Special Committee Factories Bill, 1954 debate

Amendment No. 52

Debate resumed on amendment No. 52.

Mr. Norton

I have prepared a draft new section which I think meets the views of the Committee as expressed at the last meeting. The draft is as follows :—

(Part V.) SECTION 72 (1)—

" Where the persons employed in a factory have selected from among themselves a committee (in this section referred to as the safety committee) for the purpose of promoting the better safety, health and welfare of the persons employed, the following provisions shall have effect :—

(a) It shall be a function of the safety committee to assist in securing compliance by the occupier of the factory and by the persons employed therein with the provisions of this Act.

(b) Upon the request of the safety committee, the occupier of the factory shall make an entry in the general register noting—

(i) the establishment of the safety committee, and

(ii) if the safety committee has nominated one of its members to be the safety delegate for the purposes of this section the name of the safety delegate.

(c) The occupier shall be entitled to be represented by at least one person nominated by him at each meeting of the committee.

(d) The occupier shall consider any representations made to him by the safety committee on matters affecting the safety and health of the persons employed.

(e) The safety committee shall consider any representations made to it by the occupier on matters affecting the safety and health of the persons employed.

(f) An inspector shall consider any representations made to him by the safety delegate and, for this purpose, may inspect any records of the proceedings of the safety committee.

(g) An inspector shall be entitled, should he so wish, to have the safety delegate accompany him on his tour of inspection of the factory or any part of such tour.

(2) If the Minister is satisfied that there exists in a factory a committee which is so constituted as to be capable of discharging the functions of a safety committee he may, on application being made by the committee and with the consent of the occupier of the factory, issue a certificate recognising such committee as a safety committee for the purposes of this section and while such certificate is in force the provision of sub-section (1) of the section shall apply to such committee."

Mr. J. Larkin

We are trying something entirely new here and we possibly have to feel our way. It would also be possible by regulation to give much more guidance and advice, even in the form of model constitutions and that, than we could hope to do by putting anything into the section of the Bill. At the same time I recognise the Minister's point in regard to the element of compulsion. Against that, there is the other aspect of the matter, that we are all anxious to have safety committees of this type established from the point of view of getting better acceptance of the provisions of the Act. There is the point that if we drop the idea of regulations because of the element of compulsion we should have regard to the other aspect of the matter that we may well find situations in which we do not get a safety committee because of the opposition of the employer and it has not been unknown in factories, even up to the present, for workers to be dismissed merely because they invoked the provisions of existing legislation. It is somewhat difficult to pin-point a situation. It is easy enough to deal with a problem if there is trade union organisation but where that is weak and where there is no organisation, by a thousand and one ways, an employer can render ineffective any attempt by the workers in the factory to establish such a safety committee and defeat the whole purpose of the section. It is a little difficult to know exactly where to come down.

Mr. Norton

I do not need an amendment to the Bill or to take power in this section to issue model rules. That can be done in the ordinary way.

Mr. Lemass

If I may make a suggestion. It is proposed to insert in the Bill a section providing for the appointment of an advisory council and the duty of preparing model rules could be given to the advisory council and the advisory council could also be given authority to encourage the establishment of safety committees.

Mr. Norton

This is not a parliamentary draftsman's draft that I have given you and if you agree to accept this in principle we will have to get the parliamentary draftsman to draft a section for us for Report Stage.