SAFETY CHIEF PRAISES UNION ROLE AND CALLS FOR MORE EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT

HSC press release: C024:03 -11 June 2003

Bill Callaghan, Chair of the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) has told trade unions they should be proud of their contribution to health and safety. Mr Callaghan was speaking at the conference of the GMB general union in Blackpool today, 11 June 2003. He also defended the record of the Health and Safety Executive and discussed the increasing importance of occupational health issues.

Mr Callaghan told the conference:

"Partnership in health and safety at workplace level is essential. The impact of trade unions on workplace health and safety is immensely beneficial. We know that the presence of a recognised union lowers the accident rate by a quarter compared with non-union establishments.

"I am convinced about the role that safety reps can play. They have a key role in our future strategies. Research in Dublin and Belfast has found that the factor which most influenced safety performance was having a safety rep on site to influence the response to audits and encourage safe worker behaviour. This had more impact than a visit from an inspector.

"However, fewer employees are taking up representative roles. Almost 60% of workplaces with more than 25 workers do not have safety representatives. This is a long way from where we want to be. To put it bluntly, many employers I talk to do not see safety reps as relevant. I want to change that.

"That is why HSC is promoting the role of safety representatives and that is why we trailed and financed the Workers Safety Advisers Scheme. Nine Worker Safety Advisers worked between February and November last year in different areas - in the construction, engineering, hospitality and voluntary sectors.

"Preliminary results are positive and the antagonism predicted by some did not arise. Sensitive handling by the nine WSAs of what could have been contentious issues, and the trust they earned from both employers and workers were key to the success of the pilot scheme.

"We are also looking at the regulatory regime for existing safety reps and we will be looking at issues such as the right of employees decide how they wish to be consulted; all safety reps to have the same functions as trade union nominated reps; all safety reps to have the right to inspect third party premises where employees are working; employers must respond within a reasonable time to consultations; all safety reps to have same powers of inspection, and that all safety reps can request a safety committee.

"I want to see more initiatives to strengthen employee participation - including a survey to sound out workers views on expectations of HSE. In parallel I want to hear from trade unions what kind of support you think HSE can provide. Ideas put forward so far include for example funding for good practice health and safety partnerships, safety rep of the year awards, and advisory support to safety reps. We do need to change both employer and worker behaviour - we need to win hearts and minds to support a partnership approach if we are to achieve our targets.

"I want to create a flexible framework, relevant to today's world of work, which will encourage workers to be involved in health and safety whether directly or through their representatives. From the Commission's point of view our proposals must be relevant to employers and workers in all parts of the economy, whether unionised or not.

Bill Callaghan also addresses the record of the HSC and HSE. He said: "I am proud to chair the HSC. Our record, and that of the HSE since the 1974 Act is a good one. The rate of fatal injuries in Britain is now a quarter of what it was in the 1970s. It is now one of the best in the world. But it is not good enough.

"Last year 249 workers died from work in Great Britain. There were over 27,000 major injuries. 2.3 million workers had a health complaint connected to their work. Nearly 33 million working days were lost to illness and 7 million days were lost though work accidents.

"Our critics say that we are a failing organisation. On behalf of all our staff - inspectors, scientists, lawyers and administrative staff - I disagree, fundamentally. Could we do better? I agree wholeheartedly. In fact we must do better.

"The world has changed dramatically since Lord Robens and the 1974 Act. We need to make sure that our work is related to the new industries and the industry of the future. Call centres, data processing operations, and retail parks may not be dark satanic mills, but they bring their own health and safety, particularly health, problems.

"The changing economy means HSE has no choice on whether or not to change our ways of working. We need more resources. But whatever our resource allocation from government we must realign our resources. To make sure that our inspectors give priority to preventing injuries and ill health.

"We must do more to address new and emerging ill health complaints. Stress, violence at work, RSI are all mportant and growing issues which we must address.

"We must get the management of health and safety recognised as an integral part of the management of risks to the business. Law and enforcement are still key tools and what HSE do will remain important. But we do need to engage others to help take our work forward - insurers, investors, employers and employees."

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