Health & safety is union business
Unions play a vital role in ensuring health and safety standards throughout workplaces are adhered to in order to help prevent work-related injury and disease. It is one thing to have OH&S laws, but unless they are enforced and regularly revisited, laws alone cannot adequately protect workers.
OHS relates to everything in the workplace that could affect the health of members, including hazardous manual handling, noisy machinery, long working hours, irregular shifts, cold and hot environments and chemical exposure.
The presence of unions in the workplace helps to promote a culture where members are more aware of these hazards and their OH&S rights, more confident to speak up and can work together to help build a safe space.
The NUW’s aim is to have elected OHS reps at all sites who can represent members on any OHS matter. We want to keep members and OHS reps up-to-date and aware of any OH&S changes and developments/laws as they occur, through training members and regularly updating the OH&S segment of the website.
Being in our union is an integral part of helping to make sure our workplaces are safer.
Areas in OH&S which may affect you:
OHS relates to everything in the workplace that could affect the health of workers. This includes:
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Some of our key OHS concerns for members are:
- Sprain and strain or musculoskeletal diseases
- Stress
- Fatigue
- Burns/cuts/crushing
