H&S rep or Union rep

[sheff postie]

Who has more power to affect the way management operate?

Opinions and reason's for thinking the way you do please?

[enzio]

i would say h@s rep because there issues can make a mangers life a misery eg one york at at a time

[TrueBlueTerrier]

H&S rep as he has a lot more of the LAW behind him. Whereas the IR rep has employment law that is open to interpretation, and agreements which have no real protection in law.

[sheff postie]

I was thinking the same. Is this the death of local reps power and the dawn of the H&S reps power to make a managers life miserable? are they like a footy team with CWU reps as goalie and defence (protecting staff from management attacks but inefectual going forward except for the occasional screamer) and H&S reps up front attacking managment banging them in left right and centre?

Sorry im rambling abit. The night shift kills my brain.

[sheff postie]

But in a footballing analogy the normal postie must be the midfield and has to help out in both attack and defence. Is this where we as a group of people fall down?

[fishtank]

I was thinking the same. Is this the death of local reps power and the dawn of the H&S reps power to make a managers life miserable? are they like a footy team with CWU reps as goalie and defence (protecting staff from management attacks but inefectual going forward except for the occasional screamer) and H&S reps up front attacking managment banging them in left right and centre?

Sorry im rambling abit. The night shift kills my brain.

Having sat in both camps i would have agreed with you...right up until the Condem government started it's attack on workplace Health&Safety....now i'm not so sure.

[George door to dawes]

Was in H&S manager for 2 years and was pretty rubbish to be honest! not a H&S rep position but probably very simular kind of job. I would say go for union rep as then you get to spend more time fighting injustice instead of learning pointless safety regs!

[sheff postie]

but those H&S regs can be used to f**k the managers up. Example :- our manager was giving us greif about hanging keys on dock leveler doors, last strike when network was out an agency driver came in, pulled on to dock, manger put the door up, H&S rep went and put it down told him keys need to be hung up, manger went out side to ask for keys driver told him to piss off cos he was on break and keys were staying with him, 75 yorks of mail sat on a bay untouched for 45min, us sat around doing nothing for 45 min. A good result in my book.

[brothermagrew]

Was in H&S manager for 2 years and was pretty rubbish to be honest! not a H&S rep position but probably very simular kind of job. I would say go for union rep as then you get to spend more time fighting injustice instead of learning pointless safety regs!

Safety regs aren't pointless they are there for a specific reason and from a trade union safety rep perspective or point of view it is usually management that choose to ignore them.

[belle smith]

Was in H&S manager for 2 years and was pretty rubbish to be honest! not a H&S rep position but probably very simular kind of job. I would say go for union rep as then you get to spend more time fighting injustice instead of learning pointless safety regs!

Safety regs aren't pointless they are there for a specific reason and from a trade union safety rep perspective or point of view it is usually management that choose to ignore them.

It's not just management that choose to ignore them! Usually or otherwise.

[brothermagrew]

I stand corrected but just remind me who has the primary responsibility for health and safety within our organisation.

[sheff postie]

EVERYONE!!!

i think

Anyway, i think that if H&S and local reps work together with the members backing them up all the way we will be able make the managers life's hard, the main point i was trying to make with this thread is if we all followed the H&S regulations the job will slow down and job cut's will be harder for managers to justify. Not saying they wont happen, just harder to justify.

[brothermagrew]

EVERYONE!!!

i think

Anyway, i think that if H&S and local reps work together with the members backing them up all the way we will be able make the managers life's hard, the main point i was trying to make with this thread is if we all followed the H&S regulations the job will slow down and job cut's will be harder for managers to justify. Not saying they wont happen, just harder to justify.

Think on bro and may I suggest you view this thread in it's entirety for a better understanding of primary responsibility.

[sheff postie]

Management? The business?

[pink panther]

Management? The business?

Both can be very effective in their own way my answer would be joint representation for the members. Sometimes it's our own members who ruin the job. Have to admit H&S reps are very important.