Overview

Joint health and safety committees (JHSCs) are an important part of a well-functioning internal responsibility system for workplace health and safety. They are composed of worker and employer representatives who work together to identify potential health and safety issues.

The Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) normally requires each workplace to have a JHSC if at least one of the following applies:

  • 20 or more workers are regularly employed there
  • a regulation concerning designated substances applies

However, some employers (or constructors, in the case of construction sites) may receive permission to establish a multi-workplace JHSC (MJHSC), which represents multiple workplaces that would normally require separate JHSCs.

For example, an MJHSC might represent:

  • a department in a large municipal government that operates multiple separate work locations
  • unionized non-teaching staff working in multiple schools within the same school board

Permission to establish an MJHSC must be granted by minister’s order, which can be issued by a regional director of the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. The minister’s order is a legally-binding document, as it replaces the usual OHSA requirements respecting the establishment and operation of JHSCs.

How to request permission for an MJHSC

Employers or constructors who wish to establish an MJHSC must apply to the regional director of the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. If approved, the ministry will issue a minister’s order permitting the MJHSC.

Not all requests are approved. The decision to grant an order permitting a MJHSC is at the discretion of the minister or minister’s delegate (in this case, the regional director). The request must at minimum meet the criteria specified in the Self-Evaluation Checklist.

Step 1: contact your regional program coordinator

Contact your regional program coordinator before starting your application — this will save you time and expedite the review process.

Find your coordinator by contacting the Occupational Health and Safety Centre at 1-877-202-0008.

Step 2: prepare supporting documents

Your request must include:

  • a completed MJHSC Self-Evaluation Checklist signed by:
    • a management representative
    • a worker representative
  • a proposed terms of reference for the MJHSC
  • a written agreement indicating workplace parties’ support for an MJHSC and the terms of reference, and signed by:
    • an authorized representative of the employer or constructor
    • each trade union representative of the workers, if applicable
    • a representative of workers who are not represented by a union, if applicable

We will use the Self-Evaluation Checklist as a guide when we review the request and terms of reference. To expedite the review, structure the information in your terms of reference in the order presented in the checklist.

Step 3: submit the request to the regional director

Your regional program coordinator will tell you where to mail or email the documents.

After you apply

If your request is approved, you will receive a formal letter from the regional director.

The minister’s order granting permission for an MJHSC will specify an expiry date. If you wish to renew your MJHSC, you must reapply before the expiry date. It is recommended that you re-apply at least 6 months before the expiry date to avoid a lapse in continuity.

Review process

The length of the review process may depend on whether the ministry must contact you for additional information or clarification. Preparing all the necessary documents thoroughly and accurately can help to avoid delays.

The evaluation may include:

  • reviewing all documents submitted
  • consulting workplace parties (including workers)
  • consulting parties outside the workplace (for example a health and safety inspector, manager or regional program coordinator familiar with the workplace) as appropriate

Especially in cases where there are non-unionized workers, the regional director or their representative may make inquiries to ensure workers:

  • understand the implications of a multi-workplace JHSC
  • support the proposed terms of reference for the committee
  • understand the impact of signing the agreement

After the review

After the review, the ministry may ask the employer or constructor to provide additional information or otherwise amend the request.

All workplace parties will have an opportunity to make their views on the request known, and to respond to any concerns the ministry raises regarding the request.

Recordkeeping

The employer or constructor should keep copies of the following documents at every workplace covered, rather than at one central site:

  • approval letter
  • terms of reference for the MJHSC

An inspector conducting a workplace inspection can ask to see these documents to ensure the workplace is adhering to points agreed to by the parties and approved by the ministry.

Considerations for MJHSCs

When reviewing a request for permission to establish an MJHSC, some of the factors the regional director must consider include:

  • the nature of the work being done
  • the request of a constructor, an employer, a group of the workers or the trade union or trade unions representing the workers in a workplace
  • the frequency of illness or injury in the workplace or in the industry in question
  • the existence and effectiveness of health and safety programs and procedures in the workplace
  • such other matters as the minister considers advisable, such as the strength of the internal responsibility system, as represented by the items outlined in the Self-Evaluation Checklist

The regional director will also consider the following factors.

Single employer for all workplaces

MJHSCs can only cover workplaces operated by a single employer or constructor.

They cannot be approved if they would cover workplaces operated by different employers, even if the workplaces are all:

  • operated by companies that are subsidiaries of and owned by a single corporation
  • operated by franchisees of the same franchise
  • located in the same building (though the JHSCs of each employer in the building could collaborate to address shared hazards, for example by attending each other’s meetings as guests or forming a building committee)
  • ministries of the same government, as each ministry is considered a separate employer

Distance between workplaces

The distance between workplaces can be a challenge to the effective functioning of a multi-workplace JHSC. The OHSA does not limit the establishment of a multi-workplace JHSC based on the distance between workplaces served by the committee.

