The need for stronger regulations
The TUC health and safety manifesto says that all employers should be required to have safety representatives if they employ more than 10 workers. Larger employers should also have to set up safety committees. Where there are lots of different employers working in one 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 (see above). 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.
HSE, Measuring the effect of health and safety advisers and roving safety representatives in agriculture, RR417: www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr417.pdf
HSE Worker Involvement pages at: www.hse.gov.uk/involvement
Prospect submission to the Löfstedt Call for Evidence, 2011 available at: http://library.prospect.org.uk/id/2011/00783
The TUC health and safety manifesto can be found on the TUC website at: www.tuc.org.uk/tucfiles/531/TUC_Health_and_Safety_Manifesto_Time_for_Change.pdf