Posted By Paul L Williams Tom, We have a non union site and what we do is put a memo on the notice board from the safety committee stating the need for a new safety representative in 'X' department. We encourage the department to self elect their representative, however it is usually an individual who likes the idea of being more involved in H&S. The memo also states the benefits of being a safety representative, moral reasons and personal ones such as IOSH managing safely training. We are now considering training our Safety Representatives in the NEBOSH general Certificate. Cheers Paul

Posted By Simpletom Thanks for the assistance - any ideas as to what might be considered a fair way to hold eelections. I need to be seen to be squeeky clean as I am sure the union reps will be monitoring (which is not a problem, unless I use a method which is deemed unacceptable!!)

Posted By Fred Pratley This may seem daft, but why is HSE requesting you increase the number of union reps? Is the problem a lack of communication, or lack of feedback from staff? Simply increasing the number of representatives may not have the desired effect. Regards Fred

Posted By Ken Taylor Just to introduce an element of controversy: you could, as an alternative, opt to consult all employees and use notice boards, letters in wage packets, line management structure 2-way communications, etc.