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Top Hazards safety rep features
Cross words As workplace
deaths rise dramatically and the Health and Safety Executive’s austerity
programme leaves it haemorrhaging staff, mothballing work programmes and
shutting offices, Hazards looks for clues on what unions –
snubbed and so far refused any new rights by HSE after its worker involvement
consultation - should do next. Hazards
98, April-June 2007
Safety repressed The
government admits the lifesaving work of safety reps saves society hundreds
of millions of pounds each year. Now unions are asking why the Health
and Safety Executive seems reluctant to expand their role. Hazards
special online briefing in
full, March 2007
Consultation consultation
[Hazards 94, May 2006]
The government is kicking off another “employee consultation”
consultation. This time, says TUC’s Hugh Robertson, it should introduce
meaningful changes to recognise the lifesaving role of union safety reps.
See the Hazards
special online briefing in full, May 2006
TUC briefing
on the consultation
In the firing line
[Hazards 89, January-March 2005]
In
the UK we have kinda, sorta rights. The sort of rights that mean you can
refuse dangerous work, but you risk being fired for your trouble. Where
you have a right to speak up but where
your boss could still turf you out. And anti-union laws and union busting
firms are now making life at work more dangerous still. Hazards
outlines the law on victimisation of safety reps and on safery reps rights..
See
the Hazards special
online briefing in full,
February 2005.
Safety
reps at work [Hazards
86, April-June, 2004]
Union safety reps have a dramatic, positive
impact on safety at work - and the more training they get, the more marked
the "union safety effect." Hazards reports how the union training
on your doorstep and now in cyberspace can be a workplace lifesaver.
See the
Hazards special online briefing in
full,
May 2004.
 
Safety
reps at work
Safety
rep websites
Union
safety news
Information
exchange
Safety
rep resources
Union
safety training
Union
safety effect
Topic
based information
Safety
rep profiles
Safety Rep images:
Ned Jolliffe
www.eyecandy.co.uk
 Safety
reps at work
The rights and roles of workplace safety reps
around the world. 
Roving reps What
should unions do when a workplace hasn't got a workplace safety rep? Roving
reps or Workplace Safety Advisers (WSAs) covering several workplaces could
be the answer.
Notices Union
inspection notices (UINs) and provisional improvement notices (PINs) are
allowing union reps to take workplace safety enforcement into their own
hands.
Union effect Hygienists
might have a measure of it and doctors a diagnosis for it, but only workers
with collective power have much chance of doing anything about workplace
harm. Hazards
shows how.
 Safety
rep websites Hazards (Global)
TUC
safety webpage (UK)
Union Ideas Network
safety section (UK)
Scottish
Hazards Campaign
Unionsafe
(Australia)
OHS Reps (Australia)
Worksafe
Reps (New Zealand)
Unionsafe
network (Australia)
UK
union safety sites
Get safe now! Media, Entertainment
& Arts Alliance (Australia)
International
union/union related safety sources
Union health and safety news
Labourstart/Hazards
health and safety newswire
Risks
Hazards
OHS Reps, Australia
Trade Union Technical Bureau for Health and Safety (TUTB), Europe [English]
Bureau Technique Syndical Européen pour la Santé et la Sécurité
(BTS), Europe [Français]
Worksafe
Reps, New Zealand
Confined
Space, USA
NYCOSH,
USA
World
Labour News - occupational health
Labour
Union Digest, UK
Information exchange
UNIONREPS.org.uk
health and safety discussion board
 Safety
rep resources including:
Tools
Safety
reps' rights
The 'Brown
book' online
TUC
New Unionism safety reps webpage
ESPARE European research project to analyse
the role and effectiveness of safety reps at work. ESPARE
Roving
reps
HSE
workers' website
PCS
Safety Reps' Toolbox
GMB
safety reps' rights webpage, including "10 safety representative tasks"
UNISON safety reps' guide [pdf]
UNISON short guide to becoming a safety rep [pdf]
• Poster [pdf]
• Safety reps' briefing
ASLEF "Organising for health and safety reps"
[pdf]
USDAW "Health
and safety reps' handbook"
HandS for
