Skip to main content
N I Direct government services

Main navigation

  • Home
  • News
  • Contacts
  • Help
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • RSS

Translation help

Translate this page

Select a language

  • Afrikaans — Afrikaans
  • Albanian — Shqip
  • Amharic — አማርኛ
  • Arabic — العربية
  • Armenian — Հայերեն
  • Assamese — অসমীয়া
  • Aymara — Aymar aru
  • Azerbaijani — Azərbaycan dili
  • Bambara — Bamanankan
  • Basque — Euskara
  • Belarusian — Беларуская
  • Bengali — বাংলা
  • Bhojpuri — भोजपुरी
  • Bosnian — Bosanski
  • Bulgarian — Български
  • Cantonese — 廣州話
  • Catalan — Català
  • Cebuano — Sinugbuanong Binisayâ
  • Chichewa — Chichewa
  • Chinese (Simplified) — 简体中文
  • Chinese (Traditional) — 繁體中文
  • Corsican — Corsu
  • Croatian — Hrvatski
  • Czech — Čeština
  • Danish — Dansk
  • Dhivehi — ދިވެހި
  • Dogri — डोगरी
  • Dutch — Nederlands
  • English — English
  • Esperanto — Esperanto
  • Estonian — Eesti
  • Ewe — Eʋegbe
  • Filipino — Filipino
  • Finnish — Suomi
  • French — Français
  • Frisian — Frysk
  • Galician — Galego
  • Georgian — ქართული
  • German — Deutsch
  • Greek — Ελληνικά
  • Guarani — Avañe’ẽ
  • Gujarati — ગુજરાતી
  • Haitian Creole — Kreyòl ayisyen
  • Hausa — Hausa
  • Hawaiian — ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi
  • Hebrew — עברית
  • Hindi — हिन्दी
  • Hmong — Hmoob
  • Hungarian — Magyar
  • Icelandic — Íslenska
  • Igbo — Asụsụ Igbo
  • Ilocano — Ilokano
  • Indonesian — Bahasa Indonesia
  • Irish — Gaeilge
  • Italian — Italiano
  • Japanese — 日本語
  • Javanese — Basa Jawa
  • Kannada — ಕನ್ನಡ
  • Kazakh — Қазақ тілі
  • Khmer — ភាសាខ្មែរ
  • Kinyarwanda — Ikinyarwanda
  • Konkani — कोंकणी
  • Korean — 한국어
  • Krio — Krio
  • Kurdish (Kurmanji) — Kurdî
  • Kurdish (Sorani) — کوردی
  • Kyrgyz — Кыргызча
  • Lao — ລາວ
  • Latin — Latina
  • Latvian — Latviešu
  • Lingala — Lingála
  • Lithuanian — Lietuvių
  • Luganda — Luganda
  • Luxembourgish — Lëtzebuergesch
  • Macedonian — Македонски
  • Maithili — मैथिली
  • Malagasy — Malagasy
  • Malay — Bahasa Melayu
  • Malayalam — മലയാളം
  • Maltese — Malti
  • Maori — Māori
  • Marathi — मराठी
  • Meiteilon (Manipuri) — ꯃꯤꯇꯩ ꯂꯣꯟ
  • Mizo — Mizo ṭawng
  • Mongolian — Монгол хэл
  • Myanmar (Burmese) — မြန်မာစာ
  • Nepali — नेपाली
  • Norwegian — Norsk
  • Odia (Oriya) — ଓଡ଼ିଆ
  • Oromo — Afaan Oromoo
  • Pashto — پښتو
  • Persian — فارسی
  • Polish — Polski
  • Portuguese — Português
  • Punjabi — ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
  • Quechua — Runa Simi
  • Romanian — Română
  • Russian — Русский
  • Samoan — Gagana Samoa
  • Sanskrit — संस्कृतम्
  • Scots Gaelic — Gàidhlig
  • Sepedi — Sepedi
  • Serbian — Српски
  • Sesotho — Sesotho
  • Shona — Shona
  • Sindhi — سنڌي
  • Sinhala — සිංහල
  • Slovak — Slovenčina
  • Slovenian — Slovenščina
  • Somali — Soomaali
  • Spanish — Español
  • Sundanese — Basa Sunda
  • Swahili — Kiswahili
  • Swedish — Svenska
  • Tajik — Тоҷикӣ
  • Tamil — தமிழ்
  • Tatar — Татар теле
  • Telugu — తెలుగు
  • Thai — ไทย
  • Tigrinya — ትግርኛ
  • Tsonga — Xitsonga
  • Turkish — Türkçe
  • Turkmen — Türkmençe
  • Twi — Twi
  • Ukrainian — Українська
  • Urdu — اردو
  • Uyghur — ئۇيغۇرچە
  • Uzbek — Oʻzbekcha
  • Vietnamese — Tiếng Việt
  • Welsh — Cymraeg
  • Xhosa — IsiXhosa
  • Yiddish — ייִדיש
  • Yoruba — Yorùbá
  • Zulu — IsiZulu
  • Breadcrumb

