Health and Safety Committee and HSE Manager: Who Must Be Trained, and What the Law Actually Says
In most Algerian companies, the health and safety committee is set up and then forgotten: an installation report in a binder, names on a sheet, and nothing after that. Then an accident happens or a labour inspector visits, and you are asked for what was never prepared. The problem is not the company's intentions; it is that few people have read the text itself. Prevention training is not an improvement item to be postponed to next year — it is an obligation written explicitly into Law 88-07 and Executive Decrees 02-427 and 05-09. This article explains exactly what these texts say, who must be trained, the difference between a committee member and an HSE manager, and what each of the two courses covers, day by day.
When does a health and safety committee become mandatory in your company?
The legal basis is Law No. 88-07 of 26 January 1988 on occupational health, safety and medicine, and Executive Decree No. 05-09 of 8 January 2005 on joint committees and health and safety officers.
The threshold many people overlook is simple: nine workers. Above it, the company's obligations change, and the required arrangement depends on the type of employment relationship and the size of the unit.
- More than nine workers on open-ended (permanent) employment contracts: a joint health and safety committee is mandatory.
- More than nine workers on fixed-term employment contracts: a permanent health and safety officer, assisted by two of the workers most qualified in this field.
- A unit or company employing nine workers or fewer: a health and safety officer appointed by the head of the unit or company.
What “joint” means in practice
The joint nature of the committee is not a formality: it brings together equal numbers of employer representatives and worker representatives. This means prevention decisions are not taken unilaterally, and the worker representative is not there to sign, but to take part in preparation and follow-up.
This is exactly why training the members is essential: a member who does not know how to assess a risk, write up minutes, or tell an observation from a non-conformity will not truly take part, however many meetings they attend.
Training is not optional — it is written into the law
This is where the most common misunderstanding lies. Many companies treat training committee members as a “nice-to-have improvement”, added to the training plan if budget remains. The text says otherwise.
Executive Decree 05-09 states that members of joint committees and health and safety officers must receive practical and appropriate training. The word “must” here is not a recommendation.
It is preceded by a broader obligation in Article 22 of Law 88-07: instruction, information and training on occupational risks are an obligation of the employing organisation, and worker representatives must be involved in these activities.
Executive Decree 02-427 of 7 December 2002 is the text that sets out how this instruction, information and training are organised. It contains a point that is often overlooked: the health and safety committee takes full part in preparing these activities and ensures they are actually carried out — in other words, the committee is not just a recipient of training, it is responsible for making sure others are actually trained.
- Every newly hired worker must be informed of the risks they face in their position.
- Every worker asked to change position, working method or work equipment is subject to the same obligation.
- The occupational physician and the health and safety officer are involved in preparing these activities.
Committee member or HSE manager? A costly confusion
In many companies, only the HSE manager is sent on a course, and this is considered to cover the whole obligation. That is a misreading: the two roles differ in status, mission and responsibility, and one does not replace the other.
Health and safety committee member
Their status is representative: they represent either the employer or the workers within a collective body. They do not run prevention day to day; they help propose measures, inspect, approve and document.
- Takes part in risk assessment and in proposing prevention measures.
- Inspects workplaces and reports what they observe.
- Takes part in the investigation after a workplace accident or occupational disease.
- Attends meetings and approves the minutes — documents that can later be relied upon as evidence.
HSE manager or safety coordinator
Their status is functional and permanent: an employee in charge of leading prevention day to day within the company. Their work is technical, organisational and continuous, and does not depend on how often meetings are held.
- Builds and updates the single occupational risk assessment document.
- Prepares prevention plans and safety protocols with external contractors.
- Manages indicators and prepares inspection and audit files.
- Drives the safety culture: safety talks, reporting of hazardous situations, on-site communication.
The practical takeaway
The committee monitors, participates and documents; the HSE manager builds, operates and updates. A company with an excellent HSE manager but an untrained committee remains non-compliant, because the text requires the members to be trained, not only the manager.
