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Safety reps need more time and more support from employers
13 March 2007
A TUC survey published in the award-winning magazine 'Hazards' identifies lack of management support and problems with release as the main problems for safety reps.
The survey features in the Spring issue of the TUC-backed magazine for trade union safety reps. Hazards found that the top problem facing union safety reps was the difficulty of getting employers to act on safety concerns. Over one-third (35 per cent) of reps questioned rated this as their top concern and 90 per cent listed it as a top three concern. The same proportion said the problem for safety reps was getting their legally allowed time off for training and to undertake inspection, investigation and other crucial workplace safety functions.
The TUC points out that safety reps do make a significant difference to health and safety performance.Using their legal functions to spot hazards and negitiate improvements, they are able to reduce the number of days lost to UK businesses by as much as 616,000 days a year. Some conservative estimates suggest that union reps already prevent over 11,000 cases of work-related ill-health or injury a year, with the real effect on safety almost certainly more than double this.
The TUC would like to see the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provide safety reps with far more support and take legal action against employers who consistently fail to give safety reps enough time away from their jobs to carry out their safety duties properly.
Worryingly, a third of all the survey respondents (35 per cent) said one of their top problems was getting support from the official safety enforcement agencies. This is reflected in official enforcement statistics, which show no record of the HSE ever prosecuting an employer for breaching the regulations on safety reps' rights.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Up and down the UK, thousands of safety reps are trying to make work safer for their colleagues, in some cases with little help from employers. It would make the world of difference to the poor safety record of UK workplaces if the HSE gave safety reps more support and got tough with bosses who refuse to give safety reps their legally entitled time off.
'If safety reps were guaranteed time off to inspect factories offices, and other workplaces, the UK would see a real reduction in the number of workers killed, made ill or injured by their jobs every year.'
The report - ' Safety Repressed' - is available on the Hazards website. To find out more about subscribing to Hazards magazine,click here.
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