    1. Home
    2. Employment, training and careers
    3. Health and safety at work

    Health and safety representatives

    Your employer has a duty to consult all staff about health and safety issues in the workplace. They do this by either talking direct to employees or to a safety representative acting on behalf of the employees.

    Safety representatives

    If your employer recognises a trade union and the union has appointed a safety representative (SR), your employer must consult the SR.

    If there is no recognised union, your employer must either consult you directly or, if a representative of employee safety (RoES) has been elected, consult the RoES or you directly.

    Your SR will give you confidential help and advice. They can also help you solve problems and have legal duties, which include:

    • representing workers in talks with the employer, or the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI), or other safety or environmental enforcement agencies
    • investigating complaints, possible hazards and dangerous incidents
    • carrying out regular inspections of the workplace
    • taking part in workplace risk assessments

    A representative of employee safety has less legal authority than that of an SR. Their duties include:

    • representing the interests of workers to the employer in consultation with the HSENI and other safety environmental enforcement agencies
    • speaking to the employer about hazards at work and other health and safety issues

    Employer's duty to consult on health and safety

    Your employer has a legal duty to:

    • consult about anything that may affect health and safety in the workplace
    • give you, if you are being consulted directly, or your SR or RoES, the chance to state their views

    They must take account of these views when making a decision. Your employer must consult on:

    • changes in working practices or procedures that could affect your health and safety
    • arrangements for using qualified people to help the business comply with health and safety legislation
    • information to be made available on health and safety risks in the workplace
    • planning of health and safety training
    • health and safety issues with new technology

    If your employer doesn't consult as the law requires, they're committing an offence.

    • Employers' health and safety responsibilities
    • Consult your employees on health and safety

    How you can become a safety representative

    If your trade union is recognised and you want to become a safety representative (SR), speak to your branch secretary about how to get yourself elected or appointed to represent the workforce. You’ll normally need two years’ experience of working in your job or in similar work. As an SR, you have the right to:

    • the use of a phone and office equipment to perform your role
    • reasonable paid time off work to meet staff and other reps and to carry out inspections
    • time off for relevant training and to be paid for the time off if it’s during normal working hours

    Your employer is required to provide you with and pay for relevant training in health and safety matters. If the training is during your normal working hours you have the right to time off with pay.

    • Time off for public duties
    • Time off for trade union duties and activities
    • Allowing time off work (nibusinessinfo.co.uk website)

    Protection for health and safety reps

    The rights and functions of safety reps do not place any legal duties on them. This means that a safety rep has no greater liability in law for health and safety breaches than any other employee.

    Protection if you report an issue

    Under the law you are protected as a safety 'whistleblower' if there has been:

    • a criminal offence
    • a breach of a legal obligation
    • a miscarriage of justice
    • a danger to the health and safety of any individual
    • damage to the environment
    • deliberate covering up of information about any of these
    • Blowing the whistle on workplace wrongdoing
    • Employers' health and safety responsibilities

    What you should do next

    If you want to talk about a health and safety matter at work, find out who your safety representative is. If you're a member of a union, contact your representative or local branch secretary, or ask your line manager. If you're already a safety representative, make sure you're adequately trained.

    If your employer refuses to give you time off for training, or doesn't pay you for time taken off, you can take them to an Industrial Tribunal. If your employer doesn't follow health and safety regulations on consultation you should follow the grievance procedure set out in your contract of employment.

    • How to resolve a problem at work
    • Grievance procedures
    • Employment contracts

    Where to get help

    For any advice on health and safety at work, call the Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland helpline.

    The Labour Relations Agency (LRA) and Advice NI offer free, confidential and impartial advice on all employment rights issues for residents of Northern Ireland.

