How Is the OHS Committee Formed When There Is a Subcontractor?

When does the subcontractor OHS committee question arise?

An OHS committee is set up in workplaces with 50 or more employees where continuous work lasting more than six months is carried out. The subcontractor OHS committee question arises when a principal employer and one or more subcontractors work together at the same workplace: does each set up its own committee, or is there a single committee?

The answer depends on two conditions:

Duration: The principal employer–subcontractor relationship must last more than six months. For shorter jobs, these rules do not apply; instead, the general cooperation and coordination obligation of employers sharing the same work area applies.
Headcount: The numbers of employees of the principal employer and of the subcontractor at that workplace are assessed separately.

The basis is Art. 22/2 of Law No. 6331 and Art. 4/2 of the Regulation on OHS Committees. We explained the general steps for setting up a committee and its members in our article on how to set up an OHS committee. This article focuses only on the principal employer–subcontractor relationship.

Principal employer and subcontractor committee: four cases

Principal employer	Subcontractor	Who sets up the committee?	The other party's duty	Basis
50 or more	50 or more	Each sets up a separate committee	The principal employer ensures cooperation and coordination	Reg. Art. 4/2-a
50 or more	Fewer than 50	Principal employer	The subcontractor appoints an authorised representative to implement committee decisions	Reg. Art. 4/2-b
Fewer than 50	50 or more	Subcontractor	The principal employer appoints an authorised representative to this committee	Reg. Art. 4/2-c
Fewer than 50	Fewer than 50, total more than 50	The two employers set up a joint committee	The principal employer runs the coordination	Reg. Art. 4/2

Note the wording in the fourth row: the Law and the Regulation require the total headcount to be "more than fifty" for a joint committee. The threshold in the first three rows is "fifty or more". In borderline cases where the total is exactly 50, setting up a joint committee is the prudent course both in practice and at inspections.

Counting is done per workplace. Art. 5 of the Regulation requires an employer with several workplaces to set up a separate committee at each workplace with 50 or more employees. The subcontractor's employees at other sites or factories are not added to the count at this workplace.

Sample calculation: a construction site with three subcontractors

Consider a building construction project run by a principal employer with 40 employees, lasting eight months. There are three subcontractors on site:

Structural works subcontractor: 65 employees, job duration eight months.
Electrical subcontractor: 18 employees, job duration seven months.
Facade subcontractor: 22 employees, job duration four months.

The assessment is as follows:

Structural works: The subcontractor has 50 or more, the principal employer fewer than 50. The structural works subcontractor sets up the committee; the principal employer appoints an authorised representative to this committee (Art. 4/2-c).
Electrical: Both have fewer than 50, together 58. Because the relationship lasts more than six months, the principal employer and the electrical subcontractor set up a joint committee together; coordination lies with the principal employer (Art. 4/2).
Facade: Because the relationship lasts four months, Art. 4/2 does not apply. The facade team is included in coordination under the cooperation and information obligation of employers sharing the same work area.

The Regulation describes relationships in pairs. For a principal employer with several small subcontractors, bringing them all together in a single joint committee makes coordination easier; this choice should be made by joint decision and in writing. Whichever route you choose, write the reasoning in the committee file.

What does the authorised representative do?

The party not obliged to set up a committee appoints an authorised representative to the other party's committee. "Subcontractor committee membership" usually refers to this representative role. The representative's task is to ensure that decisions taken in the committee are implemented for their own employer's employees and site.

For a good choice of representative:

The representative should be someone who can make decisions and allocate resources on behalf of their own employer; on a construction site this is often the site manager or job supervisor.
The appointment is made in writing and placed in the committee file.
The representative attends committee meetings and reports at the next meeting on the implementation of decisions on their side.
The authorised representative and the employee representative under Art. 20 of Law No. 6331 are not the same person; the employee representative is elected from among the employees and is a separate role. For the election procedure, see our article on electing an employee representative.

How is a joint OHS committee formed?

The structure of a joint OHS committee is the same as a normal committee: the employer or their representative, the OHS specialist, the workplace physician, a person from human resources or administration, a foreman or master craftsman if there is one, and the employee representative. The differences are:

Appointment: In a joint committee, members and the committee secretary are appointed by the principal employer and the subcontractor by joint decision (Reg. Art. 6/7).
Training: The two employers are jointly responsible for training committee members and their deputies (Reg. Art. 7/2).
Coordination: The principal employer runs the coordination (Reg. Art. 4/2).

