Safety gets low priority

There are low levels of interest in worker involvement in health and safety in non-unionised workplaces in Scotland, a survey has found.

The report by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that worker involvement is given low priority by management in non-unionised workplaces and that where it happens, it tends to follow a management agenda.

Common barriers to concern over safety reported by RoSPA include “lack of resources, knowledge, time and imperative”. Other barriers are a fear of speaking up and a lack of respect from managers.

TUC head of health and safety Hugh Robertson said: “The RoSPA work shows the difficulties in extending worker involvement to non-unionised areas ... Only where workers are supported, such as through unions, will involvement be effective. The union model is the one that has been shown to work and the one that should be promoted if worker involvement is to be meaningful.”

The report, Worker involvement in health and safety: what works? is available at: www.rospa.com/occupationalsafety/info/rospa-wish.pdf