Safety Representatives
NW BT union
health and safety
New Zealand: H&S Toolkit: The
role of the health and safety representative
Union safety training
Links for latest updates on TUC health and safety training courses
Safety
reps training factsheet, Hazards 86, April - June 2004
www.tuc.org.uk/learning
www.learningservices.org.uk
Background documents on TUC/union training, certificate Background
articles by Pete Kirby and Graham Petersen:
TUC
learning
Union safety effect
www.hazards.org/unioneffect
Topic based information eg
TUC
It's about time • smokeatwork
• workSMART.org.uk
• toilet
breaks • working
hours • health
and safety
Hazards
PINs/UINs
Mapping
Genetic screening
Behavioural safety
Drink and drugs policy
Smoking
Toiletbreaks
Women and hazards
[complete list]
Safety Reps News
Britain:
Superhub safety rep sorts out chutes
Parcelforce Worldwide has agreed to a £1.4m package of improvements
to Coventry’s ‘superhub’ distribution centres after
a union report highlighted major health and safety problems. A briefing
from CWU national health and safety officer Dave Joyce noted: “This
can be regarded as a hard fought and well won victory for the CWU which
I take pride in and so should the Coventry engineers who stuck by their
insistence that action needed to be taken.”
CWU
briefing [word] • Risks
353
Hazards news, 26 April 2008
New
Zealand: Worker participation key to improvements
“Involving workers in managing health and safety at work is a key
to improving our record in this area,” NZCTU secretary Carol Beaumont
has said. Her comments followed the release of the New Zealand government’s
Workplace Health and Safety Strategy second progress report.
NZCTU
news release • NZ
Department of Labour news release
Hazards news, 24 November 2007
Britain:
Get TUC certified online!
Experienced union health and safety reps can sign up online for TUC’s
premier safety qualification, the TUC occupational health certificate.
TUC says the certificate course “will help health and safety reps
become better reps by building health and safety organisation in the workplace;
tackling welfare and environmental issues; deepening and extending the
capacities of learners enabling them to access union health and safety
posts or higher education opportunities and by developing personal/study
skills, the ability to work collectively and generally improve the confidence
of learners to study at a higher level.”
Check
out the TUC website for further details
Hazards news, 3 November 2007
Britain:
Rail union blast after detonator discovery
Four detonators in an open metal box labelled “explosives”
were housed in a Tube station storage room normally used for keeping liquids,
rail union TSSA has said. The detonators were discovered during a safety
inspection by TSSA safety reps. TSSA
news release • BBC
News Online
Hazards news, 20 October 2007
Britain:
New move to resurrect roving safety reps
Construction unions and contractors are calling for roving safety reps
to be brought back in a bid to cut death and accident rates on sites.
They claim the reps – which operated on sites in a now defunct government
backed worker safety adviser (WSA) scheme - are the best way to spread
the safety message among small contractors.
Contract
Journal • Hazards
roving reps news updates
Hazards news, 6 October 2007
Britain:
Recognition of union role welcomed
Unions and safety campaigners have welcomed a commitment at the construction
safety forum to greater worker involvement. GMB national health and safety
officer, John McClean, said: “The DWP are again to look at the role
of worker safety advisers, effectively roving safety reps, to evaluate
how they can help in delivering peer to peer safety information and improving
health and safety culture across the UK's building sites.”
BBC
News Online • UCATT
news release
Hazards news, 22 September 2007
Britain:
Obstructed safety rep gets payout
A union safety rep on London’s Tube system who was prevented from
fulfilling his health and safety role by London Underground has won thousands
of pounds in compensation at an employment tribunal. London Underground
was found to have “wilfully and deliberately” flouted health
and safety law by refusing to allow Paul McCarthy, 47, to inspect four
tube lines.
