The need for stronger regulations


The TUC has called for all employers to be required to have safety representatives if they employ more than 10 workers and for larger employers to be required to set up safety committees. Where there are lots of different employers operating out of the same workplace, or if the employer has lots of different small sites, unions should be able to appoint roving health and safety representatives to cover all the workers. There should also be a legal right for health and safety representatives to call in the enforcement authorities if an employer fails to act on their concerns.


For more information see the HSE research paper, Measuring the effect of health and safety advisers and roving safety representatives in agriculture, RR417 available on the Worker Involvement pages of the HSE website (www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr417.pdf).