Posted By Jeffh Help, If a safety representative (elected by the union) is attending a training course on a day which they are not normally in work (due to shift rotation) does the employer pay wages for the time attended? Also, have all the safety representatives the right to attend safety committee meetings or as long as one representative is on the committee the rest is it at the discretion of the employer?

Posted By Mike Craven As far as Safety Committees are concerned, the answer to your two questions are "no" and "no". Every Safety Rep doesn't have the right to attend every Safety Committee meeting, but who attends isn't a matter for the employer's descretion. The idea is that the employer and the TU agree the terms of reference (including composition) of the Safety Committee - Once numbers are agreed, it is for the unions to decide who will attend. In this respect, H&S Committees are no different from Industrial Relations/Collective Bargaining meetings. For example, our Joint Consultative and Health & Safety Committees both have places for up to 6 union reps. There are more than 6 reps and so the unions decide (usually via the Branch Secretary and JCC Chair) who is going to attend. Having said that, I would always encourage anyone setting-up a H&S Committee to try and get the unions to have "dedicated" Committee members. Or guys wouldn't accept my proposal of having "named" TU reps on the Safety Committee but, to be fair to the TUs, they do tend to send the same people along each time and management/union relationships (as far as H&S is concerned) do seem positive. Mike

Posted By Jeffh Thanks for your replies it certainly helps to be able to bounce these questions of other H&S advisors. We have always had a very good H&S committee and included the union branch secretary and reps, which we have invested a great deal of time and money in training internally and externally. However there has been a change of the branch sec and union reps and unfortunately they are throwing the regs at us which is forcing us to restructure the committee which we feel is detrimental to the H&S culture. It seems silly to have to go through this every time the union has a change, I can understand the regs are in place to protect against company who are not H&S conscientious, but it can also disrupt the a very competent committee every time the union changes. Again thanks for your help. Jeff

Posted By Raymond Rapp Jeff From past and present experience I will add the following: It may be preferable to give TU reps an alternative rest day if their TUC course falls on their day off. I believe the onus is on the company to regard it as a day of work, whatever the case. Best practice is to agree with TU reps who should sit of the h&s committee, normally areas within the company are divided so as not to duplicate, such as for quarterly inspections. Therefore committees can be divided and sub-divided depending on the size of the company. The ACOP suggests that there should be an equal proportion between managers and TU reps on h&s committes for obvious reasons. Regards Ray