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90_SB1025
New Act
Creates the Workplace Safety Committee Act. Provides
that each public and private employer of at least 50
employees shall establish a safety committee at each of the
employer's primary places of employment. Provides for:
composition, meetings, records, and training of committees;
and duties of committees relating to hazard assessment and
control, safety and health planning, developing procedures
for accident investigations, and other specified matters.
LRB9002685WHmg
LRB9002685WHmg
1 AN ACT concerning workplace safety.
2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3 represented in the General Assembly:
4 Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
5 Workplace Safety Committee Act.
6 Section 5. Legislative findings. The General Assembly
7 finds that thousands of Illinois workers are disabled each
8 year from work-related injuries. The General Assembly finds
9 that many workplace injury and illness losses due to hazards
10 are needless, costly, and preventable. The General Assembly
11 concludes that the establishment of joint management and
12 worker safety committees will help prevent such losses and
13 may reduce workers' compensation costs in this State.
14 Section 10. Purpose. It is the purpose of this Act to
15 bring workers and management together in a non-adversarial,
16 cooperative effort to promote safety and health in the
17 workplace. The Workplace Safety Committees established by
18 this Act shall consist of management and employee
19 representatives who have an interest in the general promotion
20 of safety and health in the workplace.
21 Section 15. Establishment of Safety Committees.
22 (a) Every public and private employer of 50 or more
23 employees shall establish and administer a safety committee.
24 (b) In making determination of employment levels under
25 subsection (a), the employer shall count all permanent,
26 contract, temporary, and seasonal workers under the
27 employer's direction and control and shall base the number on
28 peak employment.
29 (c) Temporary services employers and labor contractors
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1 shall establish safety committees based upon the total number
2 of workers over which the employer or contractor exercises
3 direction and control.
4 (d) Employers who hire only seasonal workers shall hold
5 crew safety meetings prior to the commencement of work at
6 each job site. The meetings shall promote discussions of
7 safety and health issues. All workers shall be informed of
8 their right to report workplace hazards and shall be
9 encouraged to make those reports during the meetings.
10 Section 20. Location of safety committees.
11 (a) Safety committees shall be established at each of an
12 employer's primary places of employment. As used in this Act,
13 "primary place of employment" means a major economic unit at
14 a single geographic location, comprised of a building or
15 group of buildings, and all surrounding facilities, having
16 the following characteristics: it has both management and
17 workers present; it has control over a portion of a budget;
18 and it has the ability to take action on the majority of the
19 recommendations made by a safety committee.
20 (b) An employer's auxiliary, mobile, or satellite
21 locations, such as those found in construction operations,
22 trucking, branch or field offices, sales operations, or
23 highly mobile activities, may be combined into a single,
24 centralized committee. This centralized committee shall
25 represent the safety and health concerns of all the
26 locations.
27 Section 25. Approval of certain safety committees. Upon
28 application, the Department of Labor may approve safety
29 committees that are innovative or differ in form or function
30 if those committees meet the intent of this Act.
31 Section 30. Safety committee formation and membership.
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1 (a) The safety committees required under this Act shall:
2 (1) Be composed of an equal number of employer and
3 employee representatives. Employee representatives shall
4 be selected by their exclusive representative for
5 collective bargaining purposes or, if there is no
6 exclusive representative, employee representatives shall
7 be volunteers or shall be elected by their peers. When
8 agreed upon by workers and management, the number of
9 employees on the committee may be greater than the number
10 of employer representatives. Seasonal workers shall not
11 be counted for the purpose of determining the number of
12 members who will serve on the committee.
13 (2) Consist of:
14 (A) No fewer than 2 members for each employer
15 with 20 or fewer employees, or
16 (B) No fewer than 4 members for each employer
17 with more than 20 employees.
18 (3) Have a chairperson elected by the committee
19 members.
20 (b) Employee representatives attending safety committee
21 meetings required by this Act or participating in safety
22 committee instruction or training required by this Act shall
23 be compensated by the employer at the regular hourly wage.
