Health and Safety Reps Guidance and Resources:

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LTB No. 869/10 Ref EX10 Date: 7 October 2010

To: All Branches

Dear Colleagues
Health and Safety Reps Guidance and Resources:

The TUC has put together a number of leaflets, guides and forms to help you do what you do best - keep the workplace safe and healthy.

Union safety reps have a dramatic, positive impact on safety at work. Evidence shows that workplaces with union safety reps and joint union-management safety committees have major injury rates less than half of those without.

Safety reps’ rights and functions include a legal right to: Represent employees in discussions with the employer on health, safety or welfare and in discussions with HSE or other enforcing authorities; investigate hazards and dangerous occurrences; investigate
complaints; carry out inspections of the workplace and inspect relevant documents; attend safety committees; be paid for time spent on carrying out their functions, and to undergo training.

Safety reps in union recognised workplaces have the legal right to paid time off for union approved safety training. HSE’s evaluation of the impact of safety reps training found the more training a safety rep underwent, the greater the positive impact at work and the safer the workplace.

It has been repeatedly demonstrated in studies from a range of countries that worker activity, with union health and safety support behind it, is a major factor in reducing injuries and disease at work. Statistics show that better standards of health and safety are achieved in unionised workplaces than in similar non-unionised ones. At the core of this are Safety Representatives. The TUC has produced a report (The Case For Health and Safety - See LTBs 791/10 and 826/10). Health and Safety Representatives make a difference in practice and that's both a fact and a benefit to both Workers and Employers, even if they are not prepared to admit it!.

The most effective tool that we have in ensuring good health and safety at work is trade unions, because organised workplaces are safer workplaces. That is one of the main reasons that people join and stay in a union. When asked, 70% of new trade union members considered health and safety a 'very important' union issue - more even than for pay. The public also recognise the importance of unions having a key role in health and safety. In 1995 an NOP poll found that 98% of those asked believed 'people at work should have the right to be represented by a trade union if they want to on health and safety'.


We know that the 250,000 trade union safety representatives make a difference because trade union involvement:



• Helps reduce injuries at work
• Leads to reductions the levels of ill-health caused by work
• Encourages greater reporting of injuries and near-misses
• Makes workers more confident
• Helps develop a more positive safety culture in the organisation.

In the face of the present Tory/LibDem Coalition Governments plans to 'attack' health and safety at work, and weaken the protection of health and safety law and its enforcement, the role of Safety Reps will be more important than ever. To help safety representatives undertake their important role there are a considerable number of resources available.

Safety Representatives Resources Attached:

1. Being a Health and Safety Representative: A simple guide to what the role means. (PDF)
2. The Legal Rights of Safety Representatives: A copy of the regulations, code of practice and guidance on safety representatives (PDF)
3. Organising for Health and Safety: What makes health and safety a good organising issue? (PDF)
4. Organising for Health and Safety: A TUC resource for the workplace (PDF)
5. Recording and Reporting Injuries and Illnesses (PDF)
6. Report form for reporting and incidents (PDF)
7. TUC Inspection Guide (PDF)
8. Inspection Form (PDF)
9. An Inspector Calls: A TUC guide to what to expect when an inspector visits your workplace (PDF)

Websites:

HSE (Health and Safety Executive) Safety Representatives pages: http://www.hse.gov.uk/involvement/hsrepresentatives.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
TUC - Safety Reps Resources: http://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace/tuc-18484-f0.cfm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Yours Sincerely
Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer


For relevant safety representatives resources please go to CWU website LTB 869/10 for pdf attachment downloads.