety committee (HSC) meetings that addresses some common problems.
I recommend sending the link for Guide to Part 7 - Employee representation handbook for workplaces to your HSE manager for discussion at the next HSC meeting, and request that the terms of reference for the HSC be tabled for review. If your employer or manager cannot produce the HSC terms of reference, then submit a formal request for them to be negotiated and established now, by the HSC members. I urge you to seek guidance and support from UWU in this process, as the terms of reference for the HSC are some of the most important matters to establish and document in the pursuit of effective employee representation.
It is also worth noting that it is extremely important for your employer to arrange/authorise time outside the formal HSC meeting times for the employee reps on the committee to meet to discuss the agenda, report back on consultations with their DWGs, and so on. These caucus meetings should be held in work time and, if necessary, work schedules varied to enable attendance.
If you have any questions about OHS we encourage to fill out an Ask Renata query and one of our officials will get back to you shortly. Alternatively give Ask Renatabot a try!