Health & safety factsheets

Page contents:

• Rights for safety reps
  Reps rights & basic information
  Employers' duties
  Downloads and practical information
  Information resources

• Specific issues
  Accidents, injury, illness
  In the workplace
  Being online
  Substances
  Equipment
  Facilities
  Driving at work

Rights for safety reps

Reps rights & basic information

• Why not become a UCU safety rep? [160kb]

• Why you should be a UCU safety representative [104kb]
  Why you should be a UCU safety representative [150kb]

• Introductory note setting out legal minima and UCU summary role for safety reps: Facilities & assistance for UCU safety reps - UCU factsheet [127kb]

• Workload reps: It's your time: legal rights and employer duties [119kb]

• 10-point plan: statutory time off for safety reps functions - UCU factsheet [63kb]
  10-point plan: statutory time off for safety reps functions - UCU factsheet [127kb]

• A summary of safety reps right to operate effectively, get information, and enforce safety requirements: Safety reps’ functions, facilities and time off - UCU factsheet [165kb]
  Health & safety rep functions [278kb]
  Health & safety rep functions [142kb]

• How many health and safety reps should there be? - UCU factsheet [161kb] - summarises how to respond to an employer refusal to have sufficient safety reps

• Should we represent non members? - UCU health and safety factsheet [159kb] - explains why UCU safety reps speak on behalf of all staff and why no parallel set of non-union safety reps is necessary

• Conducting a workplace inspection: checklists - UCU factsheet [144kb]

Employers' duties

• Summary of the legal duty of employers to provide paid time off for safety reps: Paid time-off for UCU safety reps - UCU factsheet [125kb]

• The legal minima and good practice for consultation: Consultation with UCU safety reps - UCU factsheet [47kb]

• The legal minima employers must meet when safety reps seek to be appointed: The appointment of trade union safety representatives - UCU factsheet [163kb]

• Safety representatives: shifting the emphasis to employer duties - UCU factsheet [147kb]

• What safety committees should be, who is on them and what they must discuss: Safety committees - UCU factsheet [167kb]

• What employers are required to have in a workplace safety policy: Safety policies - UCU factsheet [165kb]

• Checking your employer has made a RIDDOR report - UCU factsheet [71kb]

• Safety reps' training - UCU 10 point safety plan [46kb]

• Employers are legally required to ensure that people who have health, safety and welfare responsibilities in the workplace are competent: Competent persons for health and safety - UCU factsheet [153kb]

Downloads and practical information

See also: Workload campaign

• Your first workplace inspection [211kb]

• Workplace inspection - using and developing checklists [145kb]

• Against the backdrop of Covid-19 UCU Wales have produced a tool kit to assist branch health and safety reps when planning to carry out risk assessments [313kb].

• Risk assessment: a brief guide to putting it all together, Oct 15 [178kb]

• Downloadable letters for accreditation and confirmation as safety reps: Accreditation and confirmation letters for UCU safety reps [246kb]

• Planning and following up an inspection: It’s your time: workload inspections [106kb]

• A useful pro forma to download: Workplace inspection report form [109kb]

• A useful way of checking what progress you are, or are not, making: Well organised or what? - health check your institution [175kb]

• Sample union inspection notice for safety reps [25kb] - downloadable form for a UNIVERSITY

• Stress management standards and working groups: It's your time: joint working groups [86kb]

Information resources

• A fairly detailed summary of what a risk assessment is, employers' obligations, what they should cover and who does them: Risk assessment: how does it work? - UCU factsheet [64kb]

• Sources of information for Health and Safety Reps [178kb]
  Sources of information for health and safety reps [174kb]

• The legal framework: Introduction to workplace inspections - UCU factsheet [164kb]

• This factsheet summarises the guidance issued to HSE Inspectors about their responsibility to contact trade union safety representatives when they visit a workplace: HSE inspectors and UCU safety reps - UCU factsheet [158kb]

• Extending safety representatives' rights: union inspection notices - UCU factsheet [298kb]
  
  An explanation of a Union Inspection Notice - an idea UCU supports: Health and safety breach: union inspection notice [148kb]

