Does Tennessee require a safety committee?
Yes, once your experience modification factor reaches 1.20. Tennessee runs its own OSHA program, and the committee rule sits in the workers' compensation regulations rather than in a construction standard. There is no state rule on how often a crew meets.
What the rule says
The rule is Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0800-02-03-.03, adopted under Tennessee Code 50-6-501 through 50-6-505.
“Every public or private employer which is subject to the Workers' Compensation Law shall establish” a safety committee when the Commissioner of Labor finds the employer's experience modification factor is “greater than or equal to one and twenty hundredths (1.20).”
| What the rule requires | |
|---|---|
| Threshold | An experience modification factor, or rate, of 1.20 or greater. |
| How it starts | The Commissioner of Labor finds the factor and gives “notice to affected employers not less than 30 days before the implementation” of the committee requirement. |
| Where the factor comes from | Self-insured employers and insurers provide modification factors to the Commissioner of Commerce and Insurance on request, who passes them to the Department of Labor. |
| Appeal | An employer that disputes its modification rate may appeal to the Commissioner of Commerce and Insurance. |
Read it yourself: 0800-02-03-.03.
What applies to every crew regardless
Federal OSHA's construction rule does not mandate a meeting by name. It requires you to instruct each employee in recognizing and avoiding unsafe conditions and the regulations that apply to the work (29 CFR 1926.21(b)(2)), and a documented talk is how most contractors show they did. A general contractor, a prequalification platform and an insurer ask for the same thing, and none of them lowers the bar for a state without its own meeting rule. Every state, on one page.
Questions we get asked
Our factor is 1.15. Are we clear?
Of the committee rule, yes. A factor that is rising is the signal to start keeping the records the committee would keep, because the notice arrives after the losses that cause it.
Does the committee replace the weekly toolbox talk?
No. The committee is a standing body with its own meetings and its own record. The talk is instruction to the crew, which the federal construction rule requires. Keep both records.
Who tells us?
The Commissioner of Labor, in writing, at least 30 days before the committee has to exist.
What does a GC want to see?
Twelve months of documented meetings, your certifications, your insurance and three years of injury figures, whatever your factor is. A low factor is an advantage on a prequalification; the records are what prove it.
How Tailboard handles it
A committee with its own minutes
Tailboard keeps the committee: who sits on it, when it met, who chaired, attendance and the items, each meeting sealed with a code. The year's committee meetings print into the prequal packet with everything else.
The weekly talk is the record
Every closed meeting records the date, the topic and its OSHA reference, who ran it, which crew and who signed, in one sealed record you can print or hand over. That is the training record every state asks to see.
The 300 log and the rates
The injury log, the certified 300A summary and the rates a form asks for, three years back, nothing estimated.
Inspections with a checklist and a date
Weekly walk-around, ladder, excavation, PPE and vehicle checks, pass or fail on every line, with a photo where it failed and a repair opened where a line failed.
Inspections and the certification register are on Fleet at $199 a month; the committee, the program and the documents are on Company at $89 and on Fleet; the weekly meeting record is on every tier from $29. Crew members never need an account and never cost you anything; they tap their name and sign.
This page describes published law and is not legal advice. Whether a rule applies to your operation, and whether you have met it, is between you, the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development and your own safety professional.