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JHSC Part One overview

JHSC Part One: JHSC powers and recommendations

What the committee may do: identify hazards, obtain information, recommend improvements, the employer's 21-day written response, consensus and co-chair recommendations, and inspector visits.

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JHSC powers and recommendations · Question 1Score 0/0

What is the JHSC's basic role in the workplace?

Study reference: Ontario JHSC Part One sources (Oct 2026), Ch. 6 JHSC powers and recommendations — OHSA ss. 9(18)–(22), 12, 25(2)(e), 54(3), 57(10); JHSC guide, Roles and responsibilities

All 14 questions in this test

Every question and its answer choices. The correct answers and explanations appear when you take the test above.

  1. What is the JHSC's basic role in the workplace?

    1. A disciplinary body that fines individual workers who break safety rules
    2. A legal body that prosecutes the employer for any offence
    3. A management body that hires and fires the site supervisors
    4. An advisory body that identifies hazards and recommends improvements

  2. Who should be available to receive workers' health and safety concerns?

    1. All committee members
    2. Only the ministry inspector
    3. Only the two co-chairs
    4. Only the employer's lawyer

  3. What is an offence regarding the JHSC under the OHSA?

    1. Thanking a member in public for a safety suggestion
    2. Asking a member a question during their regular lunch break
    3. Knowingly hindering a member or giving them false information
    4. Inviting a member to a short meeting with the plant manager

  4. A worker reports a hazard to the supervisor, but it is not fixed. What does the guide suggest?

    1. The worker should call the police about the employer
    2. The worker should keep quiet until the yearly meeting
    3. The worker should then formally inform the committee
    4. The worker should fix it alone, without telling anyone

  5. The JHSC identifies possible structural weakness in a building as a hazard. What must the employer (if not the owner) do?

    1. Nothing until it collapses
    2. Ask workers to move out
    3. Notify a Director
    4. Repaint the building walls

  6. Within how many days must an employer respond in writing to written JHSC recommendations?

    1. 90 days
    2. 21 days
    3. 7 days
    4. 60 days

  7. Which information may the JHSC obtain from the employer?

    1. Each worker's personal banking details and home addresses
    2. The private medical records of every supervisor in the plant
    3. Information on hazards of materials, processes or equipment
    4. The employer's confidential pricing strategy for its customers

  8. The committee tried in good faith but cannot reach consensus on a recommendation. What can happen?

    1. The matter must be dropped and can never be raised again
    2. Either co-chair may make written recommendations to the employer
    3. The employer decides, and the committee may not write anything
    4. An inspector must attend and vote to break the tie on the issue

  9. What must the employer give the committee about health and safety reports in its possession?

    1. Only a summary, once the report is at least ten years old
    2. Nothing, since such reports are always confidential
    3. The results, and a copy of the relevant parts if written
    4. Only the cover page, with all findings blacked out

  10. The employer disagrees with a JHSC recommendation. What must its written response contain?

    1. A demand that members resign
    2. Nothing; silence is enough
    3. The reasons it disagrees
    4. A promise to ignore the committee

  11. What right does a designated worker member have regarding workplace health and safety testing?

    1. To run all the tests personally with the member's own equipment
    2. To be consulted and present at the beginning of the testing
    3. To approve or cancel every test before it can take place
    4. To receive a bonus each time the workplace air is sampled

  12. Under the Designated Substances regulation, when must the employer consult the JHSC?

    1. On the hiring of new workers for the accounting department
    2. On assessments of likely worker exposure to a designated substance
    3. On the choice of paint colours used in the office and lunch room
    4. On the prices charged to customers for the company's products

  13. What must the employer's written response include if it accepts a recommendation?

    1. Nothing beyond a simple thank-you
    2. A bill for the cost of the changes
    3. A timetable for implementing it
    4. A request for more committee members

  14. On the JHSC's request, what must the WSIB send to the committee each year?

    1. The names of injured workers' doctors
    2. A new set of safety posters to hang up
    3. A summary of injury, lost-workday and illness data
    4. A list of each worker's own WSIB premiums

JHSC powers and recommendations: key rules to remember

Our summary of what the official handbook says on this topic, in our own words. Read it before or after the practice questions above, then check the original chapter. Read the official chapter ↗

committee powers

  • Identify situations that may be a source of danger or hazard to workers.
  • Make recommendations to the employer and workers for improving health and safety.
  • Recommend programs, measures and procedures for protecting workers.
  • Obtain information from the employer about potential or existing hazards of materials, processes or equipment, and about health and safety experience and standards in similar industries.
  • Be consulted about, and have a designated worker member present at the beginning of, health and safety testing in the workplace.
  • Obtain information about tests of equipment, materials or agents done for health and safety purposes.

OHSA s. 9(19.1)–(21) and JHSC guide

  • The committee is advisory; it works best by consensus.
  • If the committee cannot reach consensus after trying in good faith, either co-chair may make written recommendations to the employer.
  • The employer must respond in writing within 21 days; an acceptance includes a timetable, and a rejection gives reasons.

Employer assistance and information

  • The employer must assist and co-operate with the committee (s. 25(2)(e)).
  • The employer gives the committee copies of inspector orders and reports (s. 57(10)) and lets a worker member accompany the inspector (s. 54(3)).
  • The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board must send the committee, on request, an annual summary of fatalities, lost workday cases, workdays lost, medical-aid cases and occupational illnesses (s. 12).
  • It is an offence to knowingly hinder or give false information to a committee member doing their duties.

Other functions (JHSC guide)

  • Receive worker concerns and complaints, and give input on health and safety programs.
  • Under O. Reg. 490/09, the employer consults the committee on assessments of exposure to designated substances.
  • A worker member must be present at a work refusal investigation (s. 43(4)).
  • The employer must notify a Director if the committee identifies potential structural inadequacy of a building as a hazard (s. 25(2)(n)).

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