ASLEF
news release
Hazards news, 15 September 2007
Britain:
Safety reps mean action at work
Union safety reps make workplace safety campaigns effective, research
for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has found. The study looked
at the involvement of safety reps in HSE’s better backs campaign,
examining the impact of the training and support provided by Unite’s
Amicus section.
Hazards news
report, 1 September 2007 •
Hazards safety
reps’ webpage • Hazards
union effect webpage
Hazards news, 1 September 2007
Britain:
Official guide says “stop if hazardous”
A new HSE construction “task card” advises site staff to “Think
First, Act Safe, Stop if Hazardous and Keep Safe.” It is rare for
HSE to be so explicit on the stop work issue, although section 7 of the
Health and Safety at Work Act places a clear legal duty on workers to
take care not to put themselves at risk, and the Employment Rights Act
makes in an offence for an employer to victimise a worker for leaving
or refusing to return to the job where there is a serious and imminent
danger.
HSE webpage on Achieving
Behavioural Change (ABC) and the Task Card
[pdf]
• Hazards
magazine victimisation webpages
Hazards news, 11 August 2007
Australia:
New charter to protect workers
A new charter of workplace rights that sets out baseline health and safety
and compensation standards has been launched by Australian national union
federation ACTU. ACTU president Sharan Burrow said: “The health
and safety of Australian workers is of paramount importance to the ACTU
and the union movement and this charter spells out a decent set of minimum
standards for workplace rights that can work in all workplaces across
Australia.”
ACTU
news release • ACTU occupational health and safety workplace
rights charter [pdf]
• ABC
News
Hazards news, 9 June 2007
Britain: Union anger at snub for safety reps
The TUC has expressed anger and bewilderment after the Health and Safety
Commission (HSC) this week decided there will be no new rights for union
safety reps. Commenting on the decision, which was opposed by union commissioners
on HSC, a TUC spokesperson said: “We fail to understand how this
decision could be made in the face of overwhelming support for change
expressed by respondents to the recent consultation exercise, but whatever
the decision, this issue will not go away.”
Worker Involvement - Outcome of discussions with Social Partners
- HSC/07/47, paper to HSC meeting, 5 June 2007 [pdf].
Has failure by your employer to consult on risk assessments or to respond
to a safety rep let to injury, ill-health, near miss or other problem
in your workplace? Tell
TUC, in confidence
Are you worth new rights? Hazards
magazine found reps save lives and cash • Hazards
safety reps’ webpages
Hazards news, 9 June 2007
Britain:
Bosses and HSE must do better
Employers and the government's own safety watchdog should do more to support
health and safety representatives, unions in the south west of England
have warned. The alert comes after a survey of unions conducted by Hazards
magazine concluded the top problem facing union safety reps is getting
employers to act on safety concerns.
Bath
Chronicle • Safety
repressed: Safety reps save lives and cash, so why doesn't HSE give them
more time?, Hazards magazine, issue 97, 2007 • Hazards
safety reps webpages
Hazards news, 19 May 2007
Britain:
Outrage at “embarrassing” HSE slap in the face for reps
Unions and campaigners have expressed outrage at what they see as a Health
and Safety Executive (HSE) attempt to ignore the findings of last year’s
consultation on worker involvement. Amicus is calling for complaints about
the HSE recommendations to be made directly to HSE chief executive Geoffrey
Podger, and adds: “What is most insulting is the slap in the face
to safety reps, who each day make it their life to improve the working
environment, helping work colleagues and their employers to ensure people
go home safe.”
Risks 299, 24 March 2007
Britain:
Unions demand rethink on safety reps’ rights
Proposals from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that safety reps
should have no new consultation rights despite such measures being supporting
overwhelmingly in a national consultation have led to union consternation
and the deferral of a final decision. A TUC spokesperson said: “We
urge the HSC to respect the views of those employers, safety representatives
and safety professionals who responded to the consultation exercise and
implement the proposed changes as soon as possible.”
