HSE at TUC conference to get more workers health and safety involved

HSE/SCO/153/2009 8 September 2009

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is using its presence at this month's TUC conference in Liverpool (14-17 September) to promote plans to get more employees involved in health and safety where they work.

HSE research suggests that involving workers has a positive effect on health and safety performance, and there is strong evidence that unionised workplaces with health and safety representatives are safer and healthier as a result.

Accident rates in workplaces where employees genuinely feel they have a say in health and safety matters are 14 per cent, compared to a significantly higher rate of 26 per cent in workplaces where employees are not involved.

The TUC plans to recruit more safety representatives from a range of industries - a move fully supported by HSE.

Increasing worker involvement in both unionised and non-unionised workplaces is a key principle of HSE's new strategy. It envisages management and the workforce sharing concerns, ideas and solutions through their involvement in joint training, inspections, investigations and risk assessments.

Introducing the new strategy in June 2009, HSE Chair, Judith Hackitt, said:

"There is collective agreement that we need to find new ways of engaging workforces in all workplaces of all shapes and sizes using the knowledge that we have gained from the past that properly involved unionised safety representatives achieved better health and safety performance.

"Prevention of pain and suffering to people caused by work is the major driver for us all, but doing the right things, the right way also delivers improved productivity, increased workforce commitment and enhanced reputation."

TUC's Hugh Robertson, who also sits on HSE's board says:

"Worker involvement must be a pillar of any organisation's health and safety strategy; however it is not worker involvement alone, but worker involvement where the employees are supported by a trade union that has been shown to be most effective in driving down injuries. The TUC therefore welcomes this initiative at the TUC Congress."

HSE is working on the next phase of a campaign to promote the benefits of worker involvement and increase the numbers actively involved in health and safety in the workplace. HSE is set to deliver a package of new subsidised training initiatives, including a new joint training course for managers and health and safety representatives.

The worker involvement website contains new and revised guidance on worker involvement and consultation: www.hse.gov.uk/involvement . It also features a number of case studies on successful worker involvement.

Case Study

BSkyB employs 11,000 staff including locations in Scotland.

Due to rapid growth, the company decided there was a need to connect all strands of the business to work together on common goals. A forum was created which would bring together the views of the company workforce and the executive management committee - the Forum. The group now meets on a national level at least three times a year, as well as holding local meetings across a range of different sites.

A forum website, internal mail and a paper based system enable employees to raise any topic, idea or concern with their elected representatives.

The Forum has created greater employee engagement and awareness of health and safety. Since its launch, Forum members have found almost 100 ways to create a safer and healthier workplace, working with health and safety and general management.

Jane Reekie, Forum member and Recruitment administrator, Dunfermline said:

"The Forum has given the workforce a voice and has allowed people to think for themselves. It is breaking down barriers and eliminating the 'them and us' mentality between management and workforce.

"It has given the workforce responsibility to deal with situations without having to consult management on every issue. This in turn leaves management more free to deal with the major problems and at the same time gives employees independence and a belief in themselves to take charge."

Notes for editors

HSE's mission is to prevent death, injury and ill health in Britain's workplaces. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement.

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR Scotland.