24.09.2008

Time Off for Health & Safety Training

In Walker v North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a tribunal had erred when it found that an employer had not refused a health and safety representative's request to undergo training.

The EAT also held that the tribunal had erred in its alternative finding that, had it not been possible for the representative to attend training in the time already allocated for the performance of their health and safety functions, it would have been necessary for their employer to have granted further paid time off work for the employee to do so.

In considering compliance with the requirements of the Safety Representatives and Safety Committee Regulations 1977, the tribunal should have first asked whether the proposed training was reasonable for the discharge of the representative's health and safety functions. If it was, the tribunal should have gone on to consider whether time already allocated for the representative's performance of those functions was adequate to cover the training and, if not, whether additional paid time off work was necessary.