Informed 05 Update Becoming a health and safety rep


Tory Blair, BBC chapel, and Claire Hayhurst, Press Association chapel, on their experience as health and safety reps.


Tory Blair:


Being a Health & Safety rep is the closest I expect I’ll ever come to acquiring a superpower. Like a lot of union members, I missed a chapel meeting only to learn I’d been elected as rep in my absence. In her handover, the outgoing chapel chair told me there was no spell book or magic wand. So – in a panic – I signed up for all the reps training going. It was all good but the best was Health


& Safety: Real. Legal. Power. Te NUJ’s trainer Caroline Holmes convinced us all we could not only have a serious tilt at changing our workplaces but, potentially, the world. If you’ve not read Te Brown Book, I highly recommend it. Have you ever organised industrial action? Weeks of legal hoops to jump through. I doubt it’s possible to organise in under two months. But if you’re a H&S rep in a workplace with a serious and imminent danger to health, safety and welfare…? You really should do the training and read Te Brown Book. So many of the victories we’ve


achieved have come by approaching them from a H&S perspective: rotas, staffing levels, reasonable adjustment, almost everything relates to Health, Safety & Welfare (never forget welfare!). When I first did that H&S training and


received my certification leter from the NUJ I had all the usual jokes about puting on a health & safety anorak. Aſter several decades I’m still waiting for it to arrive but, when it does, I will zip it up with pride. One of the best moves I ever made. We changed some things for the beter and it doesn’t get beter than that. All union reps should also be H&S reps.


NUJ


Temperature check


Claire Hayhurst: Health and safety has always been a big focus for the PA NUJ Chapel Branch, with members and reps regularly raising issues and ideas for us to tackle. I’ve worked as a regional reporter for


PA, based in the West of England and South Wales, for the past 13 years. As regional reporters, we cover any story of national significance on our patch – from breaking news events to the births of rare animals at zoos, to protests, royal and political rotas and court cases. My interest in health and safety has been shaped by many of the assignments I’ve covered over the years. I was pleased to be elected as Health and Safety rep for our Chapel ahead of recognition – a landmark moment in PA’s 158-year history – in June 2024. Our work began straight away, with public disorder taking place across the country in the wake of the Southport atack. I worked with our co-chairs, Emily Pennink and Jonathan Brady, to secure hostile environment training and safety equipment for all journalists likely to cover protests as part of their role. We also developed a risk assessment, which has become a key part of journalists being deployed on potentially hostile assignments, along with PA editors.


Claire Hayhurst Recognition has led to marked


improvements in the health and safety offering at PA for all staff within the editorial team, a source of pride for our branch and an area we regularly seek feedback about to ensure progress continues at pace. We now have regular meetings scheduled to discuss health and safety maters, atended by representatives from PA’s editorial and HR teams. Our latest focus is vicarious trauma – exposure to someone else’s trauma – which can have a significant mental health impact. Tis is a subject of great interest to members and one we are passionate about as reps. Training courses available through the NUJ have been hugely helpful in building our knowledge and confidence, particularly when pushing for change.


Are you interested in becoming a health and safety rep? Te next NUJ health and safety training workshop will be held from 10am to 12pm on Tursday 9 July. Tere is also an organising and recruitment workshop on 1 July from 10am to 12pm for all reps who have completed an induction and stage one training. Email tutraining@ nuj.org.uk for more information.


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