Trade Union Bill a threat to safety reps

The Trade Union Bill could put lives at risk, says the TUC. It is campaigning to get the message about the threat the bill poses to safety reps out across the union movement.

Writing in Hazards magazine, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady explains that the Bill threatens facility time for safety reps.

Under the proposed legislation, any public sector employer (almost any employer who receives any kind of public funding and provides a public service, including charities and housing associations), with at least one union health and safety representative, will have to record and publish all the time taken and any facilities provided.

“This proposal is bureaucratic, pointless and will just mean that both employers and union representatives will have to spend a lot of time on paperwork,” she writes.

The Bill would also allow ministers to restrict the rights to time off given to union health and safety representatives by amending the 1974 Health and Safety at Work etc Act through new regulations.

“This is a really vindictive proposal, and an of course an underhand one — sneaking in the right to make changes by Statutory Instrument into a much wider Bill,” O’Grady said.

“The current time off regulations are clear and simple and apply to all workplaces where there is a recognised union.

“The government now seeks permission to tear these up in the public sector.”

http://strongerunions.org/2015/09/24/government-threat-to-safety-reps-get-the-message-out-there