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Specific issues

Accidents, injury, illness

Covid-19 - see UCU coronavirus advice

• Monkeypox briefing [211kb]

• Fit for work assessments: bullet points for branches [147kb]

• Sickness absence: the Bradford Factor - UCU factsheet [147kb]
  Sickness absence: the Bradford Factor - UCU factsheet [157kb]

• Fit notes - a UCU briefing [120kb]
  Fit notes - a UCU briefing [190kb]

• Home visits - UCU factsheet [175kb]
  Home visits - UCU factsheet [99kb]

• Slips and falls - UCU factsheet [121kb]
  Slips and falls - UCU factsheet [154kb]

• Alcohol dependency - UCU 10 point safety plan [46kb]

• Bullying and harassment - an online toolkit containing guidance, poster and model agreements, letters and surveys
  
  see also: Being online

• Stress toolkit - an online toolkit containing guidance, agreements and model forms and questionnaires

• Workload campaign

• Guidance on a problem that is likely to increase: Can you be disciplined or sacked for being ill? - UCU factsheet [162kb]

• Essential do's and don'ts if there is an accident or injury at work: If there is an incident or injury at work - UCU factsheet [175kb]

• Finding out about violence at work:
  Violence at work - UCU factsheet [250kb]
  Violence at work - UCU factsheet [177kb]
  
  see also: Action against violence against women - branch guidance [321kb]

• Working Time Regulations and lecturers: How long can a lecturer work without being given a break? [166kb]

• See also:
  TUC - work and well-being: a trade union resource
  TUC - guide to holidays

In the workplace

• Lone working and mobile working in FE - UCU guidance [75kb]

• Mouse infestations - UCU factsheet [95kb]

• Marking online - UCU factsheet [145kb]

• Student numbers and workstation layout in craft workshops - UCU factsheet [171kb]

• An in depth briefing on the issues with sample letters for safety reps: Hot desking, open plan offices and space utilisation - UCU factsheet [151kb]

• These two factsheets on non-smoking workplaces compliment each other:
  Smokefree workplaces: a summary [160kb]
  Smokefree workplaces: a guide [220kb]

• Fire precautions factsheet - UCU factsheet [42kb] - a downloadable checklist

• Office space for academic staff - UCU factsheet [168kb] - includes advice on open plan offices

• Joint union heatwave protocol [331kb]

• 'Temperature in indoor workplaces', extract workplace regulations approved code of practice [172kb] - includes extracts from the relevant regulations

• Example of a temperature and ventilation checklist - UCU factsheet [177kb] - a downloadable checklist

• TUC heatwave advice [177kb]

• Out of 'site', out of mind? IOSH guidance on teleworking [83kb] - IOSH guidance on teleworking supported by UCU

• Office space - a guide to standards in space in the working environment - UCU factsheet [165kb]

• Overcrowding in classrooms - UCU factsheet [144kb]

Being online

• Practical steps to ensure internet safety - UCU factsheet [132kb]
  Practical steps to ensure internet safety - UCU factsheet [160kb]

• Cyber-bullying: the invisible hand of bullying - UCU factsheet [151kb]
  Cyber-bullying: the invisible hand of bullying - UCU factsheet [159kb]

Substances

• Chemical substances checklist - UCU factsheet [79kb]

• Asbestos diseases and their regulation - UCU factsheet [106kb]

• Control of Asbetos Regulations 2006 - UCU factsheet [169kb]

• The management of asbestos in the workplace: regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 - UCU factsheet [196kb]

Equipment

• Using laptop computers - UCU factsheet [146kb]

• The portable office - London Chamber of Commerce booklet [279kb]

• Interactive whiteboards - UCU factsheet [114kb]

• 'Blackberry thumb' - UCU factsheet [30kb]

Facilities

• Legionnaires' disease - UCU factsheet [181kb]

• Risks associated with hot water systems - UCU factsheet [48kb]

• An essential guide to toilet facilities and the law, especially in FE: Staff toilets in FE colleges - UCU factsheet [108kb]

Driving at work

• Driving at work: managing road risk - UCU factsheet [41kb]

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