Case study: UCATT North-West

The Union of Construction Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) has a long-standing policy of partnership and co-operation with employers and employees on health and safety matters. Although the union firmly believes in the value of health and safety committees, it warns that many organisations jump too quickly when putting together such committees without the appropriate preparation.

The challenge

Billy Baldwin, North-West (Regional) Safety Adviser for UCATT, advised joint health and safety committees on two major construction projects with Bovis/Manchester Joint Hospitals Project and Media City in Salford, to ensure they were well put together and ran as effectively as possible.

Where to start?

Health and safety committees are important but they are not sufficient on their own. Their members must be equipped with the knowledge, training and experience that will allow them to be truly effective.

It was important to start the process as a forum for operatives before it evolved into a full health and safety committee because many participants needed to gain certain skills.

The key is to lay solid foundations for an effective committee. Participants will be from all backgrounds and levels. The meeting can easily descend into chaos if it is not kept in focus.

Membership

Potential members of the forum were identified through various channels, eg operatives who had raised issues on site, union health and safety representatives, and health and safety advisers. Non-union members were also invited to join, as all employees have a role to play in joint problem solving.

Towards joint working

Steered by Billy Baldwin, they initially agreed a constitution for the forum with clear objectives, membership requirements, general functions and frequency of meetings.

In my experience, operatives do not generally have the knowledge and training needed to identify site-wide issues and usually want to concentrate on issues directly affecting them, such as the cleanliness of welfare facilities etc.

An effective committee member will usually need training in the procedures of a meeting. They also need experience and this can be provided by the initial forum.

A common mistake is for organisations to form a health and safety committee and then invite workers to join it and turn up with a list of problems for the employer to solve. But it doesn't work that way - you should never say to an employer You've got a problem. It should be We've got a problem and here are some potential solutions we can look at

Key tips for an effective joint health and safety committee

Successful outcomes

A key role for a health and safety committee is to allow time for a "good practice session" in which any issue health and safety representatives have helped resolve are discussed and noted.

Examples of this, from one meeting at Manchester's Royal Infirmary, include:

Another example of the committee's work during the Bovis/Manchester Joint Hospitals project is the formalising of the procedure for stopping work due to imminent danger.

The stop work procedure, which was put onto a pocket card and issued to all workers, contains the simple reminder that if any operative feels they are in imminent danger, they must stop work immediately and report the circumstances to their supervisor, who must then assess the situation. If the operative is still concerned, they have the right to refer the matter to a project manager or safety adviser.

There was some concern that operatives may use this procedure unnecessarily but what actually happened was that it encouraged supervisors to resolve issues after the first contact rather than having to follow the procedure to its final outcome.

Real benefits and continuous improvement

The Bovis project has an above-average safety record and other north-west projects are recognising this success and following their example.

2021-09-30