Risks 299, 24 March 2007
Britain:
Give safety reps more time to make work safer
A union safety role that saves society millions each year and prevents
thousands from being injured or made sick is being undermined by a lack
of support from employers and the government's official safety watchdog.
Risks 297, 10 March 2007 •
Safety
repressed: Safety reps save lives and cash, so why doesn’t HSE give
them more time?, Hazards magazine,
issue 97, 2007
Britain:
Safety reps the key to improving safety
More rights and more time for trade union safety reps is the best way
to improve workplace health and safety, a major conference has been told.
Keynote speaker Hugh Robertson, the TUC’s head of safety, told the
sell-out 8 February event organised jointly by the Health and Safety Executive
and North West TUC: “The key to improving safety is supporting that
band of volunteers in the workplace - union safety reps.”
Risks 293, 10 February 2007 • Hazards
union effect
Britain:
New HSE inspection pack on worker involvement
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published a new “topic
pack” to advise HSE and local authority inspectors on worker consultation
and involvement issues. HSE says: “This topic inspection pack is
designed to help staff in HSE and local authorities to: understand what
is meant by ‘worker involvement’; understand the legal requirements
to inform and consult workers, along with the policy position on enforcing
those requirements; determine when discussion of worker involvement is
appropriate; and promote the benefits of involving workers.”
Risks 291, 27 January 2007 • HSE publication
alert and full inspection pack [pdf]
Britain:
CWU rams home workplace rights message
Communication workers’ union CWU has repeated its call for new rights
for union safety reps and for them to be given better official support.
CWU national health and safety officer Dave Joyce said: “Trained
safety reps are at the cutting edge when it comes to addressing the new
health and safety hazards of the 21st century.”
Risks 285, 2 December 2006
Britain:
Checkout this checkout workers
Checkout workers should checkout their checkouts or risk back pain, retail
union Usdaw has warned. It says its simple 10 point ‘Checkout Checklist’
will help stamp out back pain for till operators who are shifting several
metric tonnes of goods during an average shift.
Risks 280, 28 October 2006 • More
tools for checking out your workplace
Britain:
National Inspection Day, 25 October
National Inspection day this year is on 25 October, the Wednesday of European
Health and Safety Week. The TUC, ever keen on getting safety reps inspecting,
has produced a poster for the day, and there is a page on the TUC website
publicising the event. workers - a guide for safety representatives.
Risks 278, 14 October 2006
Britain:
Safety rep exposes Romec safety failures
A trade union safety rep has exposed “blatant” safety failures
at cleaning company Romec. Postal union CWU said a “determined investigation”
by CWU area safety rep Andy McArthur has “uncovered a number of
unacceptable health and safety shortcomings in Romec Cleaning Services”,
a contractor providing cleaning services to Royal Mail and a range of
blue chip companies.
Risks 273, 9 September 2006
Britain:
What did HSE ever do for trade unions?
Unions and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) might have occasional differences
– OK, really big bust-ups – but that doesn’t mean there’s
not a lot of good stuff going on too. A new briefing from HSE lists over
20 positive recent developments, from the creation of a “worker
involvement programme” with dedicated staff and its own impressive
six-figure budget, to joint working on campaigns and publications.
Risks 267, 29 July 2006
Britain:
What’s it like out there?
The TUC wants to find out what safety reps are up to. TUC’s sixth
survey of safety reps is designed to provide the TUC and individual unions
with information about where their safety reps can be found, and about
their experiences and needs.
About
the TUC Safety Reps Survey 2006 • Online
survey form – fill it out now!
Britain:
New rights – now it doesn’t hurt to ask!
The TUC has produced a handy guide to help safety reps respond to the
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) consultative document on how to encourage,
improve and increase worker involvement in health and safety.
