Trade unions safety

This will keep the topic of near misses high on everyone s mind and will continually improve the understanding of what a near miss is. This system works best when a dedicated scribe is in the meeting. Consider including trade union safety representatives. 

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 ... 

ROES do not need to be confined to consultation related to these Regulations. Some employers have ROES sitting on safety committees and taking part in accident investigation similar to trade union safety representatives. 

Trade union safety representative, or employee representative and the employees concerned, should be consulted before introducing health surveillance. It is important that employees understand that the aim of health surveillance is to protect their hearing. Employers will need their understanding and co-operation if health surveillance is to be effective. 

Joint committee but no trade union safety representatives 6.1 to 7.6... 

There is also a general duty for an employer to consult with duly appointed trade union safety representatives and to form safety committees given certain criteria. 

Current safety legislation provides for the appointment of recognised trade union safety representatives (this has to be completed in writing). 

In addition to the above duties, section 2 also covers the appointment of trade union safety representatives, consultation with these appointees and the establishment of a safety committee to review the employer s measures for ensuring the health and safety of their employees. The Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 (SRSC Regs) expand these particular duties and the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996 extend the duty to consult to non-union represented employees (see later summaries). 

A job description should incorporate health and safety responsibilities and accountabilities. It should take account of the physical and mental requirements and limitations of certain jobs and any specific risks associated with the job. Representations from operators, supervisors and trade union safety representatives should be taken into account. Compliance with health and safety requirements is an implied condition of every employment contract, breach of which may result in dismissal or disciplinary action by the employer. 

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. 

In complex and serious cases, consider the establishment of an investigating committee comprising managers, supervisors, technical specialists and trade union safety representatives. 

Is the system for joint consultation with trade union safety representatives and staff effective ... 

Are the procedures for appointing or electing Committee members and trade union safety representatives clearly identified ... 

Encourage co-operation - both of employees and those representing them as their trade union safety representatives or in other ways... 

If you recognise a trade union and that trade union has appointed a safety represetv tathie, you must consult them on matters affecthg the emplr ees they represent -see Safety Reoresentatwes and Safety Committees Regulations 1997. 

If you do not have trade unions, you must consult employees, either directly or through an elected representative -see Health and Safety fConsultation with Employeesf Regulations 1996. 

Customer orientation and initial solution-free formulation of customers wishes, as an orientation for product development, appear to be promising approaches for innovations with regard to the application safety of chemicals-based products. However, the initiative for this is not mainly due to substance manufacturers, but rather to the chemicals users being close to the consumers. To what extent the commercial/industrial chemicals end-users (users of production auxiliary materials that are not included in the product) also transform the latent desire for application-safe products into effective demand behaviour, depends on other constellations of motives than those of private end-consumers. The employers liabihty insurance, chambers of commerce and industry, branch associations, trade unions and management boards of large-scale companies play a key role in making quality and competition effective as drivers for innovation here too. 

Regional Safety Representatives visit many micro-enterprises (fewer than 10 employees) [391]. This activity is made possible by high state provisions heavily supplemented by trade union contributions [392]. 

Safety Representatives, The Swedish Trade Union Confederation Regional LO, Stockholm, Sweden, 2001. 

The Commission, established in October 1974, is in practice responsible to the Secretary of State for Employment for taking appropriate steps to secure the health, safety and welfare of people at work, and to protect the public generally against risks to health and safety arising out of work situations. A Chairman is af inted by the Secretary of State for Employment. The membership of the Commission <6 or up to 9 members) includes representatives of employers, trade unions, local authorities, and other interested bodies and provides a forum for the development of policies in the field of health and safety at work. The Commission organizes widespread consultation on all aspects of health and safety and is advised by a number of Advisory Committees and working parties, as well as by the expertise and committees of its executive arm, the Health and Safety Executive. The Commission is responsible for the legislation and codes of practice. 

Nevertheless as the research reported in the next section shows, trade union health and safety representatives surveyed in the study commissioned by the HSE (Research International 1997) were considerably better informed about OELs than were enqjloyers. The explanation the researchers offered for this finding was that the safety representatives in their survey were mostly drawn from larger enterprises. A further factor would have been the extent of health and safety training received by the representatives - which is considerably greater than that received by the average small enterprise owner manager and which deals specifically with representing workers that use hazardous substances. 

The transposition of the Framework Directive. Following a delay of three years after the official deadline for implementation of Directive 89/391/EEC, Germany finally adopted the Law on Safety and Health at Work, which officially transposed the European Framework Directive and subsequently its various individual Directives into German law. This development was praised, in particular by the trade unions, as a long overdue paradigm shift, enabling a fundamental modernisation of the traditional German occupational health and safety system, which until then had focused primarily on the prevention of accidents and occupational diseases by technical measures. 

It q)pears that implementation of these quite major chan in fee orientation of the system has not entirely liv up to exp tations. According to trade union sources,no risk assessments have bmi performed in more than two thirds of enterprises, especially in SMEs, In this context it is also of int st to note feat Germany is currently facing an infringement proceeding regarding its transposition of the obligation imposed by fee Framework Directive for risk evaluation to be available in documentary form at all The Law on Safety... 

From a trade union point of view, those with any knowledge of OELs argue that it is politically better to have limit values than not. However, they insist that respecting limit values does not mean that there is no risk for the safety and health of the workers. They are also considered to be a very useful tool to document the exposure situation of workers to chemicals during their working life and to have uses as levers to ask for more money as well as to demand better conditions of work. 

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