Industrial Relations and Safety Representation

Abstract

The ‘Health and Safety at Work Act (1974)’ has always seemed to have important industrial relations implications. The Act was greatly influenced by the Robins Report which had stressed the need for greater voluntary regulation at the operational level. Substantively, the Act followed the Robins philosophy in the provision of the very important general duties of employers in section two. These duties, whilst comprehensive, were necessarily expressed in terms of relative standards, which need interpretation in particular workplaces. Although it was intended that codes of practice would be provided to facilitate this, the Act also followed Robins procedurally in providing for the appointment of employee safety representatives to participate in such interpretations. An amendment to the Act at the behest of the TUC provided that the legal rights and privileges of safety representatives be confined to those appointed by recognised independent trade unions. The passage of the regulations on safety representation are therefore a further stage in the formal development of trade union involvement in the control of health and safety at work. The purpose of this article is to assess the industrial relations implications of such safety representation.

Citation

Abell, D. (1979), "Industrial Relations and Safety Representation", Personnel Review, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 30-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb055388