I work for a medium sized manufacturing business, un-unionised, and around 90 employees. We have 4 "Respresentatives of employee safety". Don't forget they have slightly different roles and responsibilities than union appointed "Health and Safety representatives" - best set out here https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg232.pdf    )

We allow them sufficient time to consult with employees without ever writing down a number, I expect around 5 hours each per month is about normal. Basically we let them manage the time and trust them not to abuse the priviledge. We hold a meeting with them, the supervisor, and management once per month. This is minuted and made public to the enire workforce (sensitive information is redacted), either by email or display on the H&S notice board. In this meeting we discuss

• Significant findings of any risk assessments
• Changes to HSE guidelines/legislation
• Upcoming training requirments
• Site safety improvements and suggestions
• Near misses and accident
• Changes to the work place

etc. We should also be discussing the enviroment and quality, but this rarely comes up.

Whilst we don't have them on specific training, they do receive guidance etc. from myself and have access to the web should they need it. If they requested better training, we would probably allow it. They tend to also be the fire marshalls, first aiders etc.

I am sure we could do more, and the meetings can become a slog at times. Often they decend into production issues and other general complaints, and I spend a lot of the time getting the meeting back on course. I also welcome any suggestions to shaking this up a bit.