New health & safety regulations

Almost a year after they became law in Britain, some employers and managers have begun to ask how they should go about implementing new UK health and safety regulations.

The 'Health & Safety Consultation of Employees Regulations' require all employers to consult and inform their workers about safety matters, and the sudden interest in them appears to have been prompted by a clause which gives employers the choice of directly consulting with all their employees or with employer arranged reps.

What seems to have been overlooked, however, is that the Regulations are specifically aimed at extending rights to workers in non-unionised workplaces and do not apply to companies where trade unions are recognised by the employer and proper safety reps are named. Workers whose employers recognise trade unions have had rights to consultation and information since 1977, and as a result, their injury rates are half of those in workplaces where employers do not consult.

Safety reps appointed by the employer under the new rules do not have the rights that normal union safety reps have to inspect the workplace, investigate hazards and accidents, and deal with complaints relating to health and safety. Nor do they have the power to require the creation of a workplace Safety Committee or attend its meetings. This means that workers without a recognised union are getting second class safety rights.

Real benefits to workers' safety come from management and unions working together to solve problems and the evidence on injury rates makes it clear that it is in the employees best interests to be represented by union safety reps.

BECTU believes that workers, rather than the employer, should choose how they are consulted about health and safety matters.