Frequency of meetings
Your health and safety committee should meet regularly. The frequency will depend on the:
- volume of business;
- size and spread of the workforce;
- type of work done in the workplace and their associated risks; and
- issues to be discussed and other relevant factors.
The committee's constitution should make it clear how often you will have meetings and how much notice members will be given. As a guide you should consider the following:
- Union appointed safety representatives can carry out inspections every three months. It is good practice to plan these together in advance. You may want to arrange committee meetings around the same time as these inspections, so you take up matters promptly. If these are planned in advance for six months to a year, then all members will have sufficient notice.
- If there has been a major incident or specific developments affecting health and safety like the introduction of new machinery, or organisational changes, the committee may want to hold special meetings.
Larger organisations with multiple committees will also want to co-ordinate the work of committees, so planning corporate or higher level as well as local level meetings in advance would be good practice.
Good practice
- Plan meetings in advance - where possible, plan a series of committee meetings in advance...
- Communicate - all committee members should have a personal copy of the planned meeting dates...
- Keep the date - do not postpone or cancel committee meetings unless there are exceptional circumstances...