Focus on Health and Safety
TUC biennial survey of safety representatives 2018
Key findings
- Hazards: The five most frequently cited hazards of main concern in 2018 were stress, bullying/harassment, overwork, back strains and slips, trips and falls on the level.
- Managing health and safety: Eight in 10 safety representatives (80%) say their employer has conducted formal risk assessments – the same proportion as in 2016.
- Safety representatives’ rights: There has been a small decline in the proportion of safety representatives attending TUC/union stage I and stage II training since 2014, but an increase in attendance at unions’ own introductory courses and joint-union-employer courses
- Enforcement: The 2018 survey indicates that inspections by health and safety enforcement agencies remain low, and are perhaps worsening. Over half (52%) of safety representatives say their workplace has never, as far as they know, been inspected by a health and safety inspector, compared with 46% in 2016.
This is the 12th biennial TUC safety representatives’ survey. It is designed to provide the TUC and its affiliated trade unions with valuable information to help shape safety campaigning and organisation in the period ahead.
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