AUSTRALIAN WORKERS UNION
BECOME A HEALTH & SAFETY REPRESENTATIVE
To get more information about appointing an HSR at your workplace, or about becoming an HSR, contact AWU SA branch on (08) 8360 1900
Health and safety representatives (HSRs) play an important role in representing the health and safety interests of workers in a work group.
The primary role of an HSR is to help communicate information about health and safety between employers and the workers.
HSRs represent workers on health and safety matters through ongoing consultation and cooperation between workers of a work group and an employer.
The powers and functions of an HSR are to:
- represent workers in a work group on work health and safety matters;
- monitor work health and safety actions taken by the employer;
- investigate work health and safety complaints from workers of the work group; and
- look into anything that might be a risk to the workplace health and safety of the workers they represent.
If an HSR has completed approved HSR training, they can exercise additional powers:
- to direct unsafe work to stop when they have a reasonable concern that carrying out the work would expose a worker of their work group to a serious risk; and
- to issue a ‘Provisional Improvement Notice’ (PIN) when they reasonably believe there is a contravention of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012.