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Health and safety reps
Thank you for volunteering as a health and safety rep for ATL. From slips and trips to stress or asbestos, ATL's safety reps play a vital role in making workplaces a more positive and safe place to be.
As an ATL health and safety rep, your role includes:
educating members to ensure they recognise both hidden and more obvious health and safety issues, and keeping them at the top of workplace and branch agendas
encouraging engagement between health and safety reps and members to discuss how issues can be solved
working in partnership with other unions and employers to ensure positive outcomes when dealing with potential health and safety issues
working closely with ATL reps and improving networks to ensure reps are not isolated in their workplace.
ATL members have the right to appoint their own safety representatives in every workplace regardless of how small or large the membership is. The decision is not a matter for the employer. An employer-appointed safety rep will not necessarily focus on the same areas of concern as members.
Health and safety reps are legally entitled to investigate health and safety concerns and have paid time off (see rights of safety reps for more). And ATL supports our safety reps every step of the way, with accredited training, a section of the website dedicated to health and safety (accessible from the home page), additional resources, including a dedicated newsletter and a dedicated health and safety advisor, who is available via ATL's London office on 020 7930 6441, or via our online contact form.
Latest news
Please read this circular on a recent significant judgement by the Supreme Court on a ex pupil who died from exposure to asbestos while at school.
We are asking ATL Health and Safety representatives to raise this judgement at their Health and Safety Committees to get clarification on what proposals the school or Local Authorities are going to put in place following the outcome of this case.
The Joint Unions Asbestos Committee recently published the findings of a national survey into asbestos in schools. For more information, see this news story and this summary of the survey findings on the website of Morrish Solicitors.
More information
ATL's health and safety reps community has continued to grow over the last year, with more reps being signed up and being trained than ever before. If you are not already a health and safety rep but would be interested in hearing more, please email our health and safety team.