Hi Lynn,

I am interested in your response to the question of whether Health and Safety representatives should be compensated for the work that they carry out in their work place.

Do you have other duties to carry out too? Do you have elections to appoint new health and safety representatives? I was an elected health and safety representative in a medical laboratory company and we were required to be in our position for a period of two years. Some of my fellow health and safety representatives had remained in their role as their team's health and safety representative for much longer than two years, partly because people were not interested in stepping up to the task of being a health and safety representative. Our health and safety representative duties were additional to our position, however we were required to attend a specified number of meetings and training sessions during the year. We didn't have Senior Health and Safety representatives, everyone, barring the Health and Safety Manager and Health and Safety Administrator was on the same level and nobody had any extra duties put on to them.

We weren't compensated either, but we were in a privileged position to represent our colleagues and had the support of senior managers who really listened to our concerns and recommendations.