Home

Health and Safety

Safety Reps rights:

1) have broad powers to monitor health and safety in the workplace;

2) can carry out safety inspections of the workplaces at 3 month intervals and send copies of their resulting reports to management;

3) can inspect any documents the employer is legally rquired to keep on matters of health, safety and welfare at work such as:

risk assessments,

copies of manufacturers' and suppliers' information,

information about hazards and methods of prevention and protection in handbooks,

on labels and data sheets,

management safety policy, rules, working procedures, training materials,

info on management's future plans and proposed changes,

injury reports,

injury statistics,

sickness statistics,

near-miss and incident reports,

consultant reports, surveys and test results,

copies of enforcement inspectors' letters and reports,

copies of official health and safety guidance and advisory literature,

guidance from trade associations and employers' associations,

reference books, journals and other health and safety information,

financial information such as health and safety budgets;

4) do not conduct risk assessments – these are the responsibility of the employer ( Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations , 1992 MHSWR, regulation 3) although safety reps can accompany the person carrying out the risk assessment. Risk assessments are done to identify measures needed to bring health and safety standards up to legal requirements and they must be reviewed if:

i) there is reason to suspect that those that have been carried out are no longer valid (could be from complaints or increase in accidents, etc.),

ii) there has been a significant change in the matters to which it relates (changes in work methods, materials, staff, shift patterns, equipment, management responsibilities, etc.).

The 5 steps of risk assessment are: identify the hazards; decide who might be harmed and how; evaluate the risks and decide on precautions; record your findings and implement them; review your assessment and update when necessary.

5) can investigate:

i) potential hazards,

ii) dangerous occurences,

iii) causes of accidents and occupational ill health,

iv) complaints from their members.

Note: there is no need to give formal notice for any of these investigations.

hazard: anything that can cause harm

risk: the chance that somebody could be harmed by the hazard