Health and safety representatives are elected to represent employees and help ensure a safe, healthy and sustainable work environment. Their work ranges from participating in workplace inspections and planning changes that affect the work environment to following up on incidents, occupational injuries and employee surveys such as the OSA survey. But their role is not only about processes and routines.
"Sometimes people simply need someone to listen and help them sort things out," says Peter Gustafsson, Principal health and safety representative at LUSEM. "You don't have to know exactly what you want to do or how to proceed. We can discuss the situation together and help identify possible next steps."
"The first step is always to understand what the person wants. Our aim is to support them and help them feel confident in deciding how to proceed. Follow-up can be important, but the individual decides how far to take a matter," says Carina Funck, Health and safety representative at Department of Business Law.
Free to contact any health and safety representative
Importantly, you are free to contact any health and safety representative at LUSEM – not only the one assigned to your department:
”It’s important to stress that if you come to talk to us about an issue, that does not mean we automatically raise this with your immediate manager. First of all, you always decide whether you want us to raise your matter with someone else, and we don’t do that without a go-ahead from you. Second, theoretically the immediate manager could be part of the problem, and if so, we’ll find some other manager than can handle the issue going forward,” says Maria Persson, health and safety representative at Department of Economics.
"You decide how far you want to take a matter," Maria explains. "If you just want advice or a conversation, that's perfectly fine. If you want support in moving forward, we can help with that too."
All health and safety representatives are bound by confidentiality, and any further action is taken in dialogue with the employee involved:
"It should also be noted that confidentiality is absolutely essential. All health and safety representatives are bound by confidentiality, and protecting the privacy and integrity of those who contact us is always our top priority," Peter explains.
Health and safety representatives can provide support in matters related to the work environment, both physical and psychosocial. They also collaborate with managers, occupational health services and work environment specialists when needed. The group meets regularly to discuss ongoing work environment issues across the faculty.
Sometimes people simply need someone to listen and help them sort things out.
Current priorities include the upcoming OSA survey on organisational and social work environment, as well as the follow-up work based on the survey results. The OSA survey is a university-wide employee survey that focuses on organisational and social aspects of the work environment, such as workload, collaboration, leadership and workplace culture. Other areas of focus include accessibility, teaching and meeting facilities, and preparations for upcoming renovation projects in LUSEM's lecture halls.
Please get in touch
Above all, the health and safety representatives want colleagues to know one thing: Don't hesitate to get in touch. Sometimes a conversation is all that it takes.