Health and Safety Representatives

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The primary role of a health and safety representative (HSR) is to represent the health and safety interests of a work group and to raise any issues with their employer (principal/manager). HSRs are elected by fellow staff to represent the views of the staff group. The HSR role is important for consultation. Departmental workplaces are encouraged to elect a HSR.

The HSR fulfils a different role to the Health and Safety Advisor (HSA) and to the Workplace Health and Safety Coordinator roles, which are both appointed positions. However, these roles can work well together to gather information and expertise ​and improve health and safety at your school or workplace. A HSR is of particular benefit at workplaces with fewer than 30 employees as a point of contact both for staff and the manager.

Asbestos containing materials are present in many departmental facilities. The department recognises that HSRs can build their understanding of how to interpret asbestos registers by completing the ‘BEMIR learning journey’ module within the department’s asbestos management training course. Departmental employees can search 'asbestos management course' on OnePortal and follow the steps in the ‘guide to accessing asbestos management training—​BEMIR’ to access course content.

Departmental procedures and guidelines

• HSR procedure
• Health, safety and wellbeing committees procedure
• Health and safety advisors procedure

HSR information and training resources

• ​ Comparison of different health and safety r​oles in schools/work​places—HSA, HSR, health safety and wellbeing committee member,​ and workplace health and safety coordinator​
• HSR and health and safety committees
• HSR—information for workers, and prospective and current HSRs and deputy HSRs (PDF, 307KB)
• HSR—information for employers and company executives (PDF, 397KB)
  
• HSR process overview
• Health, Safety and Wellbeing Management System—departmental employees can search 'HSWMS' on OnePortal for more information including risk management, incident management, engagement and support, health and staff rehabilitation, and performance and improvement.
• Provisional Improvement Notice (PIN) flowchart
• Registered training organisations approved to train the HSR course and HSR refresher (XLSX, 16.9KB)
• Workplace Health and Safety Queensland inspectors
• Worksafe Health and Safety Queensland—information about HSRs
• Wo​rk​s​afe Health and Safety Representative Training—training information for HSRs

Related resources for HSRs​​​​