Employers who consult their employees over health and safety issues involve the whole of their organisation in a health and safety culture. In human and financial terms, this benefits everyone. In legal terms, this consultation is now compulsory. The Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 (SRSCR) gave trade unions the legal right to appoint workplace safety representatives. In 1996, the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations (HSCER 1996) came into force. Domestic servants and the masters and crews of sea-going ships excepted, these regulations oblige employers to consult with all those employees not represented by union safety representatives.

Consequently, most employees in Britain today have the right to be consulted in good time, directly or indirectly through their representatives, regarding:
(a) Any proposed new measures that may substantially affect their health and safety
(b) The appointment of people competent to advise employers under the Management of Health and Safety at   Work Regulations 1999
(c) Required health and safety information
(d) Health and safety training arrangements
(e) Health and safety consequences of introducing new technology

Under the SRSCR 1977, which still apply in their entirety, union safety reps have a wide range of rights and functions. These include rights to:

Representation and Consultation
(a) Make representations on behalf of their members to the employer on any health, safety and welfare matter
(b) Represent their members in consultations with HSE inspectors or other enforcing authorities and
(c) Require their employer to set up a safety committee within three months of the request

Inspection
(a) Inspect designated workplace areas at least every three months and
(b) Make additional inspections if work practices change or new information arises

Investigation
(a) Investigate potential hazards
(b) Investigate complaints by members
(c) Investigate the causes of accidents, dangerous occurrences and diseases

Assistance, information and training
(a) Receive help and facilities from the employer to enable them to carry out inspections
(b) Receive legal and technical information from inspectors
(c) Receive information from the employer to enable them to carry out their functions and
(d) Receive time off with pay to carry out their job as safety reps and to undergo TUC or union approved training

Facilities for Safety Reps
Every employer must provide any help and facilities reasonably required by safety reps to enable them to carry out their functions.

Although the law gives basic rights to safety reps, these are only put into practice through negotiation and agreement with employers. This is recognised by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) Guidance on
Safety Reps and Safety Committees. This states that employers and unions should make full and proper use of existing agreed industrial relations machinery to reach agreement on implementation of the SRSCR.

Good union organisation makes it possible to secure improvements that go beyond the minimum rights and entitlements in the SRSCR. But, when negotiations fail, health and safety inspectors could intervene:
(a) When an employer has not accepted the appointment of a safety rep by a recognised trade union
(b) When an employer has not provided information and facilities
(c) In spite of requests by at least two safety reps, an employer has not taken steps to set up a safety committee.

Who appoints Safety Reps?
Independent trade unions recognised by employers have the right to appoint safety reps. Each union has to decide on their own arrangements for appointment. It is not a matter for employers. In most cases, safety
reps are elected by the members they are to represent. The employer must also be told in writing which group or groups of employees the appointed safety rep represents.

Who can be a Safety Rep?
In most unions, shop stewards can be appointed as safety reps. However, shop stewards or not, all safety reps should work closely with their trade union colleagues and ensure that they do not take decisions without the support of the members they represent. Many unions provide their appointed safety reps with credentials.
Employers have no role in this, although they should always be informed of any changes.  Always notify your regional official if you have been elected/appointed as a health and safety representative.

How many safety reps are necessary?
SRSCR do not lay down the numbers of safety reps to be appointed.  Unions and employers should negotiate this in the light of local needs and circumstances. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) view is that each safety rep should ideally be responsible for a clearly defined group of workers.

The size of these groups will vary from union to union and from workplace to workplace. Numbers of employees, variety of occupations, shift systems, the type of work activity and the degree and character of
workplace hazards are all factors that will determine how many safety reps are necessary. Unions usually relate their arrangements for appointing safety reps to their arrangements for dealing with other industrial relations matters. 

When there is more than one union involved
Sometimes, for health and safety purposes, unions favour joint representation. The guidance on SRSCR specifically allows for this, stating that the regulations do not preclude the possibility of a safety rep
representing, by mutual agreement between the appropriate unions, more than one group or groups of employees (e.g. in a small workplace or within the organisation of a small employer when the number of
recognised trade unions is high relative to the total number employed).

