Section 673.19 - Safety Committees(a)Establishing the Safety Committee. Each large urbanized area provider must establish and operate a Safety Committee that is: (1) Appropriately scaled to the size, scope, and complexity of the transit agency; and(2) Convened by a joint labor-management process.(b)Safety Committee membership. The Safety Committee must consist of an equal number of frontline transit worker representatives and management representatives. To the extent practicable, the Safety Committee must include frontline transit worker representatives from major transit service functions, such as operations and maintenance, across the transit system. (1) The labor organization that represents the plurality of the transit agency's frontline transit workers must select frontline transit worker representatives for the Safety Committee.(2) If the transit agency's frontline transit workers are not represented by a labor organization, the transit agency must adopt a mechanism for frontline transit workers to select frontline transit worker representatives for the Safety Committee.(c)Safety Committee procedures. Each large urbanized area provider must include or incorporate by reference in its Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan procedures regarding the composition, responsibilities, and operations of the Safety Committee which, at a minimum, must address: (1) The organizational structure, size, and composition of the Safety Committee and how it will be chaired;(2) How meeting agendas and notices will be developed and shared, and how meeting minutes will be recorded and maintained;(3) Any required training for Safety Committee members related to the transit agency's Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan and the processes, activities, and tools used to support the transit agency's SMS;(4) The compensation policy established by the agency for participation in Safety Committee meetings;(5) How the Safety Committee will access technical experts, including other transit workers, to serve in an advisory capacity as needed; transit agency information, resources, and tools; and submissions to the transit worker safety reporting program to support its deliberations;(6) How the Safety Committee will reach and record decisions;(7) How the Safety Committee will coordinate and communicate with the transit agency's Board of Directors, or equivalent entity, and the Accountable Executive;(8) How the Safety Committee will manage disputes to ensure it carries out its operations. The Safety Committee may use the dispute resolution or arbitration process from the transit agency's Collective Bargaining Agreement, or a different process that the Safety Committee develops and agrees upon, but the Accountable Executive may not be designated to resolve any disputes within the Safety Committee; and(9) How the Safety Committee will carry out its responsibilities identified in paragraph (d) of this section.(d)Safety Committee responsibilities. The Safety Committee must conduct the following activities to oversee the transit agency's safety performance:(1) Review and approve the transit agency's Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan and any updates as required at § 673.11(a)(1)(i) ;(2) Set annual safety performance targets for the safety risk reduction program as required at § 673.11(a)(7)(iii) ; and(3) Support operation of the transit agency's SMS by:(i) Identifying and recommending safety risk mitigations necessary to reduce the likelihood and severity of potential consequences identified through the transit agency's safety risk assessment, including safety risk mitigations associated with any instance where the transit agency did not meet an annual safety performance target in the safety risk reduction program;(ii) Identifying safety risk mitigations that may be ineffective, inappropriate, or were not implemented as intended, including safety risk mitigations associated with any instance where the transit agency did not meet an annual safety performance target in the safety risk reduction program; and(iii) Identifying safety deficiencies for purposes of continuous improvement as required at § 673.27(d) , including any instance where the transit agency did not meet an annual safety performance target in the safety risk reduction program.