However, distance is a factor that regional directors typically look at when determining whether to approve a request. An important consideration for a regional director is whether committee members can carry out their duties effectively and respond to workplace events in a timely manner.

In general, factors a regional director would consider include but are not limited to:

  • the locations of the workplaces to be served by the committee
  • how far apart the workplaces are
  • how long it would take committee members to travel to workplaces to perform their duties, such as participating in the investigation of an accident or work refusal
  • the arrangements for travel and related costs provided by the employer

JHSC meetings can be conducted virtually. The regional director may ask workplace parties to demonstrate the effectiveness of using video conferencing or other technology to conduct meetings if it is described in their terms of reference.

MJHSC composition and set-up

The responsibilities and duties of an MJHSC member are the same as a JHSC members, with the understanding that any reference to “workplace” refers to each of the individual workplaces covered by the multi-workplace JHSC terms of reference. Learn more about what counts as a workplace under the OHSA.

However, to ensure the MJHSC can effectively exercise its powers and functions, a minister’s order may require it to have:

Designated worker

The minister’s order may also specify that worker members of the MJHSC may designate a worker who is not a member of the committee, at any of the workplaces served by the committee, to do the following:

  • inspect the physical condition of the workplace
  • participate in the investigation of a work refusal by exercising the rights and responsibilities that a committee member would normally have in those circumstances

The employer must provide training to the designated worker to enable them to adequately perform these tasks.

Responsibilities of an MJHSC

An MJHSC’s responsibilities are the same as that of a single-workplace JHSC. Read our guide for health and safety committees and representatives to learn more.

One JHSC responsibility is to conduct regular workplace inspections, whose frequency is set out by the OHSA. In the case of MJHSCs, each workplace location is considered “the workplace” for the purposes of inspection frequency. The existence of a multi-workplace JHSC does not convert multiple workplaces into a single workplace.

This means that the MJHSC must inspect each individual workplace location at least once a month, and if that is not practical, they must inspect the entire workplace location at least once a year with at least part of each location inspected each month.

Amending an MJHSC terms of reference

The workplace parties that signed the original request can jointly request ministry approval to amend their terms of reference.  

Examples of when the ministry would require workplace parties to request an amended order include:

  • expanding the arrangement to include additional workplaces
  • changing of the composition, structure and function of the MJHSC
  • change of union representation or participation by another union
  • including workers on an ongoing construction project

In very limited circumstances, it may be possible to make minor changes to terms of reference without obtaining a new minister’s order. The workplace parties must always contact the regional director in writing in advance to see if a formal approval of a change to the terms and conditions is needed.

How to request amendments to the terms of reference

To request amendments, the workplace parties (both employer and worker representatives) should jointly submit the following to their regional director:

  • a copy of the amended terms of reference with new or changed sections clearly identified
  • a request for permission for the MJHSC to function in accordance with the amended terms

When the ministry is considering amended terms of reference, they may review all the terms, not just the areas of amendment, to ensure the approval of the MJHSC remains appropriate. In most cases, the approval process and the issuing of a new order should take less time than the original request.

If an amendment to an existing order is requested, the workplace parties are expected to re-negotiate the specifics and capture them in the revised terms of reference. If neutral third-party assistance is needed for this purpose, the workplace parties can seek such services from the private sector.

Rescinding a minister’s order

Any workplace party may write to the regional director to request that an existing order for a multi-workplace JHSC be rescinded before the end of its 5-year term. The regional director may contact workplace parties to discuss the request.

An inspector or other ministry representative who has concerns about the functioning of a multi-workplace JHSC may also recommend that the regional director review the minister’s order.

If the order is rescinded, the normal OHSA requirements for JHSCs or health and safety representatives would apply — for example, a JHSC would be required at every workplace of the employer at which 20 or more workers are regularly employed.

Definition of a workplace

The OHSA defines a workplace as “any land, premises, location or thing at, upon, in or near which a worker works.”

Geographically separate work sites under the ownership or control of one employer will generally be considered separate workplaces. This means that each would be subject to the JHSC requirements of the OHSA. In some cases, buildings that are separate, but in very near proximity, could be considered as one workplace for the purposes of the OHSA (for example more than one building with the same address). These would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Some factors the workplace parties may consider when determining workplaces that would be included in a request for a minister’s order include, but are not limited to:

  • the physical site(s) or place(s) where the workers work
  • the nature and extent of the area that can be considered near where a worker works
  • whether workers move between different buildings to perform their job
  • how the sites are managed or supervised
  • the workplace parties' views as to what the workplace comprises
  • any practices of the employer/constructor to comply with the requirements to have a JHSC which go beyond the statutory minimum