The Regulation does not separately specify which employer the chair of a joint committee comes from or how meeting frequency is set if the two parties' hazard classes differ. The committee meets at least once a month; in hazardous workplaces it can decide to extend this to two months, and in less hazardous workplaces to three months (Art. 9). We recommend clarifying these points in writing in the founding decision and, if the classes differ, taking monthly meetings as the basis.

Coordination committee: more than one committee in the same area

When there is more than one committee on the same site, the main risk is decisions being taken without each other's knowledge. For example, one committee changes the pedestrian route in the loading yard while the other's employees keep walking the old route. The tools in the legislation are:

In a principal employer–subcontractor relationship: If there are separate committees, the principal employer ensures cooperation and coordination (Art. 4/2-a).
Between unrelated employers: If several employers have committees in the same work area, the employers inform each other of committee decisions that may affect each other's work (Law Art. 22/3, Reg. Art. 4/3).
If the same employer has several workplaces: The employer ensures coordination between the committees and ensures that the OHS reports of these workplaces are reviewed at least every three months (Art. 5/2).

The structure referred to in practice as a "coordination committee" is not regulated as a separate type of committee in the Regulation on OHS Committees; it is the regular meeting in which the principal employer fulfils this coordination duty. For this meeting it helps to keep a shared list of decisions, to pass each committee's relevant decision to the other parties on the same day, and for committee secretaries to attend each other's meetings as observers. We explained the general cooperation obligation of employers sharing the same area in our article on more than one employer in the same work area.

One more note for construction: under Art. 8 of the Regulation on OHS in Construction Work, if there is more than one employer or subcontractor on the same construction site, a health and safety coordinator is appointed, except in the cases listed in the Regulation. The coordinator does not replace the committee; the committee obligation continues separately.

Fines and common mistakes

The 2026 base administrative fine for not forming an OHS committee or not implementing committee decisions is 44,443 TL. Because the fine applies per workplace, the increase under Art. 26/3 of Law No. 6331 applies; in workplaces with 50 or more employees it becomes 66,664.50 TL for less hazardous, 88,886 TL for hazardous and 133,329 TL for very hazardous workplaces. For the detailed calculation, you can use the OHS administrative fines tool.

Common mistakes at inspections:

Never asking about the subcontractor's headcount and setting up the committee only with the principal employer's employees.
The authorised representative having been appointed but never attending a meeting.
A joint committee being set up but members being appointed unilaterally rather than by joint decision.
For jobs exceeding six months, the relationship initially being thought to be short-term and no committee arrangement ever being set up.
Committee decisions not being communicated to the subcontractor's site.

For documents to request from the subcontractor before work begins, see our article on OHS documents to request from subcontractors, and for the general framework of the division of duties, OHS when working with subcontractors. At construction sites and factories in Bursa and the surrounding provinces, as part of our OHS specialist services, we set up the committee structure according to headcount and prepare the founding decision and minutes arrangement. For construction sites where several companies work, see also our construction sector page.

Frequently Asked Questions

The subcontractor has 60 employees and the principal employer 30; who sets up the committee?

The subcontractor. The principal employer appoints an authorised representative to this committee to ensure cooperation and coordination. The relationship must last more than six months.

Who is the secretary of a joint committee?

In a joint committee, members and the committee secretary are appointed by the principal employer and the subcontractor by joint decision. In a normal committee the secretary is the OHS specialist; in workplaces where the specialist is not required to work full time, the secretariat is run by a person from human resources or administration.

Is a committee needed for a subcontracted job lasting four months?

The committee rules specific to the principal employer–subcontractor relationship apply to relationships lasting more than six months. For shorter jobs, the cooperation, coordination and mutual information obligation of employers sharing the same work area applies.

Is it mandatory to set up a coordination committee?

The Regulation on OHS Committees does not regulate a separate committee type called a "coordination committee". What is mandatory is for the principal employer to ensure cooperation and coordination if there are separate committees. The most practical way to do this is a regular coordination meeting and a shared list of decisions.