15. Composition of Safety Committee.- (1) The representatives of the management on Safety Committee, except in mine, shall consist of-

(i) a senior official, who by their position in the organisation can contribute effectively to the functioning of the Committee, shall be the Chairman;

(ii) a Safety Officer and qualified medical practitioner wherever available and the Safety Officer shall act as Secretary of the Committee; and

(iii) One representative from the production, maintenance and purchase departments.

(2) The Safety Committee shall consist of an equal number of members representing the employer and the workers, which shall not exceed twenty;

(3) the representatives of the employer in the Safety Committee shall be nominated by the employer and shall, as far as possible, be officials directly associated with the working of the establishment, preferably the heads of major departments of the establishment;

(4) the representative of the workers in the Safety Committee shall be chosen in the following manner, namely:-

(a) where there is a sole negotiating union or a negotiating council or negotiating union, shall nominate the worker’s representatives on the Safety Committee and in the case of the negotiating council, the nomination shall be in the manner that every registered Trade Union representing in negotiating council shall be represented in the Safety Committee in proportion to the number of workers of the industrial establishment who are members of such Trade Unions;

(b) where there is no sole negotiating union or negotiating union or negotiating council as referred in the clause (a), the workers of the establishment shall choose amongst themselves:

Provided that the employer may, deploy an electronic process for choosing representative of workers:

Provided further that there shall be adequate representation of women and such representation shall not be less than the proportion of women workers to the total number of workers employed:

Provided also that in case there is no recognized both negotiating union or negotiating council and where any dispute arises regarding choosing of the worker’s representative to the Safety Committee, the matter may be referred to the concerned Regional Labour Commissioner (Central), who shall after hearing the parties decide the matter and the decision of Regional Labour Commissioner (Central) shall be final.

(c) the tenure of the members of the Safety Committee shall be three years.

(5) The minutes of the meeting of the Safety Committee shall be recorded.

(6) The function and duties of the Safety Committee in an establishment shall include –

(i) assisting and cooperating with the management in achieving the aims and objectives outlined in the ‘Safety and Health Policy of the establishment;

(ii) dealing with all matters concerning health, safety and environment and to arrive at practicable solutions to problems encountered;

(iii) creating safety awareness amongst all workers;

(iv) undertaking educational, training and promotional activities;

(v) discussing reports on safety, environmental and occupational health surveys, safety audits, risk assessment, emergency and disaster management plans and implementation of the recommendations made in the reports;

(vi) looking into the matters likely to cause danger to the safety and health of the workers and suggesting corrective measures; and

(vii) reviewing the implementation of the recommendations made by it.