Characteristics of Effective Health and Safety Committees

Health and safety committees (HSC) are the most common participatory structure in the workplace, and are required in some jurisdictions, including Connecticut. However, there has been virtually no evidence-based research for what practices (structure, activities) are associated with higher or lower injury rates. HSC meeting minutes for 500 manufacturing companies were obtained and coded for characteristics. Characteristics were compared with high and low injury rates by company, using both OSHA high-hazard status and workers' compensation reports. Quantitative data was supplemented with qualitative data from 47 interviews from 25 committees, oriented to understanding self-assessed effectiveness and best practices. Data analysis is ongoing at the time of submittal of this abstract, but variables of interest include the proportion of workers to managers on HSC, occupations represented on the HSC (i.e. upper management, safety professionals), employee involvement, and duration/frequency of meetings.