The Florida Senate

633.810  Workplace safety committees and safety coordinators.--

(1)  In order to promote health and safety in firefighter employee places of employment in this state:

(a)  Each firefighter employer of 20 or more firefighter employees shall establish and administer a workplace safety committee in accordance with rules adopted under this section.

(b)  Each firefighter employer of fewer than 20 firefighter employees identified by the division as having high frequency or high severity of work-related injuries shall establish and administer a workplace safety committee or designate a workplace safety coordinator who shall establish and administer workplace safety activities in accordance with rules adopted under this section.

(2)  The division shall adopt rules:

(a)  Prescribing the membership of the workplace safety committees so as to ensure an equal number of firefighter employee representatives who are volunteers or are elected by their peers and firefighter employer representatives, and specifying the frequency of meetings.

(b)  Requiring firefighter employers to make adequate records of each meeting and to file and to maintain the records subject to inspection by the division.

(c)  Prescribing the duties and functions of the workplace safety committee and workplace safety coordinator, which include, but are not limited to:

1.  Establishing procedures for workplace safety inspections by the committee.

2.  Establishing procedures for investigating all workplace accidents, safety-related incidents, illnesses, and deaths.

3.  Evaluating accident prevention and illness prevention programs.

4.  Prescribing guidelines for the training of safety committee members.

(3)  The composition, selection, and function of workplace safety committees shall be a mandatory topic of negotiations with any certified collective bargaining agent for firefighter employers that operate under a collective bargaining agreement. Firefighter employers that operate under a collective bargaining agreement that contains provisions regulating the formation and operation of workplace safety committees that meet or exceed the minimum requirements contained in this section, or firefighter employers who otherwise have existing workplace safety committees that meet or exceed the minimum requirements established by this section, are in compliance with this section.

(4)  Firefighter employees shall be compensated their regular hourly wage while engaged in workplace safety committee or workplace safety coordinator training, meetings, or other duties prescribed under this section.

History.--s. 15, ch. 2002-404.