A4 Health and Safety Guide Brochure
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Unite HEALTH AND SAFETY Guide www.unitetheunion.org www.unitetheunion.org (JN8367) HB110618 Acknowledgements Contents Page Acknowledgements 2 Unite would like to thank everyone who helped to make this book: Unite safety representatives, Unite staff, and occupational health experts. Foreword by Unite General Secretary 5 1. How Unite is organised 7 The legislation cited is generally that which is current in England, Scotland and Wales at 1 April 2018. Safety Reps Organisation We would also like to thank the Government of Gibraltar and the Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland for help in updating their respective comparative law tables which are found at the back of this 2. Unite approach to H&S 11 book, together with a table for the Republic of Ireland. 3. Safety representatives and safety committees 23 At the end of each chapter members will find Signposts to further information. New information is 4. Inspections, investigations, surveys 35 published virtually daily so we recommend that members sign up for the regular Unite health and safety ebulletins, TUC Risks and the update bulletins from the regulators such as the HSE, the Office of Rail and Health and safety law Road and the Republic of Ireland’s Health and Safety Authority as appropriate. 5. Health and Safety at Work Act and Regulations – general introduction 42 Feedback on this guide is welcomed. Please email [email protected] 6. Hazardous substances: Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 52 7. All asbestos can cause cancer: Control of Asbestos Regulations 65 8. Five more regulations in detail: 74 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations Control of Noise at Work Regulations Work at Height Regulations Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 9. Report! RIDDOR and the accident book 92 10. Enforcement and health and safety inspectors 99 11. Organising and extending rights 103 12. Campaigning 111 Specific Issues Unite Health and Safety Guide 13. Fatigue 115 New Edition April 2018 14. Bullying, harassment and violence 122 Published by Unite the Union General Secretary: Len McCluskey 15. Stress and mental health 126 16. Gender and occupational health and safety 132 Unite the Union Unite House 17. Disability and health and safety 138 128 Theobalds Road 18. Occupational health 145 London WC1X 8TN 19. Environmental issues at work 152 This book and associated resources is downloadable in pdf format from www.unitetheunion.org 2 www.unitetheunion.org www.unitetheunion.org 3 Foreword: a Message from Unite’s General Secretary Appendices Safety Representatives are an integral part of Unite’s workplace team – this Appendix 1: Health and safety legislation in other jurisdictions 155 is why organising around health, safety and welfare issues is a key aspect of Appendix 2: Model letters 163 the Safety Representative’s role. As is the ambition to achieve Unite’s declared aim to organise, build solidarity and heighten our members’ political Letter to employer requesting the setting up of a safety committee awareness – our three pillars. Letter to employer notifying safety rep’s inspection Healthy and safe work places don’t kill, injure or make people unwell and are Appendix 3: Unite Safety representative’s checklist 166 characterised by good pay, good conditions and non-alienating “good work”. They provide high levels of job security with no, or minimal, fear of being Appendix 4: TUC gender checklist 170 pitched onto the unemployment line. As part of the Unite workplace team, Appendix 5: UNITE safety reps and equality reps disability action checklist 173 the Safety Rep has a key part to play in improving membership terms and conditions of employment. Organising, building and engaging membership is of crucial importance in improving workplace health, safety and Appendix 6: Useful Addresses and Contacts 175 welfare. And that is our first pillar. Index 180 Our union’s vision is of a fairer and therefore better and healthier society and whether we like it or not, politics and political decisions affect almost every aspect of our lives, within and beyond the workplace. Research demonstrates that health inequalities in society are not a consequence of how wealthy a society is but how equal it is. And since the vast majority of people rely on the wage packet for whatever wealth they may have, what they earn will have a direct bearing on how healthy they and their families are likely to be over time. Clearly this embraces politics. The struggle to improve workplace terms and conditions is therefore as crucial for Safety Reps as it is for Workplace Reps – organising to secure “good work” as characterised above, is of fundamental importance to the kind of society we want to achieve. With this perspective in mind we need not only to tackle the causes of accidents and ill health in the workplace but work towards eliminating the causes, in both workplace and in society, of poor health caused by social inequalities. The bad news is that, far from becoming more equal as a society, we are becoming more unequal, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer and, in consequence, suffering the effects of increasing health inequality. This is the context of Unite’s second pillar. Unite’s third pillar is our internationalist outlook. Workers throughout the world may face similar or different hazards to those encountered by Unite members here in the UK and Ireland. But one thing that is certain is that they will face hazards as a result of work and the labour process or as a result of being denied the opportunity to work. We need to be aware of the response of workers overseas to the hazards they face and reciprocate by contributing our expertise to them. Working people the world over face many similar issues: from insecure employment to ill health caused by work or lack of it. This is why Unite has made and will continue to forge links with unions and like minded organizations throughout the world. Unite endorses the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO, an agency of the United Nations) approach. This places health, safety, welfare and work security in its wider, international socio-economic context: “Workers throughout history have had to demand improvements and have had to put pressure on those around them to ensure that they have what we call work security, safe and decent working conditions and occupational health and safety. The ILO ... believes basic security is the essence of ‘decent work’ and social justice”. Equality is also central to the ‘ILO’s’ decent work agenda. Unite’s three pillars therefore provide the rationale for our approach to health, safety and welfare: organising around day to day workplace health and safety issues and extending our claim for good work; campaigning for work security and a more just society and engaging internationally with workers and their organisations for the realisation of our shared values. I would like to thank all Unite safety representatives, past and present, for the major contribution they continue to make to help ensure that health and safety is at the heart of Unite’s fight to improve workplace conditions. 4 www.unitetheunion.org www.unitetheunion.org 5 “I know that if I save people from injuries or death I have done my job to the best of my ability.” Chapter 1 How Unite is organised Unite Safety Rep Unite is Britain’s largest union. It was formed by a merger between two of Britain's leading unions, the T&G and Amicus. It was created to meet the great challenges facing working people in the 21st century and Unite is a democratic and campaigning union at the heart of which is member involvement, democracy and equality. Unite fights back for employees in the workplace, is taking trade unionism out to the millions of unorganised workers, is a union that stands up for equality for all and advances its members’ interests politically. Unite is also active on a global scale building ever stronger links with trade unions and global trade union federations in Europe and around the world to confront the challenges of the globalised economy, Unite works closely with the United Steel Workers Union in North America (Workers Uniting). Structure of the union Every member belongs to a branch, of which there are thousands up and down the country. To run the Union’s affairs the UK and Ireland are divided into 10 regional units. Every member of the union is allocated to an industrial sector suitable to their profession. There are 19 industrial sectors which are listed below. These industrial sectors are represented by committees and elected representatives at both regional and national level. Branches Where possible, a branch will be based at a single workplace but with the approval of the Executive Council other arrangements can be made for example for local branches and national industrial branches. The branch is there to help collect more information, support members and negotiate better standards. Every branch should elect health and safety representative(s) and ensure that • they receive proper training • networking is encouraged • sharing information and communication is established so their work is better informed and more co-ordinated, and best practice is shared. Regions There are ten Unite Regions comprising one each for Wales, Scotland and Ireland and seven in England. Each region is co-ordinated and supervised by a Regional Committee composed of lay members, who are elected from the Regional Industrial Sector Committees (RISCs) They co-ordinate the work of each branch on industrial and administrative matters. Every sector has a Regional Industrial Sector Committee (RISC), which deals with the industrial business. Every region also has a Regional Women’s Committee, a Regional BAEM Committee, a Regional Young Members’ Forum, Regional Young Members’ Committee, a Regional Disabled Members’ Committee and a Regional Gay, Bisexual and Trans Committee.