Posted By Anon1
Hello all,

A scenario as follows:

Imagine a Group X. Within this group there are a number of separate companies - Company A, Company B, Company C, etc.

Now, Company A has a union and union safety reps, but the rest do not. A few of Company A's employees who are union members are working on Company B's premises, and Company B does not have a union. The Company A employees working on Company B's premises will in the not too distant future become employees of Company B.

In the meantime, does a union safety rep who is a Company A employee working on Company A's premises have any right to represent those Company A employees working on Company B's premises, or have they any right to even be on Company B's premises?

Long term what might happen is that once everyone working in Company B is an employee of Company B, they may well join a union for themselves and appoint their own union safety reps (it may or may not even be the same union), but as Company A and Company B are separate companies, won't union activity in Company A be totally separate from union activity in Company B?

It just all seems a bit messy in the meantime. Would appreciate your views.

Thanks.

Posted By J Knight
Hi Anon,

The ACOP and guidance to the committees and reps regs seem to use 'employees' and 'workplace' almost at random and interchangeably, though you could build a case for saying that reps represent their fellow employees wherever they are working. The duty to inspect, though, refers explicitly to 'the workplace' and this could be an obstacle. However, I'd go back to 'The duties to co-operate and co-ordinate measures relate to all statutory duties' which is para 70 of the guidance to the Management regs, and get the two employers to reach a formal agreement on this in consultation with the TU involved about who can represent whom and in what context,

John

Posted By Anon1
OK. Now let's take things a bit further. What would happen if management of Company B said that they didn't want Union Safety Reps from Company A on Company B premises?

What recourse would either union safety reps from Company A, or Company A employees working on Company B's premises, have against Company B?

I am thinking none, because Company B is neither the employer of the Company A employees (yet) nor the Company A union safety reps, and the legislation only sets out duties for their employer (Company A, not Company B).

Thanks.

Posted By Paul Devlin
The H&S reps in company A would be entitled to look after the H&S issues of the members under their remit even if they did indeed work on company B's premises which would mean inardvertantly they would be looking after the H&S issues of the staff in Company B by default.

As mentioned in the reply before this even if there isn't a union per se then the employer is still entitled to consult with its employees on matters affecting their H&S.

There is documentary evidence that unionised workplaces with recognised H&S reps are safer than non unionised workplaces.

In the end it will be the employees who will decide whether they are in a union or not and the company will have to accept this.