Electing representatives

• How many representatives?
• How often will elections take place?
• How can we encourage and involve employees?
• A fair and open election

You only need to have elections for your employees to elect their representative(s) if you:

• do not have trade union-appointed safety representatives;
• decide not to consult your employees individually; or
• have more than one employee volunteer to be a representative for the same group or constituency of employees.

The election of health and safety representatives does not need to be difficult, but it does need to be considered, planned, practical, fair and open. You may have a working group set up to help you start the process of consulting your workers so they can help you with the planning process.

What you need to think about

Once you have decided that you need your employees to elect representatives, you will need to think about the following:

• How many representatives does your business need to have to make sure that all groups are represented?
• How often will you need to have elections?
• How can you encourage your employees to get involved and stand as candidates?
• How can you make sure that the election process is fair and open to ensure the outcome is what your employees want?