today i got a taste of just how quickly i would be thrown under the bus by my employer. i'm new to the health and safety committee at work and joined without considering any legal ramifications. that said, i'm not 100% what could realistically be pinned on me as a minimum wage employee of seven months.
the reason i'm now considering this is because of something that was brought up at a meeting today. my manager was going over some things we haven't been on top of and mentioned that we could be fined for some paper work we haven't done if we were inspected before correcting it. she then went on to say it would be us, (the health and safety committee) that would be fined. she also mentioned a recent incident at a local grocery store where some kid fell out of a grocery cart, cracked his head and his mom sued the store. our manager said we'd be complicit in a situation like that if we hadn't directly told the mother not to let her kid play around in the cart.
like, five minutes before this meeting i had no idea the neglected paperwork even existed or that i could be held legally responsible in any way for an injury on the premises where i consider myself having the least possible liability. it seems to me now, this is exactly what would make me the perfect target for some sort of legal action: it would be so easy for them to throw me right under the bus.
in my time at work, we've had two injuries and, in retrospect, i'm cognizant of how management avoided involvement with them in any way. one was a coworker who needed an ambulance and, instead of calling one, our store manager made someone else deal with it and went straight to his office. another time, something fell on a customer and it was the same thing. the manager noped the fuck out and let someone else deal with it.
being on the committee, they want me to be trained in first aide now. to i have any grounds to refuse this training? should i even be on the health and safety committee?