Prioritising Health and Safety in the Workplace: Building a Safe and Supportive Environment

The last 12 months have seen many organisations in dispute with their employer both in the UK and Europe with these disputes leading to strike action. We often see labour disputes in industrial workplaces however this time it appears to be different with many public sector workers including highly skilled professionals such as Doctors, Consultants and Junior Barristers taking industrial action.

The action appears to be driven mainly by the increased cost of living due to high inflation, though many have cited health and safety concerns such as the high number of job vacancies leading to staff shortages in the National Health Service and Railway Workers concerned about the impact on vulnerable travellers should ticket offices close.

Importance of Consultation

Labour disputes between workers and employers arise due to a variety of issues, such as wage disagreements, lack of job security or changes to terms and conditions.

If these strikes impact on the general public, they often get frustrated, although there tends to be more sympathy if the reasons for strikes are about unsatisfactory or unsafe working conditions.

While we often hear about large organisations going on strike, it can happen in small organisations too, and recently the BBC reported on a walk out at a music venue in Glasgow due to wages and health and safety concerns.

It’s been a legal requirement to consult with employees for many years, with the 1977 Safety Representatives and Safety Committee Regulations, supporting workplaces with recognised trade union representation, while the 1996 Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations, gave similar representation to all workplaces.

Consulting with employees can have real benefits for businesses such as increased productivity.

Those with good workforce involvement in health and safety tend to have a better productivity rate as well as better overall efficiency, quality and higher levels of workforce motivation.

In addition, consulting employees about health and safety can result in a healthier and safer workplace, with employees helping to identify hazards, assess risks and develop ways to control or remove risks.

There also tends to be a much stronger commitment in implementing decisions or actions as employees have been actively involved in reaching these decisions. This leads to greater co-operation and trust between both employers and employees who talk to each other and listen to each other thus gaining a better understanding of each other’s views.

What does consultation involve?

Consultation involves you not only giving information to employees but also listening to them and taking account of what they say before making any health and safety decisions.

The law does not state when you must consult, or for how long, but does say it must be ‘in good time’.

In practice, this means allowing enough time for employees to consider the matters being raised and provide them with informed responses.

Consultation often involves meetings and discussions between different elements of the workforce and the balance needs to be right with management, departments, ethnicity, disability and gender all considered, so that everyone feels represented.

It’s important to remember however that consultation does not remove managements right to manage. They will still make the final decision, but talking to employees is an important part of successfully managing health and safety.

Risk Assessments

There is a legal duty to assess the risks to the health and safety of employees.

In carrying out a risk assessment, you should consult employees and health and safety representatives.

It is a valuable way of involving employees that do the work.

They know the risks involved and scope for potentially dangerous short cuts and problems.

This does not mean that formal consultation is required before every task specific assessment conducted in workplaces.

It simply means that consultation should form part of the general risk assessment process.

In practice, most employers conduct a general assessment to identify the key risks and control measures, and then a second brief assessment of the risks by the employees about to embark on the job.

Summary

There is a wonderful quote from the HSE Chair in the introduction to HSE Guidance on HSG65 Managing for Health & Safety which states

“Like strong leadership, employee engagement is essential because everyone, from the most senior managers to individual employees, has a part to play in building a strong health and safety culture”.

Contact us

Arinite clients worldwide appreciate we provide practical, no-nonsense advice about what you need to do to establish and maintain a safe and healthy working environment.

Our team of health and safety consultants take pride in keeping health and safety simple.

If you need to call upon our expert assistance, or just for an informal chat, please call our office +44 207 947 9581, or type an enquiry to: https://www.arinite.com/contact-us/.

Derek McStea