Replacement of safety reps
Employees cease to be safety reps when their union notifies their employer in writing that their appointment has been terminated. The appointment of a safety representative is also terminated if the employer dismisses
them or transfers them from the workplace or workplaces covered by SRSCR.

Safety reps are health and safety problem solvers taking up any matters that relate to health and safety on behalf of employees with the employer.

They have the right to the following:
(a) To investigate potential hazards and dangerous occurrences at the workplace (whether or not they are drawn to her/his attention by the employees s/he represents) and to examine the causes of accidents at
the workplace
(b) To investigate complaints by an employee s/he represents relating to the employees health, safety or welfare at work
(c) To make representations to the employer on matters arising out of the sub-paragraphs above
(d) To make representations to the employer on general maters affecting health, safety or welfare at work of the employees at the workplace
(e) To carry out inspections
(f) To represent the employees s/he was appointed to represent in consultations at the workplace with inspectors of the HSE or any other enforcing authority;
(g) To receive information from inspectors in accordance with section 28(8) of the Health and Safety at Work Act (HASAWA)
(h) To attend meetings of safety committees where s/he attends in her/his capacity as a safety rep in connection with any of the above functions; but without prejudice to sections 7 and 8 of HASAWA, no
function given to a Safety Rep by this paragraph shall be construed as imposing any duty on her/him.

Safety reps do not merely react to problems. They also have broad powers to monitor health and safety in their workplace, keep members healthand safety interests under review and discuss all matters arising with their employer. But although the employer must listen to and consult the safety rep, there is no legal means to insist that an employer acts upon the safety reps advice.

Inspections
A major part of the safety reps job is carrying out inspections. These inspections are in two main areas:
? Carry out inspections of the workplace at least once a quarter
? Inspect any documents the employer is legally required to keep on matters of health, safety and welfare at work

Arrangements for three-monthly and other more frequent inspections will need to be agreed with employers. These matters are often best dealt with at the workplace level. Issues to be discussed include:
(a) The need for more frequent inspections of high risk or rapidly changing areas of work activity
(b) Notice and timing of formal inspections by safety reps and how many safety reps will be involved
(c) The possibility of breaking up plant-wide formal inspections into smaller, more manageable inspections
(d) The need for different groups of safety reps to carry out inspections of different parts of the workplace
(e) The type of inspection to be carried out, such as safety tours, sampling or surveys (including consulting employees)
(f) The enlistment by safety reps of independent technical advisers

Formal inspections are no substitute for daily observation. However, they provide a useful opportunity to carry out a full-scale examination of all or part of the workplace, including the inspection of documents required by
health and safety legislation such as certificates concerning the testing of equipment. During these inspections, safety reps can network with other safety reps and discuss remedial action with their employers.

During inspections following notifiable accidents or dangerous occurrences, employers are not legally obliged to be present, while safety reps consult their members. There may of course be occasions when safety
reps do not wish employers to be present. However, the regulations do not preclude them or their representatives from being present. (Regulation 6 (2)).

Though considerable care needs to be taken during collection, safety reps should also be permitted to take samples of any substance used at work for independent analysis outside the workplace.

Following an inspection, safety reps should complete an inspection report, recording the date, time and details of an inspection. One copy of the completed form should be sent to the employer and one copy should be retained by the safety rep for their own records and for reference during safety committee discussions.

Risk assessments
Safety reps should not confuse workplace inspections with risk assessments. Inspections only seek to identify hazards and problems. Risk assessments are more wide ranging and identify hazards, evaluate the risks, record the findings, recommend precautions and review progress.

Management is legally responsible for carrying out risk assessments, but the Amicus-AEEU encourages safety reps to participate in all stages of risk assessments to ensure that procedures and improvements are working effectively.

Investigations
Under the SRSCR, safety reps are also allowed to investigate:
(a) Potential hazards
(b) Dangerous occurrences
(c) Causes of accidents and occupational ill-health
(d) Complaints from their members.

Safety reps could therefore, immediately, and without formal notice of an inspection, investigate imminent risks.

Following the investigation of a serious mishap, the safety rep should also complete a hazard report form, retain one copy and send the other to the employer. The employer should complete and return to the safety rep the part of the form that describes any proposed remedial action or offers an explanation. The safety committee should refer to this during their discussions of the incident. Inspection and report forms can be drafted to an agreed format to meet local needs.