Role and Responsibilities of a Safety Representative under the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977
The Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 (SRSCR) provide the legislative framework for the appointment and functions of safety representatives in the workplace.
Regulation 3: Appointment of Safety Representatives
Appointment:
- Recognised trade unions have the authority to appoint safety representatives from among the employees.
Notification:
- Employers must be notified in writing of the names of the appointed safety representatives and the groups of employees they represent.
Cessation:
- A safety representative ceases to hold the position if their appointment is terminated by the trade union, they leave the workplace, or they resign.
Experience:
- Safety representatives should ideally have at least two years of experience with the employer or in similar employment.
For Safety Representatives:
- Consultation: Represent employees in consultations with the employer on health and safety matters.
- Investigation: Investigate potential hazards and dangerous occurrences in the workplace.
- Accident Examination: Examine the causes of workplace accidents and incidents.
- Representation: Make representations to the employer on general matters affecting the health and safety of employees.
- Training: Receive appropriate training to perform their functions effectively.
Under the SRSCR, all Safety Reps have the right to paid time off work in order to carry out their functions and attend union training courses for Safety reps.
For Employers:
- Consultation: Consult with safety representatives to ensure effective cooperation in promoting and developing health and safety measures.
- Support: Provide necessary facilities and assistance to safety representatives to carry out their functions.
- Training: Ensure safety representatives receive paid time off to receive the necessary training.
Important note
- Under SRSCR, Safety Reps are given several legal functions which their employers should allow them to carry out. But Regulation 4 states that they can not be prosecuted for failing to carry them out, or for only partly carry them out.
Safety Reps are not legally responsible for health, safety or welfare at work and they cannot be liable in either criminal or civil law for anything they may do, or fail to do, as a Safety Rep.
- This protection does not absolve Safety Reps from their general responsibility as an employee but it does ensure that their responsibility has not increased because of their appointment.
These duties are to take reasonable care of their own health and safety and that of others, and to co-operate with employers to enable them to carry out their statutory duties.
