Consult your employees on health and safety
Your responsibilities for involving and consulting employees in your health and safety policy, the benefits of doing so, the law, and how to consult with them.
You have to consult with all your employees on health and safety. This does not need to be complicated.
You can do this by simply listening and talking to them about:
- health and safety and the work that they do
- how risks are controlled
- the best ways of providing information and training
Consultation is a two-way process. It allows staff to raise concerns and influence decisions on the management of health and safety. Your employees are often the best people to understand the risks in the workplace. Involving them in making decisions shows them that you take their health and safety seriously.
In a very small business, you may choose to consult employees directly. Alternatively, you might consult your employees through a health and safety representative. This can be someone who has been chosen by their colleagues or selected by a trade union. As an employer, you cannot decide who will be the representative.
This guide outlines the benefits of involving employees in health and safety and how to go about it.
It also highlights the relevant laws and when they apply.
The benefits of involving employees in health and safety
Benefits of involving your employees in managing health and safety include gaining more information about risks and staff taking ownership of safety.
Your employees influence health and safety through their own actions. They are often the best people to understand the risks in their workplace.
Talking, listening and co-operating can help to achieve benefits. Health and safety representatives can help you with workforce consultation arrangements.
Benefit from better worker involvement
Workplaces where employees play an active part in health and safety have lower accident rates. Collaboration with your employees helps you to manage health and safety in a practical way by:
- helping you spot workplace risks
- making sure health and safety controls are practical
- increasing the level of commitment to working in a safe and healthy way
In many cases this also leads to increased productivity, efficiency and quality.
Consulting with employees about health and safety lets them know you take their wellbeing seriously.
Consulting your staff on health and safety: the law
Rules on consulting with your employees on health and safety, the regulations involved, how these may apply to you and where you can find further guidance.
There are two main sets of regulations concerning your duty to consult your workforce on health and safety:
- the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996
- the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1979
These regulations will apply to most workplaces.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has developed easy-to-use and how they may affect yourself and your workforce.
A workplace employee who can represent the views of their colleagues is a great way of involving your entire workforce in matters concerning their health and safety.
You may only have to consult under one set of regulations, or it may be both depending on circumstances.
How to consult with your workers on health and safety
Practical ideas and hints on how to consult with your workers on health and safety and how different approaches will work in different work environments.
Consultation involves you not only giving information to your employees but also listening to them and taking account of what they say before making any health and safety decisions.
You can either consult with your employees about health and safety directly, or through a health and safety representative. If you recognise a trade union, it may appoint a health and safety representative. Your workers can also elect a health and safety representative.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provide .
What must I consult about?
You must consult with employees or their representatives about the following:
- any new measures that could affect their health and safety at work, eg equipment, technology or processes
- arrangements for getting competent people to help them comply with health and safety laws - see appoint a competent person for health and safety
- workplace risks and measures to reduce them – see health and safety risk assessment
- health and safety training
What information should I make available to my employees?
You must give your employees, or their representatives, the information necessary to allow them to participate fully and effectively in the consultation. Information should include:
- any workplace risks
- the measures to control these risks
- what they should do if they are exposed to a risk, including emergency procedures