Posted By Alison WR
What do people do about training up non-union safety committee members - that is management representatives and ROES?

I'm interested in how much training you provide, what it covers, and whether you have providers you would recommend.

Our environment is straight-forward office work.

Regards

Alison

Posted By Alison WR
Sorry,

Can I clarify that I am not interested in Union training - we have that covered.

We have plenty of ideas about what our management members and ROES should receive in the way of training, but are trying to establish some sort of benchmark - hence the question about what training people provide for their non-union committee members.

Regards

Alison

Posted By Ian G Hutchings
Hi Alison

I would train the people on the committee the same as anyone else in the business.

My view is that people should be trained based on their role in terms of influence and managerial position, rather than because they are on a committee.

If you separate training in a different way to those on a committee, you are essentially supporting a view (in my opinion) that the committee is there to manage safety. I just think that managers should manage safety as part of their everyday roles. The 'committee' (I dislike the word 'committee' it reminds me of some sort of village council) should focus its effort on improvement rather than reacting to issues that should be dealt with by the local managers and supervisors.

Why do we think that H&S needs to be managed by a 'committee?'. Do we have committees for all the other areas of business management?

Sorry, had a bit of a rant then. I think that committees were developed in the days when (hopefully not now, but I know they still are in some places) when management didn't give a toss about H&S. Hopefully they do now?


Cheers

Ian

Posted By Pete48
Alison, I agree with Alan about the committee not managing safety so I also challenge the premise that committee members need any safety training beyond that necessary to do their "day" job safely? The committes is a means to an end; namely to provide the best chance of effective, formalised consultation and communication with employees on H&S matters. You will be part of the process and available to advise the committee on technical matters. Therefore, in my experience, training needs to cover team / communication / consultation skills rather than technical safety skills. That way they avoid taking or being cast into the role of "technical and moral keepers of safety". It is governance or management planning committees that need a high order of safety knowledge and skill in the team.
Chatting with my HR people found the solution for our culture and the right training for us.

Better that the committee request specific safety training as the need arises. That way, they will be specifying and justifying it; not you or others prescribing it for them. An example might be things like safety auditing skills if, for example, they were recognised as a useful resource to audit some safety performance areas.

Posted By Berg
A Management Rep on a Safety Committee must be conversant with their safety management responsibilities and have a basic understanding of the legal duties in order to carry out their normal day to day role.

Therefore a basic Safety Management course should be sort if existing training and experience is not considered sifficient by those concerned as with any other aspect their management role.

This process is essentially for consulation but does have wider input into safety improvement if done well.