(a) Prescribing the membership of the committees to ensure equal numbers of employees, who are volunteers or are elected by their peers, and employer representatives and specifying the frequency of meetings.

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

(c) Requiring employers to compensate employee representatives on safety committees at the regular hourly wage while the employees are engaged in safety committee training or are attending safety committee meetings.

(d) Prescribing the duties and functions of safety committees, which include, but are not limited to:

(A) Establishing procedures for workplace safety inspections by the committee.

(B) Establishing procedures for investigating all safety incidents, accidents, illnesses and deaths.

(C) Evaluating accident and illness prevention programs.

(e) Prescribing guidelines for the training of safety committee members.

(f) Prescribing alternate forms of safety committees and safety meetings to meet the special needs of small employers, agricultural employers and employers with mobile worksites.

(2) An employer that is a member of a multiemployer group operating under a collective bargaining agreement that contains provisions regulating the formation and operation of a safety committee that meets or exceeds the minimum requirements of this section and ORS 654.176 shall be considered to have met the requirements of this section and ORS 654.176. [1981 c.488 §3; 1990 c.2 §2; 1991 c.746 §2; 2007 c.448 §2]