Risks 260, 10 June 2006
Britain:
Usdaw safety reps want to PIN down dangers
Retail union Usdaw is to call for extended rights for union safety reps,
including the right to issue Provisional Improvement Notices (PINs). A
proposition backing the call for safety reps to have the power to issue
the legally-binding notices to stop illegally dangerous work was passed
at the union’s Blackpool conference.
Risks 255, 6 May 2006
Britain:
Speak up for better safety reps’ rights!
The Health and Safety Executive has now published the dates of its regional
“discussion meetings”, to road test opinion on new workers’
consultation rights. HSE last month issued a consultative document, after
lengthy pressure from the TUC, and now wants “to seek views on how
to encourage, improve and increase worker involvement in health and safety
risk management.”
• Meeting
dates and locations 24 May, Cardiff, 17.30-19.30; 25 May, Cardiff,
08.30-10.30; 31 May, Scotland (location to be finalised), 17.30-19.30;
1 June, Scotland (location to be finalised), 08.30-10.30; 6 June, Manchester,
17.30-19.30; 7 June, Manchester, 08.30-10.30; 13 June, London, 17.30-19.30;
16 June, London, 09.30-11.30. Improving
worker involvement – Improving health and safety • Risks
255, 6 May 2006
Britain:
Rail union wins safety staffing stand-off
Strike action by more than 750 RMT platform station staff and guards at
newly re-privatised South Eastern Trains was averted this week after the
company withdrew cuts in platform staff and agreed to honour a pledge
to staff certain “high risk” stations.
Risks 254, 29 April 2006
Britain:
Speak up for better safety reps’ rights!
Want better rights for trade union safety reps? Then you better speak
up now. After lengthy pressure from the TUC, the Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) this week issued a Consultative Document “to seek views on
how to encourage, improve and increase worker involvement in health and
safety risk management.
Improving
worker involvement – Improving health and safety, Consultative
Document CD207, full consultative document, summary document, print-off-and-use
feedback form and online feedback form. Single printed copies of the Consultative
Document and summary can be obtained from HSE
Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2WA, Tel: 01787 881165,
Fax: 01787 313 995.
Risks 254, 29 April 2006
Europe:
New research project on safety reps
A new European research project is to analyse the role and effectiveness
of safety reps at work. EPSARE, the brainchild of safety experts in the
European trade union ETUI-REHS research thinktank, was launched because
“research on the effectiveness of safety reps interventions both
in the fields of health and safety and industrial relations is scarce.”
Risks 252, 15 April 2006
Britain:
Non-union workplaces clueless on consultation
An investigation by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) boffins into workforce
participation in non-union workplaces has found most are clueless when
it comes to consultation rules and there is very limited participation
from the workforce as a whole.
Risks 237, 17 December 2005
Britain:
Worker Safety Adviser funds up for grabs
A £1 million fund to encourage greater worker involvement in health
and safety in small businesses is accepting applications. The Health and
Safety Executive (HSE) operates the Worker Safety Adviser (WSA) Challenge
Fund - worker Safety Advisers are a watered-down and extremely rare version
of the national system of roving union safety reps unions have been seeking
for over a decade.
Risks 234, 26 November 2005
Britain:
The complete TUC guide to everything
The TUC has published ‘Hazards at work: Organising for safe and
healthy workplaces’, the epic, must-have, one-stop guide for safety
reps and anyone else who knows the difference between seeing a safety
problem and solving it.
Risks 227, 8 October 2005
Britain:
If you want to get safe, get organised
Union workplaces are safer, healthier places for a reason – because
union organisation keeps them that way. It’s not that we know more
– although we usually do – it is because we have the numbers,
the support and the skills to get our safety message across.
Risks 226, 1 October 2005
Britain:
Amicus calls for better safety rules offshore
Oil industry workers need better health and safety protection and rights,
the offshore union Amicus has told the government. At a meeting in Aberdeen
this week, union leaders told health and safety minister Lord Hunt there
should be a complete revision of the “fundamentally failing”
health and safety representative regulations for offshore workers.
