Occupational Health and Safety Policy

General
Date: September 2005

1. Making Health and Safety Representatives the Focus

The HSU should promote health and safety in workplace organising and recruitment activity, through:

(a) Ensuring that workers and their representatives are supported;

(b) Encourage members towards increased activity on health and safety by ensuring that there are elected Employee Safety Representatives (ESR's) and/or safety committees in every worksite by having union run elections and ensuring that union members are elected;

(c) Linking the activities of workplace delegates and ESR's;

(d) Campaigning for a legislative extension of the roles and powers of ESR's;

(e) Ensuring that ESR's have access to expanded training which will be provided by union endorsed training providers;

(f) Provision by the HSU of excellent training for ESR's and union officials;

(g) Provisions in enterprise agreements and awards which advance health and safety;

(h) Campaigning for and exercising the right of union officials to enter and inspect workplaces in relation to health and safety with the ESR;

(i) Implementation of legislation requiring employers to meet their legal duty of care, including consultation with employees and their representatives;

(j) Maximising workplace involvement in health and safety campaigns;

(k) Seek to ensure that ESR's are able to carry out their role in paid working time or be guaranteed reimbursement for time spent undertaking their role including travel time and related costs incurred; and

(l) That ESR's are to be provided with access to telephones, facsimiles, photocopier, computers etc. by the employer.

2. The Role of Government

The HSU, must implement a common agenda for OHS activity by governments which includes:

(a) Federal and State Industrial Manslaughter legislation;

(b) Complementary legislation and regulation in each state and/or nationally which advances health and safety rights of workers which should include but not be limited to the following:

(i) The right of employees to work in a safe working environment;

(ii) Employers are to be made accountable through legislation ensuring that the worker will be found suitable alternative employment and/or retraining for other work with another employer if they are unable to return to their previous role due to injury;

(iii) To provide for employees to be able to refuse to perform part or all of their functions if they have reasonable grounds to believe that there is a risk of imminent and serious injury to, or imminent and serious harm to the health of, any person, if it is not within the employee's ability to rectify the cause of the risk;

(iv) An employee who refuses to work as mentioned above must notify his or her employer or the person in charge of his or her workplace and, if there is an employees' safety representative for the workplace concerned, the employees' safety representative of the risk of imminent and serious injury or imminent and serious harm to health;

(v) An employee who refuses to work as mentioned above may be given reasonable alternative work to perform until the cause of the risk has been rectified and the employee resumes his or her usual work;

(vi) If an employee is given reasonable alternative work to perform, the employee is required to perform that work under the terms and conditions of the employee's employment;

(vii) That all OH&S Legislation includes the right of employees to elect safety committees and/or representatives in their workplace and that the employer must if requested to do so allow for an election process to take place;

(viii) That employees are able to conduct elections for ESR's and Workplace Safety Committees which will be recognised by the employer and the appropriate statutory authority.

(ix) That will provide for training for all ESR's in paid work time which will result in all ESR's being issued with a certificate from the statutory authority or government department that will be recognised by the employer and give ESR's actual power to make decisions such as stopping equipment or work for safety reasons and/or issuing of safety notice or making recommendations to change work practices;

(x) Mandatory for a workplace safety audit to be done when there is a restructure in the workplace or a change to work practices.

(c) Comprehensive and adequate compensation legislation for victims of workplace death, injury and disease including access to common law remedies;

(d) Improved accredited rehabilitation services and appropriate return to work programs for injured workers which require the employer, rehabilitation provider, treating doctor, injured worker and union representative or ESR to meet and discuss, agree and document a return to work program that meets the injured workers needs and ability at the time and that sets a review date;

(e) The revitalisation of the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission into a body which develops contemporary health and safety standards and codes of practice;

(f) Effective action under the National OHS Strategy 2002-2012;

(g) Ongoing proactive enforcement, with a broadened range and scope of penalties for health and safety offences;

(h) Integration of health and safety into vocational and higher education and training;and

(i) Improvements in health and safety data and research.

Elected Safety Representatives

An ESR is an employee elected to represent the health and safety interests of their co-workers within a specific workgroup in their workplace.

In doing this, and ESR has certain functions and powers that they are able to use within the workplace. Such functions and powers ensure their employer involves the ESR to resolve health and Safety issues.

An ESR is normally appointed for a period of 3 years to:

(a) Represent the Health and safety interests of employees at the workplace;

(b) Encourage safe work practices;and

(c) Advise the employer of any safety or health hazard that comes to the notice of the ESR.

To carry out these functions the employer must allow the ESR to:

(a) Inspect the workplace during the ESR's normal working hours, as is reasonably necessary;

(b) Immediately inspect any part of the workplace if there is an accident or dangerous occurrence, or if there is an immediate threat of such an occurrence as long as it is safe to do so;

(c) Following consultation with the employer, to request an inspector to conduct an inspection of the workplace;

(d) If requested, be present at meetings between an employee and the employer, another employee, a case manager, a rehabilitation provider, a medical practitioner, an inspector, or any other relevant person;

(e) To be provided with information by the employer regarding safety in the workplace such as but not limited to the following:

(i) Information on actual or potential hazards within the workplace

(ii) Accident and incident reports and lost time statistics

(iii) Details of any notice issued by an inspector

(iv) Safety and health information provided by manufacturers and supplies

(v) Results of any tests or monitoring carried out such as noise monitoring or asbestos air monitoring

(vi) Workplace safety audit results

Employees who are selected or appointed by the employer as part of their safety management or unofficially by other employees, will not under this process be recognised as the accredited ESR in the workplace.

The Document 'A guide for the election of Employees' Safety Representatives' by worksafe Tasmania offers a framework and model forms that the HSU endorses as a appropriate mechanisms for the election of ESR's.

3.The Priority Issues

The HSU needs to vigorously address priority health and safety issues, including:

(a) Industrial Manslaughter legislation;

(b) Stress at work;

(c) Occupational and work related violence;

(d) Occupational and work-related bullying;

(e) Labour market changes;

(f) Dangerous working hours;

(g) Manual handling;

(h) Chemicals at work;

(i) Electromagnetic radiation;

(k) Smoke-free workplaces;

(l) Impairment at work,

(m) Major hazard facilities;

(n) The potential threat of civil emergencies and the impact that they may have in the workplace; and

(o) Encourage all state governments to introduce complementary legislation to provide for the election of ESR's and to provide for accreditation of ESR's so that employers must take notice of issues raised. Further that where there are more than 10 employees within a workplace and they advise the employer that they want to elect a safety committee they then have a right to nominate their representatives (including union officials) who can be elected by the employees to form the committee.

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© 2003 Health Services Union (HSU)
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