Safety Representative Standard

Here follows an example of a safety system standard covering the appointment of safety representatives, including their roles and functions. 

To ensure that sufficient and competent safety representatives are appointed at all work areas to promote safety and to conduct monthly inspections of their work areas. 

Safety representatives are appointed to identify hazards within their work area. Unsafe acts and conditions are the immediate causes of accidents and, if identified, reported, and eliminated, can lead to a reduction in the number of employees being injured. 

Safety representatives also assist in maintaining the momentum of the safety program as a result of their ongoing inspections, and liaison with employees. 

Any employee can be appointed as a safety representative. They are selected from a work area and represent that area. They are the people most familiar with the equipment and the processes of their particular area, and are therefore ideal candidates to identify hazards within that workplace. 

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It is very difficult to classify the various safety/ risk standards in Federal health and safety statutes, for a number of interrelated reasons. Congress seldom uses exactly the same statutory language twice. It is often not feasible to determine whether these differences in language represent simply historical accident or a true congressional intent to convey a different meaning. Nor is the intended meaning of the... 

Considering the recent transitions in the practice of safety and the breadth of present and probable future requirements, I believe that the Curriculum Standards for the Baccalaureate Degrees in Safety represent a sound course of study through which the needed academic knowledge can be acquired to prepare those who are to enter the practice of safety. 

Health and safety representatives who have received specific accident investigation training could be used to assist in accident and near-miss incident investigations. Since they will be conducting both formal and informal inspections, a training session in auditing techniques will help them to audit safety standards in their own areas. 

Safety inspections by manbers of the workforce appointed as health and safety representatives are reviewed and signed off on by managers, stating that they have been notified of the deviations from safety standards and have rectified them. Once these controls operate in a neat, clean, and orderly work environment, a positive climate of safety will exist that will become the safety personality of the organization. This ongoing process involves anployees and managers and constantly identifies and eliminates possible accident causes via means of involvement, participation, and safety leadership. 

Safety Engineer or Professional The safety representative serves as the executive secretary for the SSWG. He or she provides or coordinates administrative support for the board and brings a knowledge of safety codes, standards, and regulations and hazard identification, analysis, and... 

Safety representatives and safety committees have a positive role to play in stimulating high levels of awareness and generating high standards of health and safety in the workplace. 

The text is restricted mainly to matters that are likely to be met in the day-to-day work of a busy manager with safety responsibilities, an emergent safety adviser, safety representative or those participating in safety awareness courses. While it may be of practical help in the design and manufacture of equipment, designers and manufacturers should refer to the various legislation and standards that relate to their particular product. This latter point is especially important within the context of the European Union. 

Data were collected from a total of 215 sectors of normal line operations. The data collected during these flights were subjected to a formal data cleaning process to ensure validity. Data cleaning involved the analysis of each error event by members, including representatives of the airline s safety, training, standards and operations departments. This process ensured accuracy in the data-set and that the observers interpretation of erroneons crew actions were accurate, especially with reference to the SOPs of the airline involved in the study. 

The Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 give to recognised trade unions the right to appoint safety representatives to act as spokesmen on health and safety matters with the employers for the members they represent. It is not a bargaining right but is aimed at developing an atmosphere of co-operation to improve standards of health and safety in the workplace and so benefit both employer and employee. 

They [safety representatives] can be very useful sometimes, it is the link you know with the shop floor, they see more sometimes than the front-line supervisors can see. People, the shop-floor people themselves, can approach the safety representatives, whereas they may not go to the supervisor, they can talk more freely with them about problems and they pass these problems on, so they are a useful link in achieving a good standard of health and safety, (interviewee 116)... 

Well-trained health and safety officers/advisors/coordinators can play an important role in issue resolution by providing an impartial and skilled source of advice on the hazards and risks involved in the issue, on applicable standards and possible control measures. They may do this through informal contact with management, health and safety representatives or employees. They may also operate as one of the management nominees on the health and safety committee and be asked by the cormnittee to research the issue and so assist the committee to resolve it. 

Conventional wisdom suggests that standard setting within the work environment is a matter for joint decision making between the employer and the employees. Consequently, legislation introduced to provide for self-regulation in the worlq)Iace clearly identifies a role for health and safety representatives and health and safety committees in both workplace inspections and standard setting. 

If general health and safety policies are to be incorporated into specific job practices and skill levels are to be raised to an acceptable standard, training is required. While all employees can benefit from health and safety training, special attention should be given to the training of supervisors and health and safety representatives. 

Enthusiastic, competent employee safety representatives given the resources and freedom to fulfil their function effectively can make a major contribution to good health and safety standards. They can provide the essential bridge between managers and employees. People are more willing to accept the restrictions that some precautions bring if they are consulted and feel involved, either directly in small workforces or through their safety representatives. See earlier in the chapter for the details. 

Safety and Engineering Standards and Best Practices Safety Representative and Personnel... 

Program Elements 1. Written policy, purpose, scope Statement of objectives Standards compliance Responsibility/accountability assigned Implementation activities A. Training/certification Written procedures Hazardous operations Hazardous materials Hazardous operations permits Personal protective program Mishap/near-miss investigations Mishap/near-miss records and reports Fire/explosion safety Emergency preparedness Procurement and subcontract safety Safety representatives on-site Implementation of supplemental requirements... 

Functions of the representatives It is important to note that representatives are given functions only, as opposed to duties. A function is defined as an activity that a safety representative is permitted to carry out by legislation but does not have a duty to perform. It is, therefore, treated as an advisory action. A safety representative cannot be held accountable for failing to carry out a function or for the standard of the advice given when performing a function, and the HSE has issued statements to the effect that no action will be taken against them in respect of these regulations. 

A safety tour is an unscheduled examination of a work area undertaken by a selected group of staff, including the manager with direct responsibility for that area, members of a health and safety committee, supervisors, trade union safety representatives and selected operators. A safety tour can examine predetermined health and safety aspects, such as housekeeping levels, standards of machinery safety, the use of personal protective equipment and the operation of established safe systems of work. Safety tours should be related to and reinforce decisions made by local management or by the health and safety committee. For maximum effectiveness, it is essential that action following a safety tour is taken immediately. 

Safety representatives are entitled to carry out workplace inspections. Employers must give reasonable assistance in this case and notice in writing must be given by the safety representatives. The standard inspection of the workplace is on the basis of once every three months, although special inspections may be undertaken to inspect the scene of a reportable accident or dangerous occurrence. 

Miners are also given the right to request special studies if they believe a health hazard exists in the workplace. In order to do this, a miner or miner s safety representative can ask for a Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) (Mine Act, Section 501(a)(ll)). A NIOSH representative will then visit the miner s worksite. The miner s safety representative may accompany the NIOSH inspector during this inspection. NIOSH can issue recommendations on correcting hazards. If NIOSH discovers violations of the standards or an imminent danger, they can inform MSHA so they can take appropriate action. 

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