Health and Safety Representative Training Course 2

Health and Safety Representative Training Course – When health and safety representatives are properly trained, their impact and influence can go much further than being just another set of eyes and ears on the ground.

It is the responsibility of everybody who uses or visits a workplace to ensure that the place is healthy and safe. But when matters have to be discussed with management or investment is required, it often works best when a team representative takes the matter up and has it discussed, rather than over allowing every employee to have a say.

Representatives are often appointed by popular vote once they have made themselves available for nomination. But that doesn't always mean that they are fully informed about how to do the job. In most cases, they get away with their lack of knowledge or skills by simply (over)compensating with enthusiasm and 'drive'. Although this is acceptable when appointing many volunteers, it cannot be acceptable when it comes to issues that could determine life or death.in these instances, it is important that informed decisions are made.

Having health and safety representatives attend a course will certainly help them to make such informed decisions.

There are various courses that a health and safety representative could attend, but, generally speaking, it is important that the representative is introduced to the field of Occupational Health & Safety as well as South Africa's Occupational Health and Safety Act. The latter is important as representative need to understand what the Act consists of, which principles of the Act are important and how the Act should be interpreted.

Such a course will also make it clear to the representative what the duties are of all involved, including the employer, management, the official health and safety manager or department, as well as inspectors from the Department of Labour.

Based on this knowledge, the representative can then be trained further to get a better understanding of the activities he or she is expected to monitor or execute. At this stage it is important to introduce the representative to administrative procedures and regulations that have to be respected as well as to various other regulations that are applicable to the specific workplace.

The training course will help volunteers to understand they have to look out for; but, more importantly, the course should also train the volunteer on how to act. Although it cannot be expected that the volunteer will change or solve a matter all by himself, it would be important for him to know how cases have to be followed up or how they should be escalated through the various management levels. Understanding the principles of communication will assist representatives in reducing the turnaround time to have matters solved or discussed.

Representatives or volunteers should never be put in a position where they are expected to solve problems. They are merely the eyes and ears on the ground for employers and health and safety departments. They are close to employees and, often, easier to approach when staff notice matters or feel uncomfortable. But if they are trained and informed, representatives will be in a better position to make informed decisions and ensure employers act immediately.