What labour inspectors actually ask for during an inspection
An inspection is not about intentions but about documents. Most companies have some of them and not the rest, and waste time searching on the day of the visit.
The list below is what is usually requested, and it is wise to have every item ready in a single file rather than scattered across offices.
- The committee's installation report or the officer's appointment decision, updated after every change in membership.
- Minutes of committee meetings, dated and signed, with an agenda and traceable decisions.
- The single occupational risk assessment document, broken down by real work units rather than on paper.
- Proof that members and officers have been trained: named certificates, attendance sheets and course content.
- Prevention and observation registers, and follow-up of previous recommendations — this is where shortcomings show up most.
- Prevention plans and safety protocols with external contractors working on site.
Where most files fall down
Not the absence of a committee, but the absence of any trace of its work. A committee set up two years ago without a single meeting report, or with identical copy-pasted minutes, is read as if it did not exist. Training is what makes the difference: a trained member knows what to write in the minutes, and why.
Health and safety committee course — three days, day by day
This course is for members of the joint committee, the health and safety officer and worker representatives. It lasts three days (21 hours) and is built on what Decree 05-09 requires, not on generic safety content.
Day 1 — Legal framework and mandate
Law 88-07 and its implementing decrees, how the committee is formed, appointed and mandated, its powers and their limits, the role of the health and safety officer, mandatory registers, and meeting frequency, agendas and minutes.
Objective assessed at the end of the day: write meeting minutes that can be relied upon as evidence.
Day 2 — Identification and assessment
An inspection visit of the workplaces, breaking the site into work units, identifying the real risks of the activity: manual handling, mobile equipment, dust, noise, work at height, electricity. Then scoring severity, frequency and control, setting priorities, and the committee's contribution to the single risk assessment document.
Objective assessed: lead an inspection and score one risk with a justified rating.
Day 3 — Action and follow-up
Drafting a prevention measure that is acceptable and workable, investigating after a workplace accident or occupational disease, working with the occupational physician, the labour inspectorate and the National Social Insurance Fund (CNAS), then building an annual action plan, following up recommendations and raising workers' awareness.
Objective assessed: build the committee's annual action plan.
HSE manager and safety coordinator course — five days, day by day
This course is for whoever handles prevention day to day: HSE manager, safety coordinator, risk manager, or the manager in charge of the file in a company without a dedicated position. It lasts five days (35 hours).
Day 1 — The HSE role and where it fits
Where the HSE manager sits in the organisation, the employer's obligations under Algerian law, how the health and safety committee works and how to run it, and relations with the labour inspectorate, social security and occupational medicine.
Objective assessed: run a health and safety committee meeting.
Day 2 — Risk assessment
Breaking the site into work units, identifying risks, a scoring method combining severity, frequency and control, then building the single risk assessment document in a form that stands up to an audit.
Objective assessed: score a risk and justify the score.
Day 3 — Operational control
The hierarchy of prevention measures, instructions and safe working methods, managing external contractors, the prevention plan, and the safety protocol for loading and unloading.
Objective assessed: write a prevention plan.
Day 4 — The ISO 45001 system
The structure of the standard, policy, objectives and indicators, document control, internal audit and management review, and the link with ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 for those aiming at an integrated system.
Objective assessed: map the standard's requirements onto the company's reality.
Day 5 — Safety culture
Safety talks and the safety quarter-hour, reporting hazardous situations, visual communication on site, then building the annual prevention training plan and its budget.
Objective assessed: deliver a safety talk in front of the group.
Who should you train first? A practical order for an industrial company
Budgets are always limited, and the real question is not “which courses are good” but “which one do we start with”. The order below is based on what is requested first during an inspection, and on what actually reduces risk.
- Committee members and the health and safety officer: because it is the obligation written explicitly in the text, and because they document everything that follows.
