Legal Rights of Trade Union Health and Safety Representatives - Essay Example

Introduction Trade unions are an important aspect in championing for the workers rights and improvement of working conditions of the worker. For the worker to be well represented the unions must have the interest of the workers at heart, and the rights of each unions representatives have to be respected. Through, involving the workforce, the government is employing an important component in its revitalization of health and safety plan that explains the need of injecting new momentum into health and safety programme. “successful Health and Safety management” (HSG65 ) provides illustration and a practical example of the advantages which could possible arise from having a partnership among the employees and the employers. It is in this context that the safety representative charter is worth analysing in relation to the health and safety rights and where improvements needs to be made pointed out. (HSE, 2001) In addressing this issue the study paper will take a critical look at the health and safety representatives’ rights and evaluate them to try and offer any areas to be improved. The paper will have to examine the various rights of the representatives for the purpose of understanding them will then make a possible recommendation and close with a conclusion. The charter The charter of safety representatives acknowledges the crucial contribution which the safety representatives offer towards enhancing the health and safety levels at workplace when they work as partners with employers. The charter thus looks for promoting the benefits which arises and stresses the significance of making consolations with safety representatives and involving them in decisions making to make sure that effective management of health and safety. (HSE, 2001) The charter also do recognise that conflicts may be an obstacle towards achieving improvements in health and safety sector and thus, seeks to promote and develop trusting relations among the management and the safety representatives. Whereby, experience and information can be shared for the common good of employers as well as the employees. The chart identifies the important function played by the safety representatives in obtaining the involvement and participation of the other workers and outlines the arrangement among the employers, health and safety administrative and the trade union so as to encourage and assist safety representatives to perform their functions. (DTI, 2007) Safety representatives in the health and safety industry are appointed by the trade unions as representatives of their members regarding health and safety matters. In several workplaces, safety representatives have arranged to represent the whole workforce. Safety Representatives and the Safety Committees Regulations of 1977 spell out the legal roles, which consist of: (HSE, 2001) Consultation Safety representatives have a right to be consulted “in good time” concerning health and safety issues. “In good time” implies that an employer should permit sufficient time to inform safety representatives regarding to what has been proposed, also enough time should be given to safety representatives for them to confer with other fellow employees and obtain their suggestions. Those suggestions then should be forwarded to the management prior to making any absolute decision or any particular action is undertaken. In urgent or emergencies circumstances, nonetheless, action should be taken fast. (HSE, 2001) This process permits the workers to mull over the outcome of health and safety adjustments prior to being undertaken. This allows the procedures of work to be improved and at the same makes the workers to feel as part of change hence ready to make it work. (HSE, 2001) Safety committees Supposing the safety representatives ask the employer to form a safety team or committee, then, the employer ought to do so in three months period from the request date. Safety committees could assist the employer expand, promote, examine and modify their own health and safety managing systems. It is significant that the safety committees really re-evaluate health and safety arrangements. The committees must not turn into reporting points for issues which need to be tackled with by the managers. (HSE, 2001) Accidents and ailing investigations Work-related accidents and ailing health may be indications that the hazard control steps are unsuccessful. When they are correctly investigated, it could divulge flaws in control systems that require to be solved. (HSE, 2001) Contacting enforcing authority inspectors Safety representatives have a right to make contact with enforcing inspectors that is HSE inspector, when they are making this contact is for merely information then they can have a direct contact with the inspectors nevertheless, where there is an official objection concerning the workplace conditions, the inspectors will have to know if it was first reported to the management. (HSE, 2001) Training, facilities and assistance Safety representatives have a legally entitlement to be compensated time off taken for any training, that is generally freely offered from the Safety representatives trade union. An employer is in addition required to offer ‘any other facilities and help reasonably required by the safety representatives in carrying out their roles. (HSE, 2001) Disputes Even though the regulations are part of crimainal statute, enforcement don’t want to be involved in disagreements between the employer and the employees.Any discrepancies between employees and employers concerning the understanding of the given Regulations ought to be solved through the usual ways of solving employment relations dispute. In specific situations it might be useful to engage the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) (HSE, 2001) Improvement proposals In order to make improvement for the, the workers needs to be involved in decision making, this is critical to attaining better standards for health and safety. More so, the health and safety system will work most excellent when the trade unions and workers work jointly. It has many times been demonstrated by a lot of studies that employee activities supported by the union is a vital factor in decreasing injuries and illness at workplace. Statistics demonstrate that improved health and safety standards of are attained in unionised place, at the centre of that are the safety representatives. (Reilly, Paci and Hall, 1995) In spite of the vast evidence which shows that consultation assists in saving lives and preventing injuries, a lot of employers don’t consult with their workers and, regardless of this consultation being a lawful requisite, hardly as any employer been prosecuted for not consulting. The employers should be prosecuted when they fail to consult. In addition the safety representatives should easily use their rights they been given. These two aspects will improve the safety of workers. (Reilly, Paci and Hall, 1995) The major difficulty for a lot of safety representatives is merely obtaining time off so as to operate as the safety representative, or go for training session, in spite of these aspects being lawful rights. Numerous safety representatives moreover fear being victimised. The directives are also come with an Approved Code of Practice and Guidance, which is an outdated practice, as the approved code is hand to understand in the modern world. It needs to done away with to reflect modern times. (Reilly, Paci and Hall, 1995) Still, improvements are also need in present regulations, as for now the safety representatives may raise any particular safety issue they wish for with the employer; however the employer is not bound by any legal obligation to take action. To solve this issue many unions have resorted to getting their employer in agreeing to an “improvement notices” system, which is not very effective. Thus to improve the regulations, and make the employers more responsive legal ways to compel the employers to respond need to be put in place. (Reilly, Paci and Hall, 1995) In order to improve the current rights, the safety representatives should be given powers to stop work where they view that the place of work is definitely not safe for workers, and serious injuries probably may occur. As for the moment an individual worker do have a right to discontinue work if where a “grave and impending” risk, however this is nearly never occurs as, independently, workers dread the consequences from their employer when they take such a step. Supposing the safety representatives were given a right of undertaking it, having complete defence against being victimised, risky practices can be halted immediately. (Reilly, Paci and Hall, 1995) The regulations were formulated in 1977 and since then a lot of changes have been gong on in the job environment; these changes have restricted the safety representatives on the kind of workers they may represent. This leaves out some workers to be not represented. Thus, the regulations should also be changed to allow safety representatives to represent a broad range of workers. (Reilly, Paci and Hall, 1995) Conclusion Trade unions are important in ensuring good workplace condition and safety of works and their health. The regulations of safety representatives acknowledge the central contribution which is offered by the safety representatives towards improving the health and safety levels at workplace when they work together with employers. The safety representatives have been given several rights which include, Consultation, Safety committees, Accidents and ailing investigations, Disputes, Training, facilities and assistance and Contacting enforcing authority inspectors. However, improvements are needed in the areas of more consultations between the employers and employees, legal way of ensuring that employers respond to issues raised by the safety representative and in allowing safety representatives time to perform their duties and attend training. Thus for the safety representatives to enjoy their rights and workers to have better working conditions, the stated improvements should be taken in account to enhance the rights given to safety representatives and the workers as a whole. Reference: DTI (2007): Workplace representatives: A review of their facilities and facility time', DTI, January 2007. www.dti.gov.uk/consultations HSE (2001): Employee involvement in health and safety – some examples of good practice. Books 2001, www.hse.gov.uk/research/hsl_pdf/2001/employ-i.pdf Reilly, Paci and Hall(1995): British Journal of Industrial Relations, 33:. Read More