Posted By Graham Bullough
Most of you are probably aware of train driver Laurie Holden who experienced considerable opposition and intimidation from his former employer, Connex South Eastern, when, as an ASLEF safety rep, he doggedly pursued issues vital to the safety of fellow drivers and train passengers. A 2 part article in the June and July editions of RoSPA's "Occupational Safety & Health" magazine clearly describes his experiences. These led to an Employment Tribunal hearing which fully vindicated his efforts and strongly criticised Connex and some of its managers. His website www.connexnews.com contains considerable detail about his experiences, including comments from the Tribunal and the contents of related documents.

At this stage I should mention that I have no connection with Laurie Holden or with the railway industry except as an occasional passenger. Nevertheless, one aspect which struck me about the circumstances was that there seemed to be no mention of any Connex health & safety advisers. Perhaps there were none. If there were, it's not my intention to knock them in this forum as they may have had little clout within the company which evidently had a culture where profits and reputation were ranked as being far more important than health and safety. From this aspect arises a lesson for all of us who are health & safety advisers: Do the employees and safety reps of the companies and organisations for whom we work know we exist, who we are and how to contact us? I know the HSE Health & Safety Law poster says that employees and safety reps should be informed about "competent persons" and then has a blank space for adding such information, but I guess that few employees ever look at the poster. Therefore, are we taking other measures to effectively make ourselves known to employees and their reps? If we can demonstrate to employers, employees and safety reps that we are professional and impartial, these measures should help to keep us informed about ongoing problems and issues, and enable us to promote the benefits of health and safety for all concerned. Among other things, they may help to prevent other diligent safety reps from having to endure what Laurie Holden experienced.

Posted By Graham Bullough
Barrie - thanks for your comments. According to the information in the articles Laurie Holden did "nibble" initially by reporting various issues in writing to his employer. However, when it became evident that the employer would do nothing about them, he sought support from ASLEF his trade union. Sadly, it transpired that ASLEF was weak and ineffectual in this respect and, worse still, some of its full time officials were more concerned with keeping in with the employer than supporting him over justifiable health and safety matters. Thus, his experiences also present a significant lesson for trade unions and their members. Although the employer may have had no H & S advisers or Laurie Holden did not know of any, he certainly knew about the HSE Railway Inspectorate and, for the reasons outlined above, had to resort to contacting them directly. Although this generated action by HSE (and thus validated the issues he was pursuing) it also provoked his employer's managers into further demonstrating their ignorance and contempt for health and safety by an escalating campaign of harassment against him.

Now to a suggestion regarding the main thrust of my thread which was about whether employees and reps know of their employers' H & S advisers. During European health & safety week last October my colleagues devised a simple quiz sheet which was sent to all of our employer's 12,000 or so employees as a pay slip enclosure. We had a good response with replies from a wide spectrum of positions and locations within our employer's organisation, no doubt tempted by the cash prizes for the first 4 or 5 replies drawn from the box. However, as well as provoking some discussion amongst employees at the time, the quiz and follow-up publicity provided an inexpensive way of telling every employee (including lone and peripatetic workers who rarely see notice boards or get information from other sources) that we exist and how to contact us about H & S issues which cannot be resolved locally with their line managers.