An HSR is a worker who has been elected by their colleagues to represent them in health and safety matters. HSRs carry out duties such as:
- Promoting positive health and safety management practices
- Identifying hazards/risks and working with the employer to manage them – if there’s no resolution, and they’re appropriately trained, they can issue a Provisional Improvement Notice
- Consulting with inspectors on health and safety issues.
Any business can initiate the election of 1 or more health and safety representatives.
Legally, a business must initiate elections for an HSR if it receives a request from one or more workers.
The business's obligation to initiate an election in response to a worker's request applies only to the workgroup to which the worker belongs.
For Health and Safety Representatives to carry out their job effectively they should receive training, support and adequate time from their employer to ensure they can effectively fulfil their role.
To be eligible as an HSR a worker must:
- Belong to that work group or team
- Be willing to act as a health and safety representative
- Work regularly enough to effectively carry out the functions and exercise the powers of a health and safety representative.
Appropriate training is important for an HSR to be fully competent. The Act allows for up to two days' paid leave a year to undertake health and safety training (this allowance increases based on the number of employees).
In addition, to issue a Provisional improvement notice (PIN) or cease unsafe work order they must have completed training under NZQA unit standard 29315.
Site Safe's Health and Safety Representative course fulfils these requirements.
A representative can hold the position for a maximum of three years but is eligible for re-election if they choose. A representative can also resign at any time.