TUC’s action plan, ‘Safety reps: A charter for change’, calls for:
• Safety enforcers to ask all employers how they consult with their workforce
• A campaign to show employers the value of consultation and remind them of their legal obligations
• More support for safety reps from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
• A recognition that the union model is the most effective one in protecting the health and safety of workers
• Free access to all official approved codes of practice (ACoPs) and guidance for safety reps
• Increased training for both HSE and local authority inspectors on the role and function of safety reps
• Greater enforcement of legal consultation requirements
• New sanctions against employers who deny safety reps paid release for training
• Penalties on employers who victimise a safety rep
• A new legal duty on employers to respond to issues raised by safety reps
• A duty on enforcing authorities to react to a complaint from a safety rep when their employer has not responded adequately
• A specific requirement on employers to consult safety reps on risk assessments and controls arising out of them
• An extension of Regulation 8 of the safety reps’ regulations to cover other industries with large numbers of short-term, temporary ’self-employed’ or freelance workers
• An extension of the ability of safety reps to act outside their immediate workplace or employer in certain circumstances
• The right for safety reps to stop unsafe and dangerous work
• A legal requirement on all employers with more than 20 employees to have safety reps and all employers with more than 50 employees to have a safety committee.
• Continuation of the Workplace Advisers scheme in construction
• A national worker adviser scheme for small and medium sized firms, using union appointed and supported safety reps
Safety reps: A charter for change – full document [pdf]
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