150 elected OHS reps from various industries, including manufacturing, education, health, and more, attended the workshop. The workshop was conducted by Anna Pupillo and Chris Hughes from the ACTU's Education and Campaign Centre.
Key points from the workshop were:
Many workers are afraid to raise OHS issuesand support their reps in complaints to management due to fear of discrimination.
Solutions offered by other reps in the workshop:
- The need to raise issues collectively via other committee structures,
- Raising issues anonymously viaOHS Issue Box, or other ways of getting issues on agendas without namingnames
- Getting the Union Delegate involved.
Reps reported that their members were raising issues with the employer/supervisor without consulting with rep. This resulted in the rep not being informed by either DWG member or management until after the event and resolution.
Solution: need to make workers aware of their requirement under the Issue Resolution (IR) Regs, if applicable, to inform rep of the issue.
Also raised was the issue of inappropriate issue resolution procedures/flow charts that did not meet the minimum requirements under the IR regsor were ignored or didn't include time frames for each step resulting in either slow resolving of issues or no resolution at all.
Solution: Request Union and/or VWA to check issue resolution procedures meet minimum requirements and exceed it via agreements under EBA to set concrete procedures and set time frames for each step. Also use PINS to bring issues to a head.
Summary:
Major issue lack of DWG member understanding of how the issue resolution procedures worked.
Solution: they need to educate members on procedures as well as raising their compliance by the employer. Issue resolution procedures at work should be better than the Regs and include concrete time frames for each step. Include procedures in the EBA. Need to raise issues collectively or anonymously to overcome DWG member fear of discrimination by employer/supervisor.