Risks 223, 10 September 2005
Britain:
Making the boss hand over the info
Safety reps can use employment law to force employers to hand over crucial
safety information, a workers’ health and safety watchdog has said.
Employment advisers from the London Hazards Centre (LHC) say some employers
are using the Data Protection Act as a legal smokescreen to deny safety
reps access to information to which they are clearly entitled under the
safety reps’ regulations.
Risks 220, 20 August 2005
Britain:
Safety reps' rights - the law online
The legal rights of union safety representatives are spelled out in the
'Brown Book' - the one-stop source for the regulations, code of practice
and guidance on safety representatives. The TUC has produced a version
of this essential reference guide for training purposes, available online
for the first time.
Risks 201, 9 April 2005
Britain:
Union project body maps the route to glory
A trade union college has won a prestigious national health and safety
award. The Association of Colleges (AoC) "College Champion"
health and safety award for 2005 went to the Trade Union Studies Centre
at Lewisham College, which took top honours for its collaborative "body
mapping" project with construction union UCATT.
Risks 200, 2 April 2005
Britain:
TGWU membership pays off
The Transport and General Workers' Union secured over £72 million
in accident and injury compensation last year for individual members.
It says this takes the total compensation settlements won since the union
was founded to over £1.65 billion.
Risks 200, 2 April 2005
Britain:
Prospect sows the seeds of safety
An apple a day is supposed to keep the doctor away, but scientific and
specialists' union Prospect has added a banana and an orange to the recipe
in a bid to improve workplace health and safety. Three new fruity health
and safety posters from the union stress the importance of workplace health
and safety inspections and health and safety representatives.
Risks 195, 19 February 2005
Britain:
HandS
up for safety reps
The safety rep colonisation of cyberspace is continuing at warp speed.
A new and extremely impressive addition to the galaxy of safety reps'
websites is "HandS", the brainchild of an Amicus health and
safety rep, is among the most comprehensive sources of well-targeted information
you are ever likely to find.
Risks 190, 15 January 2005 • HandS
website
Britain:
London roadmap for a safety rep in every workplace
London's unions have prepared an ambitious roadmap for a health and safety
rep in every workplace and a "positive and meaningful partnership
between that rep, the employer, unions and the Health and Safety Executive."
Risks 184, 27 November 2004
Australia:
Survey finds unlawful intimidation safety reps
One in three health and safety reps has been intimidated into not raising
health and safety concerns, a survey in the Australian state of Victoria
has found. The same number reported being bullied after raising a health
and safety issue in the workplace.
Risks 180, 30 October 2004
Britain:
Future of safety reps conference, London, 7 October 2004
An October 2004 participatory seminar on the future of safety reps will
discuss the work of trade union safety representatives. Further information
online or telephone 020 7794 5999.
Risks 170, 21 August 2004
Australia:
Unions want to get it right
Union organisations in the Australian state of Victoria have launched
a campaign for sweeping new workplace health and safety rights. Victorian
Trades Hall Council's "Getting it right" campaign aims to press
the state government to honour its commitment to revise health and safety
laws.
Risks 163, 3 July 2004
Britain:
Roving reps scheme "limited" but welcome, says TUC
Union schemes will dominate the first round of Worker Safety Adviser (WSA)
Challenge Fund projects. TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson welcomed the
recognition of the positive union role, but warned: "This initiative
is very limited and we still need changes to the safety reps' regulations
to ensure that we have roving safety reps and better rights to extend
the benefits of the union safety effect nationwide."
Risks 163, 3 July 2004
New
Zealand: Unions train 6,000 safety reps
Six thousand trade union health and safety reps have been trained in just
one year in a bid to drive down New Zealand's alarming toll of workplace
death and injury.
Risks 155, 8 May 2004
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