    More useful links

    • Report an incident
    • Meeting health and safety requirements (nibusinessinfo.co.uk website)

    For employers

    For information on skills solutions for your business and employee training and development opportunities visit:

    Consult your employees on health and safety (nibusinessinfo.co.uk)

    Share this page Share on Facebook (external link opens in a new window / tab) Share on X (external link opens in a new window / tab) Share by email (external link opens in a new window / tab)

    Health and safety at work

    • Accidents in the workplace
    • Drug testing and employee monitoring
    • Employees' health and safety responsibilities
    • Employers' health and safety responsibilities
    • Health and safety representatives
    • Safe computer use
    • Safe manual work
    • Suspension from work on medical/ health and safety grounds
    • Travelling to work in bad weather
    • Workplace stress

    Help improve this page - send your feedback

    What do you want to do?
    Report a problem
    Which problem did you find on this page? (Tick all that apply)

    Messages

    You will not receive a reply. We will consider your feedback to help improve the site.

    Don't include any personal or financial information, for example National Insurance, credit card numbers, or phone numbers.

    What is your question about?

    What to do next

    Comments or queries about angling can be emailed to anglingcorrespondence@daera-ni.gov.uk 

    If you have a comment or query about benefits, you will need to contact the government department or agency which handles that benefit.  Contacts for common benefits are listed below.

    Carer's Allowance

    Call 0800 587 0912
    Email 
    dcs.incomingpostteamdhc2@nissa.gsi.gov.uk

    Discretionary support / Short-term benefit advance

    Call 0800 587 2750 
    Email 
    customerservice.unit@communities-ni.gov.uk

    Disability Living Allowance

    Call 0800 587 0912 
    Email dcs.incomingpostteamdhc2@nissa.gsi.gov.uk

    Employment and Support Allowance

    Call 0800 587 1377

    Jobseeker’s Allowance

    Contact your local Jobs & Benefits office

    Personal Independence Payment

    Call 0800 587 0932

    If your query is about another benefit, select ‘Other’ from the drop-down menu above.

    Comments or queries about the Blue Badge scheme can be emailed to bluebadges@infrastructure-ni.gov.uk or you can also call 0300 200 7818.

    For queries or advice about careers, contact the Careers Service.

    For queries or advice about Child Maintenance, contact the Child Maintenance Service.

    For queries or advice about claiming compensation due to a road problem, contact DFI Roads claim unit.

    If you can’t find the information you’re looking for in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) section, then for queries about:

    • Restrictions or regulations — contact the Department of Health
    • Travel advice (including self-isolation) — contact the Department of Health
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccinations — contact the Department of Health or Public Health Agency

    If your query is about another topic, select ‘Other’ from the drop-down menu above.

    For queries about your identity check, email nida@nidirect.gov.uk and for queries about your certificate, email covidcertni@hscni.net.

    For queries or advice about criminal record checks, email ani@accessni.gov.uk

    Application and payment queries can be emailed to ema_ni@slc.co.uk

    For queries or advice about employment rights, contact the Labour Relations Agency.

    For queries or advice about birth, death, marriage and civil partnership certificates and research, contact the General Register Office Northern Ireland (GRONI) by email gro_nisra@finance-ni.gov.uk

    For queries about your GRONI account, email gro_nisra@finance-ni.gov.uk.

    For queries about the High Street Spend Local Scheme,  email HSSS.mail@economy-ni.gov.uk.

    For queries about:

    • Car tax, vehicle registration and SORN
      contact the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), Swansea
       
    • Driver licensing and tests, MOT and vehicle testing
      contact the Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA), Northern Ireland

    If your query is about another topic, select ‘Other’ from the drop-down menu above.

    For queries about your identity check, email nida@nidirect.gov.uk.

     

    For queries or advice about passports, contact HM Passport Office.

    For queries or advice about Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs), including parking tickets and bus lane PCNs, email dcu@infrastructure-ni.gov.uk

    For queries or advice about pensions, contact the Northern Ireland Pension Centre.

    If you wish to report a problem with a road or street you can do so online in this section.

    If you wish to check on a problem or fault you have already reported, contact DfI Roads.

    For queries or advice about historical, social or cultural records relating to Northern Ireland, use the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) enquiry service.

    For queries or advice about rates, email LPSCustomerTeam@lpsni.gov.uk

    For queries or advice about  60+ and Senior Citizen SmartPasses (which can be used to get concessionary travel on public transport), contact Smartpass - Translink.

    If you have a question about a government service or policy, you should contact the relevant government organisation directly.  We don't have access to information about you.

    Related sites

    • gov.uk
    • nibusinessinfo.co.uk

    Links to supporting information

    • Accessibility statement
    • Crown copyright
    • Terms and conditions
    • Privacy
    • Cookies
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • RSS