Safety Record Retention

[Kirk Morry]

A couple of questions for the readership. I would be very interested in hearing of best practices industry wide.

Is there a mandatory period of time that safety related documentation such as training, orientation, testing, hazard assessment etc be maintained in file and with the advent of electronic data maintenance and management is it necessary to even maintain old paper documents any more?

I know in the financial world, 7 years retention is required.

Remember.... In Everything You Do.... SAFETY FIRST!

Thanks
Kirk Morry
Safety Advisor
Commissionaires NAB Division

[seanchalmers]

Hello
I would say for documentation on safety for employee in order to eliminate excess paperwork that annual reviews be kept in the employees file.
The annual review would just express that they had reviewed all job requirements as far as safety goes on their anniversary date each year.
SOP's, incident review if any, etc. That would minimize paperwork to about 4 or 5 pages
Sean

[Sionnain]

Certain jurisdiction require documentation to be kept for specific timeframes. I personally use the most stringent and add one year. For example, Alberta OHS Act Section 18(4) requires that incident investigation reports be retained for 2 years after a serious injury or accident. Personally, i ensure that the incident investigation report be kept for 3 years after the incident date.