What is Worker Participation?

Worker Participation refers to the planned ways your organisation can take that will engage with and support your worker’s participation in health and safety-related topics. Those organisations that get their employees engaged and participating in health and safety will have successful outcomes and easily meet health and safety legislation.

If your workers and their representatives actively contribute to health and safety in your workplace then the research shows that you will lower occupational illness and injury rates.

How do you get worker participation in Health and Safety?

There are a number of ways you can get your workers to participate in health and safety. The most common are:

• Give them the ability to raise health and safety concerns
• Share information about health and safety issues
• Allow them to offer suggestions for improving health and safety
• Let them freely contribute to decisions that affect work health and safety
• Involve them in key health and safety decisions

Some of the most efficient and effective ways to get that involvement and participation include:

• Using a Health and Safety Committee (HSC), or
• Elect Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs)

Participation and involvement activities should be flexible though. It is what best suits your organisation. It depends on the type of the business or your business size and risk profile. It needs to meet the views and needs of your workers.

Your employees can raise health and safety issues at any time. This means they don’t need to wait until a formal health and safety meeting before an issue is tabled.

You need to remember participation in health and safety will protect your employees, contractors and visitors. Sharing knowledge and experience with your workers allows them to make better decisions about how the work can be carried out safely.