Background:

The Complainantis a geography teacher at the Respondent secondary school in County Dublin, and a member of the ASTI trade union. The Complainant contended he was the duly-designated “safety representative” for all employees of the Respondent. In this capacity, the Complainant said he attempted to implement a programme known as “Work Positive” which is developed by the Health and Safety Authority. The Respondent did not recognise the Complainant as the “safety representative” for their employees, which the Complainant alleged was penalisation for having served as the safety representative. The Complainant made a complaint under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 on the basis of this alleged penalisation.

The Respondent said the Complainant had not been properly appointed to the role of safety representative pursuant to section 25(1) of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. The Complainant believed he was appointed to this role at a meeting of staff, but the Respondent contended that meeting was only a meeting of his union, ASTI, and therefore did not include all employees in the Respondent’s employment, which included staff other than teachers. As a result, the Respondent alleged the Complainant could not have been victimised for his role as a safety representative under the Act because he had never been properly appointed one, and the actions of the Respondent were not retaliatory but were instead simply a reflection of the Complainant’s role or lack thereof.

Outcome:

The Labour Court (Haugh, Murphy and Bell) affirmed the decision of the Adjudication Officer and found the Complainant was not, as a matter of fact, selected to be the school’s safety representative at a meeting which all employees in the school were eligible to attend. The Court also noted that his peers only regarded the Complainant as the ASI safety representative, not the school’s own safety representative as defined by statute. The Court therefore found that “there can be no basis” to the Complainant’s allegation of penalisation and his complaint was deemed to be not well-founded.

Practical Guidance for Employers:

The role of “safety representative” is a statutory role, for which one person is selected by all the employees of an employer. If an employee attempts to claim their status as a “safety representative”, confirmation should be sought that this appointment has been properly conducted by a meeting or other method of all staff of that employer.

The full case is here:
https://www.workplacerelations.ie/wrc/en/cases/2023/october/hsd236.html