Safety Committee by B C Das

1. B C Das
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SAFETY COMMITTEE
As early as 1931, H.W.Heinrich, a pioneer in the field of Industrial safety recommended for
constitution of Safety Committee in the industrial units to encourage employees to work safely.
Safety committee is a body consisting of representative of management and workers to work
exclusively for creating and maintaining safe and healthy work environment in a company. It is
considered as an effective means of participation and involvement of key management personnel
and workers in the formulation of, execution and review of safety activities in an organization.
The main objective of a safety committee
1) To provide a common platform for free discussion on the matter of safety
2) To promote a safety consciousness amongst the employees by creating and maintaining
employee’s interest in safety.
3) To act as means of communication between the workers and the management.
Structure of Safety Committee
Structure of Safety Committee varies according to the size and structure of the company and its
divisional responsibilities. According to the different structures, the safety committee may be of
the following types:-
1) Central safety committee
2) Corporate level safety committee
3) Departmental safety committee
4) Special purpose safety committee
1) Central safety committee is the top safety policy making group at the plant level in a
multiple organization. The committee consists of chief executive / executive director as
the Chairman. Departmental heads from various disciplines and union representatives are
the members of the committee. Safety head / safety officer generally works as the
secretary of the committee.
The purpose of the Central safety committee are :-
a) Formulating and reviewing of safety policy
b) Approval of new safety standard
c) Discussion on matters arising out of safety Audit
d) Approval of safety training schemes and promotional activities
e) Provision of moral and economic support for implementation of safety measures.
2) Corporate level safety committee is framed when a single committee cannot meet the
requirement of a large organization. Such committee is found useful in a company with
large number of units or in a company with units located at different places.

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This committee is framed at the corporate level in the headquarters and number of unit
level committees are framed in the individual units at different location.
Corporate level committee forms an apex body who is primarily concerned with making
policy and providing guidelines and the unit level committees look after the
implementation part of the safety recommendations.
3) Departmental safety committee is framed in different departments in a large
organization in addition to the central safety committee at the plant level. The line
supervisors, skilled workmen and departmental union representatives are generally the
members of such committee while the head of the department acts as the chairman. And
the departmental safety officer as secretary.
The committee is concerned with safety problems within the department itself and acts as
means of translating company safety policies into action. It provide guidelines and co-
ordinate departmental activities.
4) Special purpose safety committee is framed to solve some specific safety problems
which may be any one of the following types:-
a) Committee for Personal Protective Equipment – organization using large quantities of
PPEs may have a separate committee looking after selection, Procurement,
distribution, proper use and maintenance of PPEs.
b) Organization having large premises or big residential areas may look after traffic and
road safety within the Plant and the Township for which a special committee may
function.
FUNCTION OF SAFETY COMMITTEE
Safety committee, depending upon its structure, may undertake numerous functions like:-
a) Formation of safety policy and its periodic review.
b) Analysis of past safety performance and setting for future performance.
c) Discussion on major hazardous potentials and specific safety problems to select
remedies.
d) Co-ordination for various promotional activities towards accident prevention
program.
EFFECTIVENESS OF A SAFETY COMMITTEE
For effective functioning of safety committee, it should, no matter how composed, observe
certain rules as given below:-
a) Scope of activities and the authorities of the committee should be clearly expressed.
b) Meeting of the committee should be regularly convened with prefixed agenda to
discuss past performance, future course of action including follow up.
c) The Chairman, secretary and the members of the committee should be fully aware of
their functions.

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d) The chairman should call the meeting and guide the secretary to prepare the agenda.
The secretary should prepare the minutes of the meeting and distribute to all the
members and the top executive.
e) Name of the presentees as well the absentees with reasons should be recorded in the
minutes.
f) Meeting should be taken up seriously by everybody and should be completed within
the schedule time.
g) Tendency of any member to bring non-safery problem or leaving the meeting early or
tasking part fretfully (as if he considers ha has some more important things to do)
should be prevented.
h) Differences of opinion amongst the members leading to stalemate should be resolved
by discussion.
FAILURE OF SAFETY COMMITTEE
Safety committee sometime fails to achieve its objectives. Failure of safety committee may be
attributed to the following reasons:-
a) Repetitive postponement of the meeting or meeting held after a long gap or hold
irregularly.
b) Absence of members without genuine reasons.
c) Late attendance of a several members or members leaving early.
d) Notice of meeting conveyed verbally or pasted on notice board.
e) Not arriving to clear out decision to problems.
f) Repetitive failure to achieve safety targets or failure to implement safety
recommendations.
g) Meeting without clear agenda.
h) Non-reviewing of the old minutes of the meeting.
i) Minutes of the meeting not made available to the members.