If you are employed at a workplace with a collective agreement, you never stand alone. The collective agreements also stipulate rules concerning the election of employee representatives.

At a workplace covered by collective agreements with ten or more employees, you are entitled to elect an employee representative. For certain workplaces, this right already applies at five employees.

This will depend on the type of collective agreement in force for the workplace.

In workplaces with 10 or more employees, a health and safety representative must also be elected.

Are you the new union representative at your workplace?

If you do not have a union representative at your workplace, consider being your colleagues’ spokesperson as a union representative. 3F has many union representatives from abroad, and we can arrange for your training as a union representative.

The principal task for a health and safety representative is to collaborate with the business management for purposes of providing a better working environment.

The Health and safety group must, for instance:

• Keep an eye on health and safety within the group's area and strive to influence the individual employee to exercise safe behaviour
• Ensure that the individual employee is responsibly instructed so that everyone can perform
• Participate in the Workplace Assessment Work
• Participate in the analysis of any industrial accident that may occur

A health and safety representative cannot legally be dismissed while serving in this role. Therefore, it's a good idea to negotiate an agreement that will continue to protect the representative even after their term, unless such protection is already included in the collective agreement.