Become a health and safety rep

Help us reach our goal of having at least one H&S rep in every branch. Become an H&S rep and make a real difference in your workplace.

Make a difference!

Independent research shows that effective H&S reps can reduce work accidents by up to 50%. This positive impact is known as the union effect and only works when there are enough members willing to become H&S representatives.

What does an H&S rep do?

H&S reps are volunteers committed to making a difference to health and safety at work by:

• fostering positive health and safety practices in the workplace
• recognising and bringing to management's attention any dangers at work and then helping to tackle them
• promoting the health and safety interests of colleagues and ensuring that, where someone is made ill or injured, effective arrangements for their return to work and rehabilitation are in place.

They achieve this by:

• inspecting the workplace
• investigating near misses, accidents and members' H&S complaints
• representing members' health, safety and welfare interests
• participating in dialogue and consultation with colleagues, management and H&S committees
• competence - keeping up-to-date and trained
• teamwork with fellow local, national and branch reps.

The safety rep toolkit explains in detail the role and rights of a safety rep together with the training and support Prospect provides.

Want to be an H&S rep?

Any Prospect member can serve as an H&S rep. But ideally you should have at least two years' experience with your employer or on similar work. This suggestion, which is in the guidance to the SRSC Regs, is intended to ensure that safety reps have sufficient knowledge and experience of the dangers typical to their area of responsibility.

Interested? If possible, speak to your union rep and/or branch secretary or chair. You will need their support and they can tell you how you get appointed. If there are more volunteers than there are vacancies for H&S reps, the branch will arrange an election. This is a great way of getting visibility from the start!

If you don't know who your union reps are, contact our membership department by email or phone 01932 577007.

Alternatively, email your expression of interest to SafetyReps@prospect.org.uk