Safety Reps Denied Further Rights

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. The decision had been deferred at HSC's March meeting after a TUC bid to get new rights on risk assessments and consultation - strongly supported in a formal consultation on the issue - was rejected, so TUC instead called for separate discussions with employers' organisations in a bid to resolve the issue.

However, in subsequent talks with TUC, both CBI and manufacturers' lobby group EEF would not support any new rights. This week's HSC meeting agreed that there would be no change to the safety reps' regulations or 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.

Commenting on the decision, which was opposed by union commissioners on HSC, a TUC spokesperson told Risks: "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." She added: "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."

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.

Source: TUC Risks

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