Aussie Union Rep Power, Yes Please: TUC

British safety reps are looking to their Aussie counterparts and saying "we want some of that", according to news reports that the UK’s Trade Union Congress wants to follow our lead on union OHS powers.

Impressed by the effectiveness of our system, which allows union safety reps to serve notices requiring employers to fix workplace hazards, the Trade Union Congress says the same system should now be implemented there.

The Congress has already supplied British union safety reps with Union Inspection Notices - a voluntary system based on Australia's Provisional Improvement Notices - but wants them to have the same status and effect as PINs.

Research by the British Health and Safety Executive says workplaces could be made far safer by trusting union safety reps to take a more active enforcement role, while an ACTU survey has revealed "employers almost always accept the safety reps' recommendation without an inspector needing to call", a Hazards report says.

According to TUC General Secretary John Monks: " Union safety reps are the main resource we have which can make workplaces safer.

"Research already proves that workplaces with safety reps are twice as safe as ones without, but they need more tools at their disposal to make workplaces safe as they possibly can be.

"Australia has a similar health and safety system to Britain, so if it works there, it will work here - British safety reps look at their Australian Counterparts and say 'we want some of that'," he says.

To visit the TUC website, click here.

This article appeared in Workers Online - issue 159, 1 November, 2002.

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