Employee Participation The most successful safety management programmes  encourage active employee involvement. Employees encounter workplace hazards and problems every day and can contribute suggestions for improvement. Employees involved in identifying problems and participating in problem solving are usually committed to making the solution work.  Employer obligations click here for more detailed information in the A to Z guide on Employee Participation including training entitlement information All employers are required to give employees reasonable opportunities to participate in the ongoing processes for the improvement health and safety If an employer has fewer than 30 employees, and one or more of those employees requires the development of an employee participation system, then a system must be developed. If an employer has 30 or more employees, an employee participation system must be developed. The employer, employees who wish to be involved, and any unions representing the employees are required to co-operate in good faith to develop, agree, implement, and maintain a participation system.  If the employer is asked by the employees and representatives who usually organise an election under the employee participation system, he or she must hold it within two months of receiving notification. If you have health and safety representatives in your workplace, you must allow them training leave of up to 2 days per year, unless you have agreed otherwise with your employees and their unions. The leave is available only to attend an approved health and safety training course.  The Act sets out the maximum number of days that employers must allow for health and safety training leave, depending on the number of people they employ. TOP>> We already have an employee participation system There is no need to establish a new system if everyone in the workplace agrees to retain the existing one. The only new requirement is that existing systems must include a process by which that system can be reviewed. The review process may be decided on by the parties, who should work together in good faith to reach a decision. NB There is no requirement to have health and safety representatives as part of an agreed employment participation system.  What do we put in an employee participation system ? An employee participation system may include whatever the parties agree on. The Act gives some examples of matters that could be included. These are: Electing health and safety representatives, and deciding whether they should act individually or as part of a health and safety committee; Developing processes for ensuring regular and co-operative interaction between employers and employees on health and safety issues. A practical part of the system may be about employees' role in hazard identification. A system may include increasing or decreasing the number of days' paid leave that an employer must allow a health and safety representative to take. A system may allow for more than one health and safety representative or health and safety committee. Each representative or committee may represent a particular type of work, or place of work, of the employer. For an agreed system there is no limit (or minimum) to the number of health  and safety representatives that the parties can agree to. TOP>> What if no agreement is reached within 6 months? The Act sets out what to do if no agreement has been reached within six months. If an employer has fewer than 30 employees, the employees and any union representing them must hold an election for at least 1 health and safety representative. If an employer has 30 or more employees, the employees and any union representing them must hold an election for at least one health and safety representative, with a maximum of 5 health and safety representatives if they are to be members of a health and safety committee. The employee health and safety representatives must comprise at least half of any committee. The mandatory functions for health and safety representatives elected  are:        (i) Encourage positive health and safety practices            in the workplace;        (ii) Identify and bring to the employer's attention            hazards in the workplace and discuss with the            employer ways that the hazards may be dealt            with;        (iii) Consult with inspectors on health and safety             issues;        (iv) Promote health and safety interests of             employees, especially if they have been             harmed at work and need assistance with              rehabilitation and return to work;        (v) Carry out any functions referred to in a code of            practice.   TOP>>