UNISON STEWARDS, HEALTH & SAFETY REPS,
& UNION LEARNER REPS

UNISON has three different sorts of representatives to help you in your workplace: Stewards, Health & Safety Reps, and Union Learner Reps. Below is some general information about each of those roles.

If you wish to see a list of your local departmental stewards click here.

If you are interested in undertaking training to become a Steward, H&S Rep or Learner Rep, the Regional Training Course details are available here

Stewards nomination forms are available here - this needs to be fully completed and returned to the branch office before you can undertake any training.

STEWARDS

When a UNISON member needs help in the workplace, their local steward should be their first point of call.

If your workplace does not have a steward, would you consider taking on the role? The role of a UNISON steward is to organise the union in the workplace by:

• helping members with advice,
• representing members, and
• recruiting new members

As a steward, you are not expected to do the job on your own. Each Stewards' Committee has one or two Convenors who are the senior stewards who lead negotiations, advise stewards, arrange the stewards meetings etc.

Convenors are stewards themselves and are elected by their Stewards' Committee. Stew

• keeping in touch with members' views,
• being the first point of contact with the union,ards are elected by members in their workplace or workgroup to represent them. The Committees meet on a regular basis.

UNISON offers training, support, information, advice, office facilities, and out of pocket expenses.

Interested in becoming a steward? Please contact the Branch Office or the Convenor(s) for your section and ask for details. Tel: 0115 9810405 or e-mail us

The Branch has produced a Steward's Guide that can be downloaded (67KB) and printed for use away from your computer. It is in pdf format. If you need an Acrobat reader, click here.

HEALTH & SAFETY REPS

For UNISON to be effective in our battle for safe conditions we need people in every workplace willing to act as UNISON Health & Safety Reps. People like you. The job is very important and rewarding. Health & Safety Reps have the power to:

• investigate complaints on behalf of members;
• take up problems that they notice or that members bring to their attention;
• carry out Health & Safety inspections of the workplace at least 4 times a year;
• demand information if it affects the Health & Safety of members

If you are interested in becoming a Health & Safety Rep, you will get full training and support from UNISON, as well as paid time off from your employer to carry out your union role. You can also claim out of pocket expenses.

You can become a Health & Safety Rep if you are a UNISON member, as long as the members vote for you and the union informs your employer in writing that you are a UNISON Health & Safety Rep.

If you want to know more about becoming a Health & Safety Rep, contact the Branch Health & Safety Officers via the branch office on 0115 981 0405

UNION LEARNER REPS

Learning is very important to UNISON. We are keen to allow everybody a chance to try some form of learning, no matter what it is. One recent study found that lots of adults have problems with reading. That could mean that our members:

• may not be able to read a health and safety warning and put themselves in danger
• may not be able to help their children with homework
• lack confidence to ask for help or report a problem
• may make mistakes at work which get them into trouble

To help our members we’ve created a new role called a Union Learner Rep. Union Learner Reps are people who encourage others to give it a go and make them aware of just what they can do. A Union Learner’s job may include:

• Encouraging friends at work to take up courses
• Helping to look at what training people want to do
• Supporting people through their training
• Talking to your employer about training issues
• Promoting courses