Safety committees can serve as an invaluable tool for officials looking to build a culture of safety in their municipalities.
These committees aim to foster safety-focused engagement and collaboration between the management who must implement standards and the workers who must carry them out. They can analyze accidents to find trends, determine corrective actions, promote safety awareness and inspect workplaces for hazards.
Accident reviews
Safety committees can review all injuries, vehicle losses, or near-miss incidents to help reduce the likelihood of repeat accidents. They can also review injury investigations or auto wreck claims, and determine the cause of an event and if it was at-fault or preventable. They should not make disciplinary recommendations, and instead only focus on corrective action.
Accident reviews can consider what policies were not followed. For example, if the driver in an auto accident was holding and talking on a cell phone during the accident, the review would note that the city’s hands-free cell phone usage policy was not followed. After such a root-cause analysis, recommendations could include implementing an administrative control, such as changing the way a task is done, implementing a new policy or procedure, or retraining.
Committee makeup
A safety committee needs to include front-line workers with the experience and knowledge to understand hazardous job duties, and a random sample of other employees.
Safety communication and inspections
The committee can also distribute safety information to employees, possibly through monthly safety topics, to help raise awareness and promote safe behaviors. Committee members can actively participate in safety inspections and ensure compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations and municipal policies.
For more information, contact the Municipal Association’s Risk Management Services Loss Control staff at losscontrol@masc.sc.