24 (c) Employee representatives shall serve a continuous
25 term of at least one year. Length of membership shall be
26 alternated or staggered so that at least one experienced
27 member is always serving on the committee.
28 (d) Reasonable efforts shall be made to ensure that
29 committee members are representative of the major work
30 activities of the firm.
31 Section 35. Safety committee meetings.
32 (a) The committee shall develop a written agenda for
33 conducting safety committee meetings. The agenda shall
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1 prescribe the order in which committee business will be
2 addressed during the meeting.
3 (b) The safety committee shall hold regular meetings at
4 least once a month.
5 (c) Quarterly safety committee meetings may be
6 substituted for monthly meetings when the committee's sole
7 area of responsibility involves low hazard work environments
8 such as offices.
9 (d) Small farms of 5 or fewer full time employees may
10 substitute quarterly meetings for monthly meetings during the
11 farms' off season. "Off season" means that period of time
12 when only routine farm upkeep is being done.
13 (e) Minutes shall be made of each meeting. The employer
14 shall review the minutes and maintain them for 3 years for
15 inspection by the Department of Labor. Copies of minutes
16 shall be posted or made available for all employees and shall
17 be sent to each committee member. All reports, evaluations,
18 and recommendations of the safety committee shall be made a
19 part of the minutes of the safety committee meeting. A
20 reasonable time limit shall be established for the employer
21 to respond in writing to all safety committee
22 recommendations.
23 Section 40. Employee involvement. The committee shall
24 establish a system to allow the members to obtain
25 safety-related suggestions, reports of hazards, or other
26 information directly from all persons involved in the
27 operations of the workplace. The information obtained shall
28 be reviewed at the next safety committee meeting and shall be
29 recorded in the minutes for review and necessary action by
30 the employer.
31 Section 45. Hazard assessment and control.
32 (a) The safety committee shall assist the employer in
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1 evaluating the employer's accident and illness prevention
2 program and shall make written recommendations to improve the
3 program when applicable. The safety committee shall also:
4 (1) Establish procedures for workplace inspections
5 by the safety committee inspection team to locate and
6 identify safety and health hazards;
7 (2) Conduct workplace inspections at least
8 quarterly; and
9 (3) Recommend to the employer how to eliminate
10 hazards and unsafe work practices in the workplace.
11 (b) The inspection team shall include employer and
12 employee representatives, shall document in writing the
13 location and identity of the hazards, and shall make
14 recommendations to the employer regarding correction of the
15 hazards.
16 (c) Quarterly inspections of satellite locations shall
17 be conducted by the committee team or by a person designated
18 at the location.
19 (d) The person designated to carry out inspection
20 activities at the locations identified in subsections (b) and
21 (c) shall be selected by the employer and shall receive
22 training in hazard identification in the workplace.
23 Section 50. Safety and health planning. The safety
24 committee shall establish procedures for the review of all
25 safety and health inspection reports made by the committee.
26 Based on the results of the review, the committee shall make
27 recommendations for improvement of the employer's accident
28 and illness prevention program.
29 Section 55. Accountability. The safety committee shall
30 evaluate the employer's accountability system and make
31 recommendations to implement supervisor and employee
32 accountability for safety and health.
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1 Section 60. Accident investigation. The safety committee
2 shall establish procedures for investigating all
3 safety-related incidents including injury accidents,
4 illnesses, and deaths. This Section shall not be construed to
5 require the committee to conduct the investigations.
6 Section 65. Safety and health training and instruction.
7 (a) The following items shall be discussed with all
8 safety committee members:
9 (1) Safety committee purposes and operation;
10 (2) Rules adopted by the Department of Labor under
11 this Act; and
12 (3) Methods of conducting safety committee
13 meetings.
14 (b) Committee members shall have ready access to
15 Occupational Safety and Health Codes that apply to the
16 particular establishment and verbal instructions regarding
17 their use.
18 (c) All safety committee members shall receive training
19 based upon the type of business activity. At a minimum,
20 members shall receive training regarding:
21 (1) Hazard identification in the workplace; and
22 (2) Principles regarding effective accident and
23 incident investigations.