Form
Form - JOHSC Recommendation and Employer Response
Document FSSMS-FRM-04Stage 1Revision 2Version 0.3.3
Topic pages open on your jurisdiction, and requirements tables show its line. You can change this on any page.
Part 1 is completed by the committee and sent to the fire chief by the co-chairs; Part 2 is completed by the fire chief or delegate and returned within 21 days, or sooner where the statute requires; Part 3 records what happened next. The two parts are written to talk about the same thing: the hazard. A recommendation names a hazard, the evidence, and specific controls with proposed owners and dates. A response restates the hazard, decides each control on its merits, names the interim control for anything not accepted, and sets a revisit date. The lessons behind the structure are in 02 JOHSC Integration section 8.1. The employer’s duty to answer a committee recommendation in writing is statutory, and the applicable statute sets the deadline (J05 Joint Committee and Health and Safety Representative); the department answers within 21 days, or sooner where the statute requires.
Priority. Each accepted control enters the Corrective Action Register with a priority on the department’s one scale, which sets its interim control and due dates. P1 (Imminent): interim control immediately, the same shift, with the fire chief and JOHSC co-chairs told within 24 hours; plan due in two working days; closed within seven days. P2 (Serious): interim control within 24 hours where practicable; plan due in seven days; closed within 30 days. P3 (Moderate): plan due in 30 days; closed within 90 days. P4 (Improvement): plan by the next quarterly program update; closed within 365 days or the next budget cycle. Extensions and escalation follow the register.
| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| Recommendation number | JOHSC-REC-{{Year}}-{{Sequence}} |
| Date of committee decision | |
| Co-chairs (roles) | Worker co-chair: / Employer co-chair: |
| Title (ten words or fewer) | |
| The hazard: what could hurt whom, how, and how often the exposure occurs | |
| Where and when: stations, apparatus, tasks, incident types; career, volunteer or both | |
| Evidence: inspection findings; injury, exposure or near-miss data; learning-team summary; investigation findings; standards and the applicable regulation (through the topic pages in 00 Jurisdiction Index); what members who do the task said | |
| What the committee has already done (asked, inspected, consulted whom) | |
| Interim measures requested (until the controls below are in place) | |
| Recommended controls (in hierarchy order; each with a proposed owner role and date) | 1. Control: / Owner: / By: ; 2. … ; 3. … |
| How the committee will know it worked (the measure) | |
| Consultation record: program team, HSO, union or association, members consulted (roles) | |
| Related items (register IDs, prior recommendations, concern log numbers) | |
| Response due (date: committee decision date plus the statutory period) | |
| Sent to the fire chief on (date) by (role) |
| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| Recommendation number | |
| Date received | |
| Response date (within the statutory period) | |
| The hazard, restated in the employer’s words | |
| Decision on each recommended control | 1. Accepted / Accepted with modification / Deferred / Rejected. Reason: . Owner (role): . Priority (P1 to P4): . Due: . Register ID: ; 2. … ; 3. … |
| Interim controls in place for any control deferred or rejected, and for the period until accepted controls are complete | |
| Resources committed or sought (budget line, staffing, procurement) | |
| Revisit date for deferred or rejected parts, and what will be reviewed then | |
| What the employer asks of the committee (further inspection, participation in a trial, consultation on a draft) | |
| Signed (role, date) | |
| Read into the committee minutes on (date) |
| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| Response received within the statutory period? | Y / N; if N, escalation taken and date |
| Committee’s view of the response (accepted; clarification requested; dispute referred) | |
| Register IDs for accepted controls and their status | |
| Revisit date outcome | |
| Members who raised the underlying concern told of the outcome (date, by whom) | |
| Closed on (date) by committee motion |
Recommendation JOHSC-REC-{{Year}}-04. Hazard: firefighters at working fires over 25 minutes are not being rotated to rehabilitation; two members treated for heat exhaustion in one season. Evidence: six incident records, two injury reports, a learning-team session with three crews, the rehabilitation program’s triggers, the applicable statute’s general duty to provide a safe system of work (J02 Duties of Employers, Supervisors, Workers and Contractors). Already done: reviewed incident records; spoke to four incident commanders. Interim: district chiefs to establish rehab at every working fire pending the change. Controls: (1) add the rehab trigger to the command operating guideline the incident commander uses, owner deputy chief operations, by end of the next quarter; (2) place a rehab kit on every district chief vehicle, owner Health, Wellness and Rehab program manager, by end of the next quarter; (3) add rehab establishment to the incident safety officer checklist, owner HSO, within 30 days. Measure: rehab sector established at 100 per cent of qualifying incidents in the next six months.
Response. Hazard restated. Control 1 accepted; control 2 accepted with modification (kits on district chief vehicles and on the two rescue units; procurement timeline eight weeks); control 3 accepted. Register IDs assigned. Resources: kits funded from the current equipment line. The employer asks the committee’s volunteer member to join the learning-team session that amends the guideline. Signed by the fire chief within the period; read into the next minutes.
What makes it work: the recommendation asks for controls, not a halt; the response answers the hazard, not the committee’s standing; both carry dates, owners and a measure, and the register carries the rest.
| Field | Type | Required | Who completes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recommendation number | Text pattern | Yes | Co-chairs |
| Date of decision; co-chairs; title | Date; roles; text | Yes | Co-chairs |
| Hazard; where and when; evidence; already done; interim requested | Text | Yes | Committee |
| Recommended controls (control, owner role, date) | Repeating group | At least one | Committee |
| Measure | Text | Yes | Committee |
| Consultation record; related items | Text | Yes (may be none) | Committee |
| Response due; sent on, by | Dates; role | Yes | Co-chairs |
| Date received; response date | Dates | Yes | Fire chief’s office |
| Hazard restated | Text | Yes | Fire chief or delegate |
| Decision per control (status, reason, owner, priority, due, register ID) | Repeating group | One per control | Fire chief or delegate; HSO assigns register ID and confirms the priority |
| Interim controls; resources; revisit date; asks of the committee | Text; date | Yes | Fire chief or delegate |
| Signed; read into minutes | Role, dates | Yes | Fire chief; co-chairs |
| Follow-up fields | As listed | Yes | Committee; HSO |
This chapter relies on the following legal requirements, which differ by province and territory. Check your jurisdiction’s section on each topic page before adopting it.
| Topic | What to check in your jurisdiction | Page |
|---|---|---|
| Duties of Employers, Supervisors, Workers and Contractors | The employer’s general duty, including a safe system of work, on which committee recommendations often rest | J02 Duties of Employers, Supervisors, Workers and Contractors |
| Joint Committee and Health and Safety Representative | The committee’s power to make recommendations, the employer’s deadline to answer in writing (where it is shorter than 21 days, it governs), and the route when the answer is late or the committee disputes it | J05 Joint Committee and Health and Safety Representative |