Occupational health and safety committee (OHSC)
Wellbeing concerns both employers and employees. Once you have 50 employees on your payroll, you are required to set up an occupational health and safety committee (OHSC). This is more than just another obligation: the OHSC is the consultative body where you can work with your employees on matters such as safety, health and mental resilience – and therefore on a healthy company.
What does the OHSC do?
The OHSC is the consultative body par excellence for all matters relating to wellbeing at work. That includes safety rules, ergonomics, stress, proposals regarding your risk prevention policy and so on.
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The OHSC plays an important advisory, information and supervisory role. For example:
providing advice on the purchase and inspection of personal protective equipment (PPE)
giving input on the onboarding of new colleagues
monitoring regional environmental regulations
approving the appointment of the internal risk prevention advisor and person of trust (if you have more than 50 employees)
making proposals on the Global Risk Prevention Plan and Annual Action Plan
maintaining contact with the FPS Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue
… and much more
If there is no works council (which is a requirement for companies with 100 or more employees), the OHSC will also examine your company’s economic and financial data, among other things. It will then seek explanations and clarification, which it can then pass on to the employees.
Our practical OHSC training gives you all the information you need, concrete examples and helpful tips to ensure that this dialogue is always helpful – for both your employees and your organisation.
Who is on the OHSC?
Wellbeing in the workplace is a responsibility we all share. That’s why the committee consists of representatives of both employer and employees.
The employee representatives (the number of whom depends on the size of your organisation) are chosen every four years in social elections. All employees aged 18 and over with at least six months of seniority are eligible to stand for election.
As the employer, you appoint the employer’s delegation yourself. This usually consists of members of the management. Note that this group is the same size as the employee delegation.
Other roles are also represented (such as the occupational physician and internal or external risk prevention advisors). You can read about when they participate and what their responsibilities are in this blog post.
Good to know
If there aren’t enough candidates in the social elections (you need at least two elected representatives), there will be no OHSC. However, this doesn’t mean that your wellbeing obligations no longer apply. Representing the employees will be taken care of through less formal means such as consultation with the trade union delegation or (if there isn’t one) direct consultation with the employees.
Mensura can help
Starting or restarting an OHSC isn’t the work of a moment. There’s a lot to consider: social elections, legislation, procedures, consultation arrangements, preparing the issues for discussion... At Mensura, we’ll be happy to help you get started.