Table of Contents
- What is a Trained Safety Rep?
- What are their Duties?
- What does the Act say about their Competence?
- Did this Eventuate?
- What you should do
What
is a Trained Safety Rep?
A Trained Safety Representative under the HSE Amendment
Act is not your average employee rep. To have the status
of "Trained", the person must have
achieved a "level of competency" specified
by the Minister of Labour, OR have completed a training
course approved under the Act.
The word "Competency" is critical here.
It is written in black and white in the Act, so clearly
it is important. Why it is so important becomes clear
when we consider the duties and rights of these persons:
What
are their duties?
A Trained Safety Rep is intended to be a cut above
someone who is simply elected as a representative. The
main reason that the Act differentiates based on competency
is due to their unique right to be able to issue their
employer with a Hazard Notice. A Hazard notice cannot,
in itself be thrown at you out of left field, because
the Act requires that there must have been attempts
to resolve the issue in "good faith" first.
But, should the Trained Rep not agree with your answer, or, indeed the time frame of any agreed solution, they may issue the Hazard Notice. Now, a Hazard Notice is not, in itself enforceable directly, however, the rep may also send a copy to OSH, who in turn may use this as the required Prior Warning for hitting you with an Infringement Notice (spot fine).
So,
wouldn't we all want these folks to have a verifiable
level of understanding about safety legislation, what
is fair and reasonable and what constitutes reasonable
risk? Of course we would.
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What
does the system say about their competence?
The Act says "trained health and safety representative
means a health and safety representative who has achieved
a level of competency in health and safety practice
specified by the Minister by notice in the Gazette or
has completed an appropriate course approved under section
19G".
Clearly, there is a requirement for competence here. This means, doesn't it, that any course must establish this fact before conferring the status of Trained Safety Rep?
[ Return to Top ]Did
this eventuate?
Well, apparently not. The current course approval criteria
list, under "Quality Assurance Criteria",
includes the following:
An in-course and/or post-course method for assessing the extent to which skills and knowledge have been acquired by participants;
We can confirm that of the five available Approved courses at the time of writing, probably only one of them does any credible in course assessment whatsoever. Just some silly post course assessment when it's too late.How wet is that? We're now so politically correct as a nation that we can't even test people's competence in-course and tell them to come back another time if they don't shape up. 99% of employees will probably try their best but what's to stop them choking on this stuff and then bringing that lack of competence back to work?
How can you check competence after the course? Would you train a medical practitioner, then set them loose before giving them a test of competence?
What are we going to do, take away their new Trained Safety Rep status if they turn out to have no competence? Don't think so.
This is an opportunity to lead the world getting diluted in a sea of political expediency. Just imagine the strength of the workplace safety culture with strong, knowledgeable employee reps leading their own peers in a supported, shared relationship. Being part of the solution, not part of the problem is the key to this. For that, we need competence, not wishy washy badges of attendance.
[ Return to Top ]What
you should do?
Ask the training provider prior to the course what
verification of competence there will be. If you
are not happy, don't send them on the grounds that competence
is not being confirmed, as required by the Act.
Find
out about the HSE Amendment Act: www.workinfo.govt.nz
Find
out about Approved Courses: www.ers.dol.govt.nz
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