The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) have recently issued a consultation document entitled Improving worker involvement - Improving health and safety, which seeks views on how to encourage, improve and increase worker involvement in health and safety risk management.
The consultation suggests that there are three pillars to the strategy to increase workers' participation in managing health and safety, which are: legislation, guidance and encouragement.
The document sets out the current position and options to strengthen each of the suggested pillars, including possible amendments to the law on consultation with employees. The document invites comments on the options and any new ideas that have not been considered.
Geoffrey Podger, Chief Executive of HSE commented:
"Workers know the most about the jobs they do, so they are often in the best position to develop safe and practical systems of work. Effective worker involvement can reduce accidents and ill health. It is fundamental to ensuring the success of all other interventions on health and safety. It is important, therefore, that we actively encourage and support organisations to involve their workers."
Zoe Woodrow, Policy Adviser with HSE's Worker Involvement Programme also commented:
"We want this consultation to gather as many views as possible. Both workers and employers are instrumental in making involvement successful. So we want to know what managers, workers and their representatives think. We have suggested some options but we would welcome other ideas, too.
The feedback we receive will help us to make the right decisions about how we focus our efforts in this important area. We recognise that people's time is limited, which is why we have also published a summary document. We hope that as many people as possible will take a look at the documents and let us know what they think."
To encourage as many people as possible to participate in the consultation, HSE is also publishing a summary document to introduce the issues involved, as well as organising a number of regional meetings to encourage people to share and discuss their views.
The consultation ends on 8 September 2006.
The Consultative Document Improving worker involvement - Improving health and safety (CD207), the summary document and feedback form can be accessed at http://www.hse.gov.uk/consult/condocs/cd207.htm
Single printed copies of the Consultative Document and summary can be obtained from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2WA, Tel: 01787 881165, Fax: 01787 313 995
Comments should be sent to: Zoe Woodrow, Worker Involvement Programme, HSE, 5th Floor, North Wing, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HS.
