Use the guidance on what the law says about consulting employees to confirm which regulations apply to your workplace – in some cases both of the following could apply:
- Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977
- Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996
Ensure you and your representatives have enough time, resources, and facilities to consult and involve your employees.
If you recognise a trade union, identify who the appointed health and safety representatives are and tell your employees.
If you have employees who are not represented by trade union appointed representatives:
- decide whether you will consult your workforce directly as individuals if practical, or through elected representatives
- arrange to hold elections if consulting through representatives.
- make arrangements for training your representatives
Be clear on what you must consult your employees on.
Arrange to consult your workforce in good time so you can consider their input before you make a decision.
Consider how to involve your employees. This could be a joint forum involving trade union appointed health and safety representatives and employee elected representatives if both sets of regulations apply in your workplace.
Agree how you will respond to your employees or their representatives.
Prepare material for consultations, for example meeting agendas or intranet pages.
Arrange processes to handle disagreements that could arise between you and employees or their representatives.
If you have both union-appointed and workforce-elected representatives
If you have representatives appointed by unions and elected by your workers, follow all the steps above.