- The HSE manager or whoever fills that role: because they will build and update the single risk assessment document.
- Workplace first-aiders and first-response firefighting staff: low cost and immediate impact.
- Equipment operators, workers on electrical installations and those working at height: training tied to specific, measurable risks.
- Middle managers and team leaders: because they are the ones who actually pass instructions on to each workstation.
Five mistakes that keep recurring in Algerian companies
These are not theoretical mistakes; they are what is actually found when prevention files are reviewed.
- Training only the HSE manager and considering the committee covered: the text requires the members themselves to be trained.
- A risk assessment document copied from another company: risks you do not have, and real risks missing.
- Identical meeting minutes year after year: they are read as proof that the committee does not meet.
- Purely theoretical training with no site visit: the member leaves with information but without the ability to inspect.
- Certificates that cannot be verified: during an audit they become a piece of paper rather than proof.
The certificate that helps you on audit day
The difference between one certificate and another does not show on the day of the course, but on the day you are asked to prove it. A printed certificate that nobody can verify remains a claim; a certificate carrying a code that, when scanned, shows the holder's name, the course date and its content becomes documentary evidence.
At TKAWEN, every course ends with a named certificate carrying a QR code that can be verified publicly through the AlgeriaCertify platform. Along with the certificates, we hand over an end-of-training report for the HR department, attendance sheets and the course content as delivered. This full package is what you attach to a compliance file or a tender response — not the certificate alone.
- A named certificate for each participant, with a public verification code.
- Dated and signed attendance sheets.
- The course content as actually delivered, not as advertised.
- An end-of-training report with individual recommendations.
Where are the two courses delivered?
Ideally, always at your company, for two practical reasons: the case studies are built from your real workplaces rather than generic examples, and running successive groups means everyone can be trained without stopping production.
Both courses can also be delivered at our premises, or remotely for the theoretical part, with the site inspection kept in person — because inspecting cannot be learned through a screen.
Train your committee and HSE manager on site
Two courses built on what Decree 05-09 actually requires, delivered at your company on a schedule that does not stop production, and completed with named certificates that anyone can verify publicly.
Request a quote for your company →Frequently asked questions
My company has 12 employees. Is a health and safety committee mandatory?
Yes. Executive Decree 05-09 makes a joint committee mandatory in any organisation employing more than nine workers on open-ended employment contracts. If employment contracts are fixed-term, a permanent health and safety officer is required, assisted by two of the most qualified workers.
Is training committee members mandatory or just recommended?
Mandatory. The text states that members of joint committees and health and safety officers must receive practical and appropriate training. It is preceded by a broader obligation in Article 22 of Law 88-07, which makes instruction, information and training an obligation of the employing organisation.
Is training the HSE manager enough instead of training committee members?
No. The two roles are different: the HSE manager leads prevention day to day, while committee members participate, inspect and document in a representative capacity. The text requires the members themselves to be trained, so training the manager does not replace it.
How long does each course last?
The health and safety committee course lasts three days (21 hours), and the HSE manager and safety coordinator course five days (35 hours). Both can be run in successive groups so production does not stop.
What is the difference between the risk assessment document and the prevention plan?
The single risk assessment document assesses your own company's risks, work unit by work unit, and is updated whenever something changes. The prevention plan concerns an external contractor working on your site, and sets out how the works coexist without one creating a risk for the other.
Can the training take place inside the plant?
Yes, and it is the recommended option. Case studies are built from your real workplaces, the site inspection is carried out in your units, and sessions are scheduled around your teams, including successive groups and weekends.
What do we receive at the end of the training?
A named certificate for each participant with a publicly verifiable QR code, dated attendance sheets, the course content as delivered, and an end-of-training report handed to the HR department with individual recommendations.
How much does it cost to train a full committee?
Pricing is per participant, with a minimum of eight participants per session, and depends on the duration, level and number of modules required. Request a detailed quote for your company and we will get back to you with written pricing.