Hi Renata – “My manager won't give me access to a list of my DWG members. The other HSRs and I have asked repeatedly, but they refuse."
There are some questions we get very often, and we love to answer them because they are usually about the most basic HSR rights and powers - the building blocks of health and safety representation.
From time to time, we get reports back from HSRs who have had a win in asserting their rights, so this week we would like to share with you the story of an HSR's experience on the front-line of safety. This is a detailed masterclass in actively defending HSR rights.
"Our DWG has about 1500 members and only five HSRs. We requested DWG mailing lists from our employer several times: in 2023 management denied the request on the basis of 'privacy'; in 2024 we were told that there were already adequate means for DWG communication, including notice boards, HSR contact details on the website, the org chart in Outlook, and if we wanted, we could ask management to forward a message."
"At this point I created a consultation log - just a little spreadsheet with dates and events - to track the issue and that would be easy to share with WorkSafe should we need to raise a PIN. We had previously been unable to adequately establish that we had consulted prior to the issuing of a PIN related to another matter - we would be prepared this time.
We felt encouraged by asking VTHC if we should be entitled to a list (the answer was yes). We also asked a WorkSafe inspector who was visiting on another matter, and they rang me back to say that they see no reason why we shouldn't have a mailing list.
We asked again at a couple more meetings with management and got told there were privacy concerns -- their lawyers had said no. We had some back and forth and tried out a few of their suggested alternative methods to establish if they were workable. They were not!
Finally, I issued a PIN in mid-November 2024 (we decided as a group of HSR's in the DWG to do it though, we worked on it all together). We referenced s69(1)(e) - this was informed by advice we got earlier from WorkSafe Rep Support (we had a really good experience with them).
Our employer challenged the PIN at the last moment. We didn't hear their grounds until WorkSafe visited: they thought our request went beyond our powers as HSR's, and said they had technical difficulties complying, including that some staff employed in our work area were technically outside the DWG (because they worked interstate).
WorkSafe came out pretty quickly, within a few days of our employer challenging. As soon as they booked a time, I emailed the consultation log and a summary of the issue to the WorkSafe inspector. I think this helped lay a good foundation for the visit.
On the first visit, we had one WorkSafe Inspector from the Representation Support Team come out. He sounded like he'd probably uphold the PIN but agreed to give the employer a couple of days to figure things out, and also so they could talk to their lawyers about their privacy concerns. I think at this point management figured out pretty quickly that they were unlikely to prevail.
When WorkSafe came back at the end of the week, it was very clear from their questions that they were ready to uphold the PIN. Our employer agreed to give us a mailing list and they withdrew their challenge - the PIN was upheld.
WorkSafe instructed our employer to hand over a list by the agreed deadline. They also reassured us that we could ask for relatively regular (couple times a year) updates to the list."
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We congratulate this HSR and their colleagues on their success. With direct access to their DWG members, they will be better equipped to provide assistance, support and true representation in their efforts to keep their workmates safe and healthy at work, and they can be confident that they are maintaining their DWG's confidentiality.
This is an issue of your rights as an HSR to access unfiltered and direct communication with the members of your DWG.
A basic principle of our OHS Act is that the employer consult with and involve employees in all matters relating to their health and safety. This is, where possible, primarily through their elected health and safety representatives. HSRs are the conduit between their DWG members and the employer.
The Act makes this clear by requiring that when establishing DWGs it must be considered “How best to group employees at one or more workplaces so that the HSR is accessible to each member of the group” – that is, to ensure that these employees can be represented by the HSR.
In order to be able to represent DWG members, HSRs must be able to communicate with the members of their DWG. This is essential for fulfilling their role effectively, and HSRs are within their rights to press for better communication methods.
The OHS Act 2004 supports the need for HSRs to have reasonable means of communication with their DWG members - while the Act doesn't specify exactly how this communication should occur, employers are required to provide HSRs with reasonable resources, facilities, and assistance to enable them to perform their functions (Section 69).
The WorkSafe publication Employee representation: A comprehensive guide to part 7 of the OHS Act, states, “HSRs must have ready access to the employer (or its representative) and the employees of the DWG to discuss OHS matters as they arise."
The publication refers to 'Reliable access' as being 'that employees have both direct contact (face-to-face) and indirect contact (via email or phone) to an HSR in order to raise any concerns regarding their health and safety, and that they can readily be consulted by the HSR in relation to health and safety matters in the workplace.'
With the requirements of the Act and the clarification from the WorkSafe publication on representation, it is clear that our employers have no right to prevent HSRs from accessing an up-to-date mailing list of DWG members. If your employer does not comply with their obligation to provide this information to you, follow the issue resolution procedure and use your powers to force compliance.
If you cannot resolve an issue like this with reasonable consultation we urge you to contact your union directly for support and advice to escalate the matter to the next step of the issue resolution process - because safety is union business.
For more context about the work environment in which these HSRs are operating watch this video from the 2024 HSR conference.
