1. Introduction

The Safety Representative and Safety Committees. Regulations were made on the 16th March 1977 and came into operation on 1st October 1978.The scope of which was extended with the Health and Safety Consultation with Employees Regulations 1996. They apply to work covered by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

In addition to the regulations the Health and Safety Commission has published a Code of Practice and Guidance, "The Brown Booklet". The Commission has also issued a Code of Practice on time off for the Training of Safety Representatives. These Regulations, Code of Practice and Guidance Notes are extensive and must be referred to directly.

The purpose of this responsible care procedure is to comment on them in relation to Greencore Group.

2. Purpose of the Regulations

2.1 The purpose of the regulations is two fold. First, to meet the requirements of section 2(4)(6) and (7) of The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. This states that the Secretary of State may make regulations for the appointment of safety representatives by recognised trade unions. The Group have extended the appointment of safety representatives to factories within the Group not represented by a recognised trade union.

2.2 The regulations further require employers to consult with any such representatives with a view to ensuring the health and safety at work of their employees, and that the employer shall establish a Safety Committee, if requested to do so by at least two of the safety representatives appointed in accordance with the regulations. The Group accepts the important contribution of its employees in securing effective health and safety policies. Accordingly, the Group has established health and safety committees at all of its operating companies.

2.3 Second, the regulations provide a legal framework within which employers and employees can make arrangements suitable to their industries. It should be noted and has been stressed that the regulations do not seek to cover every eventuality and, in order to work effectively, additional agreements or arrangements must be made to suit particular needs.

2.4 Paragraph 3 of the Health and Safety Commission Code of Practice states that "the employer, the recognised trade unions and safety representatives should make full and proper use of the existing agreed industrial relations machinery to reach the degree of agreement necessary to achieve the purpose of the Regulations and in order to resolve any differences".

3. The Appointment of Safety Representatives

3.1 The regulations are framed on the basis of a single employer. This does not present problems where locations are shared by other Divisions within the Group as they will appoint their own representatives.

4. Inspections by Safety Representatives

4.1 Inspections by Safety Representatives fall in three distinct categories:

a) regular inspections of the work area at quarterly intervals (Regulation 5 (1));

b) inspections following a substantial change in the conditions of work (Regulations 5 (2)). These inspections should be completed with the intention of producing a joint review of the risk assessment;

c) inspections following a notifiable. accident, dangerous occurrence, or notifiable. disease (Regulation 6).

4.2 It is the intent of the regulations to provide for a safer working environment. This means the inspections in category "b" are appropriate only when there has been a substantial change in the conditions of work, but are not appropriate every time there has been a variation which occurs as a result of routine maintenance work.

NOTE:
The introduction of the regulations does not imply an extension of industrial bargaining and efforts by individual safety representatives to increase the number of inspections under category (b), in order to achieve an industrial bargaining point, are contrary to the intent of the regulations.

4.3 Inspections by safety representatives should be carried out jointly with a representative of the company, wherever practicable, in the manner laid down in the regulations, or as clarified by agreement between the company and the employees' safety representatives.

5. Inspection of Documents

The inspection of documents is dealt with in Regulation 7. Factory Managers should be aware, in particular, of those documents which are privileged in terms of this regulation. An example is that a company's accident report prepared by a safety co-ordinator may not be a privileged document unless it falls within Regulation

7 (2)(e), namely information obtained by the employer for the purpose of bringing, prosecuting or defending legal proceedings. When the accident report is to be used for this purpose and the factory wishes to retain it as a privileged document, it MUST be endorsed as such.

6. Safety Committees

6.1 The scope of work to be covered by a safety committee must be defined from the outset. This should be achieved through an agreed agenda. The regulations are, again, framed on the basis of a single employer, however, should other divisions wish to participate, no objection should be registered.

6.2 Care must be taken to ensure that the safety committee does not become a forum for collective bargaining. The agenda should therefore be restricted to health and safety or environmental issues. The representatives should speak on these matter only. The safety representatives need not be members of a recognised trade union. Shop stewards may perform both roles or the safety representative may be separate. The objective, however, must be to confine discussion within the safety committee to safety considerations. Any industrial bargaining point must be referred to the appropriate company department, at the appropriate stage in the procedure for discussion with a view to settlement. To enable the right climate to be established, it has often been found helpful to nominate a safety co-ordinator to act as independent advisor to the committee.

7. Joint Consultative Committee (JCC)

7.1 Members of the JCC will be drawn from professionally trained health and safety personnel. The Divisional committee will meet bi-monthly with the aim of producing uniform Group Responsible Care Procedures.

7.2 Invitations will be extended to other interested parties e.g. Technical Managers, Quality Assurance, Company Insurers, Solicitors and HSE or other regulatory bodies.

8. Resolution of Differences

Differences between companies and their safety representative may arise e.g. a technical disagreement. In such cases, the matter in issue must be referred to the Group Health and Safety Manager.

9. Training

Training of safety representatives falls into two categories. The first is general training, including training in their role as union/non-union representatives, and in their rights and duties under these regulations. The TUC and individual trade unions provide such training increasingly to non-union members. The second is specific training in the particular safety requirements in this industry. This will be organised by the Group.