Representatives of Employee Safety

Where there are employees who are not represented by safety representatives under SRSC, the employer has to consult those employees or their elected representatives (representatives of employee safety) on matters relating... 

OPSI The Offices of Public Sector Information ROES Representatives of Employee Safety... 

Regulation 4 requires the consultation to be either with the employees directly, or with representatives elected by any group of employees. Those elected are referred to as representatives of employee safety (ROES). It is important to appreciate that the choice of which form of consultation to adopt is left to the employer. If the employer decides to consult ROES, he must inform the constituents of their names and the group of employees represented. The employer must not consult an individual as a ROES in four circumstances, which are where ... 

You will need to involve a number of different people, including your safety representatives and employees, to do the risk assessments. 

Both qualitative and quantitative evaluation techniques may be used to consider the risk associated with a facility. The level and magnitude of these reviews should be commensurate with the risk that the facility represents. High value, critical facilities or employee vulnerability may warrant high review levels. While unmanned "off-the-shelf, low hazard facilities may suffice with only a checklist review. Specialized studies are performed when in-depth analysis is needed to determine the cost benefit of a safety feature or to fully demonstrate the intended safety feature has the capability to fully meet prescribed safety requirements. 

Other participants can be involved in a full time or in a limited consulting role depending on the nature of the incident, ft is important to include people who know what actually happens in the field—not just what is supposed to happen. The team selection should be able to withstand third party scrutiny such as that of employees, departments, union representatives, community groups, and legal. Some companies include trade union safety representatives in the incident investigation. Positions to consider include ... 

Employers may wish to form a safety and health committee of employees and management representatives to help the employer meet the obligations specified by this standard [1, Appendix C],... 

Employers shall consult with employees and their representatives on the conduct and development of the elements of process safety management in this standard [1, (c2)]. 

In addition to external surveillance, an internal system for ensuring compliance with the health and safety provisions is in place. This is composed of safety engineers and the occupational medical support service (which is mandatory for companies of a certain number of employees), as well as representatives of the workforce. Regular meetings between the management and other people responsible for health and safety within an enterprise are mandatory. 

The variety of plants and processes in the chemical industry makes it almost impossible to describe all existing safety concepts with the necessary detail. But this intellectual approach in itself would be a mistake, because especially with respect to process related safety concepts nearly each represents a unique solution. The reason lies in the variety of parameters which must be determined. To name just a few number of employees, qualification of the staff and internal as well as external properties of the site. Especially these parameters mentioned are hardly ever identical for two different plants or processes. 

Flanagan (1954) developed the procedure known as the critical incident technique. This relatively simple process involves interviewing job incumbents and asking for descriptions of critical incidents in their job, and also asking what they did in the particular simation. Critical incident information could also be obtained by supervisors keeping a record of simations they have observed, and employees responses to the simation. Thus, a critical incident represents a specific job simation and a particularly effective response to that simation. The critical incident technique can easily be applied to gather safety-specific examples. A sample of employees would be asked to describe a simation which had a safety aspect and then to describe how the safety issue was handled or resolved. Of course it is necessary to ensure that the response to the simation is indeed the correct response in that it is what the organization would want an employee to do when the particular safety simation occurred. Once a number of these critical incidents have been identified, they can be formed into employment interview questions. The job applicant is presented with the question (or scenario) and is assessed on their description of how they would (or have) handle or responded to the simation, and in particular how... 

It is vitally important that the employees who originally bring ideas are provided feedback as to the status of their ideas. This can be done through the minutes of the safety committee meeting, individual notices, verbal communications through safety committee representatives, or by other methods. 

Workers believing they have been punished for exercising safety and health rights must contact the nearest OSHA office within 30 days of the time they learn of the alleged discrimination. A representative of the employee s choosing can file the 11(c) complaint for the worker. Following a complaint, OSHA will contact the complainant and conduct an in-depth interview to determine whether an investigation is necessary. 

An essential part of the development of an appropriate culture is the involvement of employees through their representatives in the preparation of the safety case and the active participation of employees in the maintenance of a safe place of work. The safety case will need to clearly identify the methods used to involve employees in safety management of the facility. 

OSHA requires that the Employee Participation program be written down. This can be difficult to do well because Employee Participation is involved in so many areas of process safety and because participation represents a state of mind rather than a specific program. 

Safety committees provide a formal channel through which management and the employees can communicate with regard to process safety issues and overall company culture. There are many references to the involvement of employee representatives in the OSHA standard. These would usually be on the safety committee. If the facility is nonunion, it is essential that the employees representative is selected by the employees, not appointed by management. But it is important to ensure that the committee is not isolated the effective implementation of this element requires that everyone participate in the process safety program. 

Section 8(c) of the OSHA Act requires employers to maintain a record of work-related illnesses and injuries in an OSHA 300 Log. Upon request, this record must be made available to employees, former employees or their representatives. Section 2 (b) also places responsibility on workers by encouraging them to (1) reduce the number of occupational safety and health hazards in their workplace, and (2) to strive to achieve safe and healthful working conditions. 

The safety professional s official job description may be the same in a unionized environment as in a nonunion environment however, the activities and methods utilized to achieve the safety and health goals and objectives can be very different. In a unionized environment, safety and health are a mandatory subject within the scope of collective bargaining, and thus all aspects of the safety and health effort would be part of a negotiated process between the safety professional, as an agent for the company or organization, and the union, as a third-party collective bargaining representative of the employees. 

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