Chapter 2: The Changing Role of the Health and Safety Representative in the UK: Between a Hostile Regulatory Environment and the Expansion of Health and Safety Agendas

The role of specialist Health and Safety (H&S) Representatives in the United Kingdom’s system of industrial relations has been a longstanding subject of debate and has a specific place in overall thinking on industrial relations representation as their institutional resources are, relatively speaking, stronger than other types of focused representatives. However, they have been exposed to an unfavourable political climate within industrial relations. The form and reach of such H&S representatives will be analysed in terms of the cultural and social features of such actors and the context of an ongoing expansion and deepening of interest in health and safety generally especially issues related to mental health and stress. We note that whilst there has been an increasingly competitive environment in terms of health and safety with many new workplace and national level actors emerging that contest or parallel the work of H&S Representatives such as wellbeing champions and consultancy firms for example, we do draw attention to the way trade union representatives have been innovative and responsive to new challenges in the realm of work. The chapter looks at the role of health & safety representatives and related union structures at the levels of the state, the collective within the workplace, the individual and society. It concludes that we have seen a reimagining of such roles and new forms of networking within and across trade unions through such H&S representatives.