Health and Safety Committees: What They Are — and What They Are Not
Health and Safety Committees (HSCs) play an important role in many NSW workplaces. When set up and used properly, they: ✅ strengthen consultation, ✅ improve risk visibility, and ✅ support better health and safety outcomes. When they are not set up and used properly, they may become something else entirely, such as: ⚠️ a forum for off‑topic debate, ⚠️ a substitute for management decision‑making, or worse, ⚠️ a place where managers attempt—intentionally or not—to offload resp
Should an HSC be involved in issue resolution or health and safety disputes?
If a business has not arranged its own issue resolution process it must follow the default procedure outlined in the WHS Regulation ....
Training for Health & Safety Committee members
Members of an organisation’s Health and Safety Committee can bring important skills and experience in their workplace to the committee ....
Employer representatives of a WHS Committee
Under the NSW WHS Act 2011, a business owner or employer can establish an HSC for the whole workplace or for parts of the workplace. ...
"Any other functions" of a Health and Safety Committee must be consistent with requirements of the WHS Act
For some businesses, government bodies, and other organisations, a health and safety committee (HSC) may be a valuable resource to ...
Running effective HSCs - Solutions to common problems
The effectiveness of health and safety committees depends on the commitment, knowledge, and individual areas of expertise of their members. HSC members need to know and understand the overall purpose of the HSC, and their role as members to ensure the duties and purpose of their health and safety committee are achieved. The functions of a health and safety committee are stated in Section 77 of the WHS Act. Here are several common issues that affect the effectiveness of health
Upskilling your WHS committee members
The WHS Act does not say "who" exactly should be on a health and safety committee, other than Health and Safety Representatives (if they ...
How to Chair an Effective Health & Safety Committee Meeting
A WHS committee chairperson’s ability to be effective is dependent on their clear understanding, respect of, and adherence to the duties ...