Going beyond the legal minimum


The TUC also produced new guidance for safety reps on going beyond the legal minimum, Safety representatives: getting more than the minimum. The contains advice on roving safety reps and the use of union information notices (UINs). 


Under the SRSCR, a safety rep can generally only act as a safety rep for their employer and for their own workplace, with exemptions for only two unions in the entertainment sector, the actors’ union Equity and the Musicians’ Union. 


Unions have long demanded the legal right to appoint reps to cover situations where a lot of workers are employed by a contractor or there are lots of different workplaces. While still fighting for more rights for safety reps, the TUC says there is no reason why unions cannot negotiate improvements on the law so that, by mutual agreement, safety reps can represent workers in several different workplaces or across a range of employers. The guide makes clear that roving safety reps are not a substitute for having a rep in every workplace and with every employer. But they may be a solution where the nature of the workplace makes this impossible because there are many different small locations. 


The guide also encourages reps to negotiate the use of UINs, explaining what they are and how safety reps can use them:


“A UIN is a formal notice issued to a manager by an accredited trade union safety rep. It registers that the employer is not complying with health and safety legislation in respect of an identified workplace hazard, describes the action which must be taken to comply with the law, and specifies a date by which action must be taken.” 


The TUC says they are most useful where there is an active, trained and effective safety rep structure, but where management often ignores complaints. However, they are not a substitute for normal inspections and negotiations, they are not an appropriate way of dealing with very serious hazards, and they are not a substitute for action by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or another enforcement authority. 


Before issuing a UIN, there must be a breach of health and safety law, the breach must have been brought to the attention of the employer in a proper manner through agreed channels, the manager has failed to respond in an appropriate and timely manner and the issue must not be the subject of enforcement action by the HSE or local authority inspectors. 


The guide advises safety reps to ensure they have agreed the wording of the UIN with their employer and it contains an example of a draft UIN.