The Gazette 1981

GAZETTE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1981

—safety delegates and safety representatives are involved

more closely with the visiting inspector;

—provisions for facilities for meetings and the frequency,

duration and times for meetings are spelled out clearly;

these can be improved on by agreement with the

employer.

Quite clearly there is a major problem of education and

training for trade unions and employers in preparing for

the new system. It is for that reason that in order to

permit trade unions and employers' organisations to

prepare themselves this Part III of the Act will not,

with the agreement of ICTU and FUE, be brought into

effect until 1 April 1981.

Other significant provisions are in Sections 9, 10, 11

and 50. Section 9 imposes a duty on manufacturers,

importers and suppliers of plant to ensure that plant is in

operation. Section 10 enables the Minister to have plant

tested in the event that it was wholly or partly the cause of

an accident. Section 11 gives the Minister power to close

down immediately activities which in his opinion involve

risk of serious bodily injury. Section 50, dealing with

industrial medical advisers, opens up a vista of greater

efforts in the field of occupational health and foresees the

employment of specialist staff and surveys of workers

exposed to health risks.

Safety Committee or Safety Representative

In factories where up to twenty persons are employed

workers have a choice between a safety representative

and a safety committee. They cannot have both. There is

no such choice in factories where more than twenty are

employed: there must be a safety committee. Quite obvi-

ously there is no rule of thumb about which is better -

every factory has its own peculiarities and problems and

the workers in that factory are in the best position to

decide. In the training courses being prepared by the Irish

trade union movement, guidelines will be prepared to help

them decide. Regulations may vary upwards or down

wards the number (twenty) of persons that must be

employed in a factory before the workers will be entitled

to appoint a safety representative. Such regulations

cannot be made, however, before ICTU and FUE are

consulted.

Safety Representatives

Where the workers have decided on the safety

representative option they can select and appoint him or

her from among themselves and, barring resignation or

leaving the factory, the safety representative will hold

office for three years. If during that period workers

decided to create a safety committee this would automa

tically revoke the appointment of the safety represen-

tative. Ideally the safety representative should have

experience of the kind of work being done by the people

whom he represents. His mandate is wide: to represent the

workers in consultations with the employer. When he is

appointed the employer must hold consultations with him

for the purpose of ensuring co-operation at the workplace

in relation to the Acts and Regulations. The employer

must consider any representations made on the safety,

health and welfare of the workers. The safety represen

tative will be more closely involved with the industrial

inspector. When the inspector visits the factory in order

to carry out a general tour of inspection, i.e. one that is

not specifically to investigate an accident, the employer is

obliged to notify the safety representative and, once he

requests it, the safety representative is entitled to

accompany the inspector.

These functions are obviously seen as minimal. In a

provision of a type which features regularly in the new

Act the Minister for Labour is given powers to add to the

functions of the safety representative by way of Statutory

Regulations which would be made only after ICTU and

FUE are consulted.

Safety Committees

So long as there are two workers and provided of

course that they do not exercise the safety representative

option, there can be a joint safety committee. The new

Act entitles workers to select from among themselves the

worker members of the committee. If any of the members

so selected leave the factory, they cease to be members of

the committee but otherwise no limit is put on their term

of office. In practice it is left up to each enterprise to work

out its own rules concerning the life of a committee, provi

sions for elections, resignations and replacements etc.

There are rules (Table 2) about the size and composition

of safety committees: the committee cannot be smaller

than three or bigger than ten. Safety committees, already

in existence with at least three members, set up under the

Factories Act 1955 continue in being unaffected by the

new Act even if there are more than ten members. Such

committees will have all the powers and responsibilities of

the new safety committees.

There is general guidance in the new Act about the

functions of the safety committee and detailed guidance

about its meetings.

The functions of the safety committee are similar to

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