date: Friday 9 November 2001 embargo: 00:01 Tuesday 13 November 2001

Attention: industrial correspondents and health and safety journals

Safety reps urged to give bad bosses a final warning

From today (Tuesday), union workplace safety reps will be able to serve a 'final warning' on employers who endanger the health and safety of people at work. The winter issue of the TUC-backed health and safety magazine Hazards is out today and contains 'Union Inspection Notices' for safety reps to serve on employers as a last resort before calling in the Inspectors.

The Notices are designed to make workplaces with union safety reps even safer than they already are (there are twice as many major injuries in workplaces without safety reps) by helping reps to intervene before someone gets hurt. Notices should be used to identify breaches of specific health and safety regulations, says the TUC, but they are not intended to be used where there is a serious and imminent risk of injury.

The lead article in this issue of Hazards magazine uses safety reps’ own words (see below) to demonstrate why they need the Notices, and how they would use them. The safety reps report that too often their warnings are being bogged down in bureaucracy and ignored by supervisors and middle managers who don’t know or care about their own organisation’s safety policies. The TUC hopes that safety reps’ complaints will be registered and dealt with internally, and the Notices should only be served after other, informal means of addressing the problem have been tried.

However, from today, reps whose concerns are not addressed will be able to serve a Notice if they believe the law is being broken, and if the employer does not take appropriate action, the Notice will be passed on to the Health and Safety Executive of local authority Inspectors. UINs could also be used as evidence in criminal prosecutions or civil compensation cases to prove that employers ignored warnings.

TUC General Secretary John Monks said:

'Employers who work in partnership with their safety reps know how effective that can be - good for the workers and good for the business. But the message doesn’t always get through to middle managers, and sometimes a final warning from a safety rep could be the only way to sort out a health and safety problem. Safety reps save lives and prevent injuries and illness, and now they’ve got one more tool to use on behalf of the workers they represent.'

There are over a million workplace accidents in Great Britain every year, and nearly two million people suffer a work-related illness. Two hundred and ninety one people were killed at work last year alone. There are 200,000 union health and safety reps across the economy, and research backed by the Government shows that workplaces with union safety reps and joint management/union safety committees have less than half the major injuries of workplaces without consultation arrangements.

The TUC will be training safety reps in how to use the Notices, and will evaluate their operation over a six month period in 2002 to see whether improvements are needed.

The idea comes from Australia where legally enforceable Provisional Inspection Notices (PIN) have proved successful. Welcoming the UK launch Sue Pennicuik, Health and Safety Director for the Australian TUC (ACTU) said: 'The ACTU recently conducted a pilot national survey of reps, in which only around 7% of reps in those states which have them report ever using a PIN. This bears out the prevailing wisdom that PINs are only used by reps as a last resort.'

Peter, a safety rep in North London, told the TUC: 'I have on several occasions requested HSE help in representing us on safety issues and they help but they are so busy it makes sense to complement them with our input.'

Finance sector safety rep Bob explained why a UIN would help him deal with his employers: 'It offers the union safety rep and the employer the chance to accept the discipline of partnership - agreeing what is reasonable behaviour.'

Melanie, an occupational health inspector from the HSE, cited a case where a worker was exposed to cobalt dust but management failed to act when he raised it. The company was ordered to pay a fine of £20,000 but it was too late for two workers who were diagnosed with occupational asthma as a result.

Notes to Editors:

All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

Hazards magazine is available from Jawad Qasrawi at PO Box 199, Sheffield S1 4YL or 01142 678 936 or sub@hazards.org - the full report of the safety reps’ views on why they need UINs, together with a UIN and other resources is at www.hazards.org/notices

Contacts:

Media enquiries: 020 7467 1248 or email media@tuc.org.uk

Other enquiries: Owen Tudor on 020 7467 1325 or 07788 715261 or email otudor@tuc.org.uk

Press release (900 words) issued 13 Nov 2001