Joint Occupational Heath and Safety Committee
VIU has a Joint Occupational Heath and Safety Committee (JOHSC) that is comprised of 13 members with representation from management and all employee groups. The JOHSC provides Faculty, staff and administration a way to work together to identify and find solutions to workplace health and safety issues. This committee is required under the WorkSafeBC Act and Regulations and it’s duties and responsibility are defined.
Local Health and Safety Committees
VIU is large and diverse in terms of activities, the people present and the level of risk and locations. These factors impact the effectiveness of a single university/institutional occupational health and safety committee, therefore, at VIU the local health and safety committee structure has been established based on a common activity or level of risk of single or multiple work areas. A local committee can be specific to a faculty, site, building, unit, activity or level of risk.
Local Health and Safety committees (LHSC) represent faculties, departments, administrative areas and service areas or a combination thereof. The local health and safety committee’s purpose is to engage workers and employer/university representatives by working cooperatively to identify and resolve health and safety concerns that are specific to their respective work areas. The LHSC terms of reference (click link below) is a starting point for each committee. Individual committees may have different meeting frequencies than outlined. If you have a question or safety concern, please contact your building or area LHSC.