 Home Health and Safety Health and Safety News
HSC continues to block safety rep improvements
12 June 2007
The TUC has expressed anger and bewilderment at the HSC's refusal to improve safety rep rights.
At the March meeting of the HSC, the HSE presented a paper based on their consultation on worker involvement. Despite overwhelming support in the responses to the consultation, HSE argued that there should be no changes to improve safety reps rights on consultation and on risk assessments in the regulations. The TUC Commissioners objected strongly and called for further talks with employers' organisations. Talks with both the CBI and the EEF, the manufacturers' lobby group, revealed that they would not support any new rights. At the June HSC meeting it was decided that there would be no change to the safety reps' regulations or even to the related Approved Code of Practice - the two approaches that would have given legal back-up to any new rights. Work on revising guidance, which has no enforceable 'evidential' legal status, will continue.
The trade union Commissioners made their objection to the decision very clear.
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. We will continue to raise it again and again, not only with the HSC but also with ministers and politicians. We know that improved rights for safety reps not only make sense, but are desperately needed. The consequence of this decision is more injuries and illnesses.'
The TUC is asking affiliated unions for examples of where safety representatives have not been consulted on a risk assessment and it has had health and safety consequences, or any examples of where an employer had not responded to a safety representative and someone had been injured or made ill as a result.
If there are any Usdaw reps out there with examples of the problems that can occur when safety reps are not consulted on risk assessments or when employers don't listen to what you say, please get in touch with the H&S section at Central Office.
Contact Details
Health and Safety section
Ph: 0161 249 2441
Fax: 0161 249 2475
Email: healthandsafety@usdaw.org.uk
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