Purpose

• To maintain the interest of both management and staff in occupational safety and health matters and to maintain a safe work environment.
• To provide an opportunity for open discussion of problems that resulted, or could result, in workplace injury or illness.
• To assist staff and management in recommending improvements to the work environment.
• To meet the OR-OSHA requirements for regular safety committee meetings. 

Regional Safety Committee Management and Attendees

Regional Manager

RM (or administrator designee) will act as a Lead Management Representative for the safety committee, and potentially act as chair of the committee. The chair of the committee is determined by majority vote of the committee members. If a staff representative is selected as chairperson, the RM (or administrator designee) may serve as the co-chair, also by majority agreement.

RM (or administrator designee) will be responsible for sourcing staff and manager participation on the committees, with the goal of 1) maintaining equal representation of staff and management and 2) having representation from all branches within the region.

From OR-OSHA: committee must have an equal number of employer-selected members and employee- elected or volunteer members. If both parties agree, the committee may have more employee-elected or volunteer members. Note: Management can select a supervisor to represent them. Employees can elect a supervisor to represent them.

Safety Committee Coordination Team

Establish a quarterly meeting of RM of each library safety committee to plan and source shared rotating topics or training schedules for each of the safety committees. 

• Required Attendees: Lisa C., Ian-Love Jones, Victor Allen, RMs
• Ad hoc attendees: safety committee chairs, others as needed

Procedures and Attendees

The regional safety committee shall:

• Meet monthly
• Select a chair for a term of one year by majority vote; selection of a co-chair is optional
• Maintain and post minutes in accordance with OR-OSHA guidelines on the Library Commons
• Perform required quarterly safety inspections and drills
• Act in advisory capacity, making safety and health recommendations to share with management for review, discussion, and response.
• Complete an annual evaluation of its activities, successes, and challenges 

Regular attendees will be:  

• Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
• Staff representation from each location (or designated back-up)
• Management representation (regional manager)
• Lib-Facilities representative (either Lisa C., Dan S. or James A.)
• Risk Management representative

Each region endeavors to have one staff and one management representative from each location in the region. In order to be in compliance with OR-OSHA, Risk Management has determined that there must be a staff representative for each location, each meeting. 

The regional committee endeavors to maintain equal representation from staff and management. In the event that equal representation is not possible, the committee will maintain more staff representation than management representation. 

Committee membership will be staggered, to the degree possible, to ensure overlap of experienced participants with newer participants. 

Regular meeting agenda items must include:  

• Review issues from last meeting
• Review RSK forms (Risk Management will provide)
• Discussion of incidents,  trends, and possible corrective actions or recommendations.
• Quarterly safety inspections

Rotating meeting agenda items may include: 

• Committee-member or guest-led trainings and discussion
• Reminders (inspections, drills)

Duties of Committee Members by Role

Role of the Chair: 

• Set the monthly agenda and facilitate monthly meeting
• Welcome and orientation of new members, including sharing required training information
• Responsible for ensuring maintenance and posting of meeting minutes (required to maintain for three years and make available to all employees)
• Assign tasks or follow-up as needed
• Read and understand OR-OSHA and RSK-7 safety committee guidelines.
• Coordinate with leads from other safety committees on agenda development

Role of the Lead Management Representative (this role may overlap with Chair): 

• Support healthy discussion, share information, and respond to questions.
• Support the development of committee recommendations or action items for improved health and safety; take relevant next steps for management.
• Responsible for ensuring required/sufficient meeting participation and staff-to-management ratios.
• Responsible for ensuring maintenance and posting of meeting minutes (required to maintain for three years and make available to all employees)
• Responsible for ensuring quarterly inspections completed and documentation posted (shared with Grant Swanson and/or Lisa C.)
• Ensure committee members complete required Workday trainings (three total)
• Read and understand OR-OSHA and RSK-7 safety committee guidelines.
• Coordinate with leads from other safety committees on agenda development

Role of Risk Management: 

• Support initial meeting launch with context setting and training
• Share tips, reminders, and direction from Risk Management
• Provide RSK forms for each regional meeting,
• Guide and support discussion, provide consultation
• Advise on OR-OSHA and RSK-7 safety committee guidelines. 

Role of Facilities:

• Provide building and systems information to all participants
• Support response to recommendations or action items, in coordination with Lead Management Representative and Facilities & Property Management
• Provide support, reminders, tips
• Post meeting minutes and inspection documentation
• Work with Finance & Facilities executive specialist and Chair to ensure accuracy and completeness of OR-OSHA required documentation (meeting minutes, inspection documents)
• Support completion of required annual evaluation of safety committees

Responsibilities of Staff Representatives

• Attend all safety committee meetings, and contribute to agenda development
• Identify a back-up staff representative who can attend as needed.
• Perform tasks as assigned (e.g. quarterly inspections to identify hazards, note-taking)
• Engage in productive, solutions-oriented discussions to improve health and safety at MCL, and make recommendations to management.
• Assist in communication and promotion of safety and health matters in the workplace.
• Provide feedback and recommendations as part of the annual review of the safety committee
• Complete required trainings in Workday

Term 

• All participants are asked to commit to a one year term.
• Chair and co-chair are asked to commit to one year in their roles.
• Existing Neighborhood Library members are eligible to continue their terms on the relevant regional safety committee.
• Location specific participation may ebb and flow as locations close and reopen as part of the bond program, and chair and co-chair will coordinate the inclusion of any temporary or pop-up library locations into an established regional safety committee.