Health & Safety
The branch Health & Safety Committee
comprises branch officers and reps from stewards committees. Its
job is to oversee health and safety issues, to advise stewards
committees and officers, to support health and safety reps and
to campaign on health and safety issues.
Shop Stewards are encouraged to be safety reps as
well, although there is also a parallel system where members can
be elected or appointed purely as safety reps. They have a statutory
role and extensive training is available via UNISON and TUC courses.
Safety reps would typically monitor health and safety
in the workplace, carry out inspections and ensure proper risk
assessments are carried out. Support comes from the health and
safety committee and from an extensive database held in the branch
office on health and safety legislation and regulations.
Departments should have joint management/union health
and safety committees but not all have.
The role of health and safety is becoming more crucial
as staff reduce and pressure and stresses increase.
Updates
Look out here for major issues or recently discovered
risks.
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