Rank: Super forum user 
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Morning all.
Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 talks about Safety Representatives being appointed by Trades Unions.
Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996 talks about employer direct consultation with employees, or having Representatives of Employee Safety being elected from the workforce.
Suppose an employer has employees representing their departments but are not appointed or elected as above - how should they be described in the arrangements section of a health and safety management system?
I appreciate that this is not the most taxinghealth and safety issue we are going to be presented with, but I wonder what the concensus is?
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Rank: Super forum user
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I am presuming that you do not have reconised trade unions in your workplace.
There is nothing wrong if you have employee "representatives" from each departments and that the representatives are empowered to communicate etc the issues from employees to the employer and vice versa.
In our case, we do not have recognised trade unions, but have a health, safety and environmental committee where there is employee representation of all departments. These employee representatives are empowered to communicate etc the HSE issues from employees to the employer and vice versa. In practice, we give them the same facilities/resources those required for Trade Union Reps.
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Rank: Super forum user
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At my last company (400+ employees) we had trade union representation. I have no idea what % of the employees were union members but it was over 51%.
We asked the union if they would be willing to represent ALL employees in matters relating to health and safety and if ALL employees could vote in the Safety Representative elections. The answer to both being YES we only had Safety Representatives, though if any employee had voiced concern about their representation we would have instituted a system similar to that of a sister company.
The sister company who is much larger with 3000 employees has both Safety Representatives and Representatives of Safety, the former being union members elected by the union members and the latter being non union employees elected by non union employees.
Both systems could have inbuilt problems but so far have appeared to work as a means of communication with employees (formally through safety committee meetings, etc and informally through a drop in open door system, etc).
The important issue is that you have formal two way communication with ALL your employees which is recorded and I would suggest that this is supported by informal communication methods.
Take Care
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Rank: Super forum user
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Posted before I was kicked out without answering your question.
In our Arrangements Section we detailed that our Safety Representatives were elected by ALL employees in a secret ballot organised by the union. We also detailed that if any employee was unhappy with this method of representation then they should contact a member of the senior management team or the safety department and their concerns would be recorded and addressed.
So basically just say what you do
e.g.
We are a non union company and as such we ask for volunteers/elect representatives from each department who act as Representatives of Safety for that department at Safety Committee Meetings held at ??? intervals. The minutes of these meetings are recorded, issued to all attendees and distributed on each department safety notice board
In the past I have used Meeting diagrams to show how the meetings held within the company fit together to communicate H&S throughout the company.
If you want more information then you can PM me.
Take Care
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