UK port employers, led by Port Skills and Safety (PSS) have joined forces with the Health and Safety Executive and Unite the Union to develop leadership and worker engagement guidance for the Port industry. This voluntary guidance recognises that achieving an effective health and safety culture is as much about human factors, relationships, trust, communication and behaviours as it is about risk assessments, procedures and controls.
The launch was hosted by Britain’s biggest and busiest container port, the Port of Felixstowe.
Representatives from Unite the Union commented that:
“Unite welcomes the publication of jointly agreed guidance on Health and Safety Leadership and Worker Engagement in the Ports Industry, an initiative prompted by the HSE research report “Leadership and Worker Engagement in the ports industry.
We are also marking forty years since the creation of trade union safety representatives under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977. Trade union safety representatives exercise their legal functions and powers effectively to help make our ports workplaces safer and healthier.
Of crucial importance is the ports employers’ support for our trade union safety representatives, and of joint working with Unite, and we look forward to taking this forward further with the support of the Health and Safety Executive and Port Skills and Safety.”