14th NATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

ADVISORY CONFERENCE 2016

AGENDA

CANCER at work

CANCER at home

Wednesday 24th February, 2016

Doncaster Trades, 19 South Mall,
Frenchgate Centre, Doncaster, DN1 1LL

NATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ADVISORY CONFERENCE

AGENDA 24th FEBRUARY 2016

1.Election of Liaison Committee Steve Hedley10:00

2.Election of Conference Chair Steve Hedley10:05

3.Welcome from the Chair 10:10

4.President’s AddressSean Hoyle10:20

5.Council of Executive’s reportMichael Craig10:40

6.Guest Speaker – No Time to LoseIOSH11:00

7.Guest Speaker – RSSBDarryl Hopper11:30

8.Guest Speaker – NUMChris Skidmore12:00

9.Speakers panel Q+A session12:30

LUNCH

10. Credit Union14:00

11.Industrial Injuries Advisory Committee Karen Mitchell14:15

12.Influencing the safety debate – the Safety Rep’s role.

Mick Lynch 14.45

13.Resolutions15:00

14.Close of Conference Steve Hedley15:45

CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS

ROSTERS – SPLIT SHIFTS & FATIGUE

EDINBURGH No 1 & PORTOBELLO BRANCH submits the following resolution:

This conference calls on the NEC to put in place through various structures within our union a health and safety campaign to highlight the dangers of rosters that invoke split shift turns of duty when members are working weekly night patterns as part of the work based roster.

These terms & conditions that apply to members on the infrastructure in Scotland allows management to possibly put members on 3 w/ends (3 Saturday nights) this involves a split turn and completing their next roster turn (work Saturday night, off Sunday night, back in Monday night)

This practice compromises our members wellbeing and could lead to incidents occurring for our members during the shift or travelling home once the shift is completed (Tuesday morning)

NWR Scotland go for these types of rosters as they seem to believe they give them more production and access, were more thought and better strategies need to be adopted with planning & resources making this type of workcycle avoidable as they are unhealthy and costly in the long & short term for our members & employer. This branch further believes that the fatigue regulations are not being properly managed by having such rosters in place and call on the NEC as part of the campaign to involve our safety representatives at route and national level to be involved in preliminary talks if rosters of this nature are being proposed or review any in operation to look at all the current safety legislation covering working hours as we find local representatives ill-equipped to deal with such roster situations due to training during roster negotiations.

Over the past few years incidents have taken place across the network where fatigue has been a factor and speaking to members who may have worked such shifts they find it stressful not getting proper sleep, unhealthy and having a massive impact on their home lives.

Furthermore, the campaigns objective is to eradicate such rosters in highlighting the dangers to NWR under health and safety law in managing fatigue properly and fairly through our representative structure and cant accept NWR drive to improve efficiency, bring in new technology using the safety case, attempt to bring in planning systems that is not yet fit for purpose and in doing so spending millions and at the same time leaving our members to work unhealthy rosters and suffer impact in doing so for years to come”

Scott Dobson

LU Engineering BRANCH submits the following resolution:

This Conference is saddened by the death of Scott Dobson and the derisory fine that Carillion Rail received. His death highlighted all that is wrong with privatisation and a cuts driven agenda that leaves track workers facing risk of death and injury whilst earning their wages. It seems every journey matters but not every worker. We further note the changes to roles and responsibilities for Track Access in both Network Rail and across London Underground. We will not pay with our blood so the fat cats and Tory Ministers can rake in more and more profit.

We therefore call on the National Executive to set up:

  • A joint LUL and Network Rail Campaign focusing on health and safety on the track.
  • Posters to be produced highlighting the risks
  • To build a database of incidents to use against the cuts to health and safety and our Rule Books