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Health and safety representatives, health and safety committees

Here you will find information on your local health and safety representative, your principal health and safety representatives, health and safety committees, and the responsibilities they each have. You can also read about the election of Health and Safety representatives.

Content on this page: 


Your local health and safety representative

Your local health and safety representative is there to represent you as an employee and is to take part in preventive work environment management in your workplace. If you notice shortcomings in your work environment, point them out to your manager and your health and safety representative.

The duties of the health and safety representative include participation in

  • planning of changes that affect your work environment,
  • health and safety inspections,
  • investigations into incidents and occupational injuries.

Principal health and safety representatives

The principal health and safety representatives coordinate the health and safety representatives within each area of responsibility. You can also find out who is your principal health and safety representative by consulting the list of elected health and safety representatives.

Chief health and safety representative

The three employee organisations have each appointed their own chief health and safety representative, who can be contacted via email universitetets_overskyddsombud [at] hr [dot] lu [dot] se

Roles and duties

You will find information on the respective roles and duties of the health and safety representatives, the principal health and safety representatives and the chief health and safety representatives on the Swedish HR web.

Roles in work environment management on the HR web (in Swedish)

Students have their own student health and safety representatives

Read more about student health and safety representatives on the Lund University web site

Health and safety committees

Health and safety committees are advisory bodies to the employer at the faculty and university-wide levels. The health and safety committees consist of representatives of the employer and the employees who meet to discuss overarching work environment issues.

Lund University has health and safety committees at two levels:

  • Local health and safety committees at the faculty level 
  • A central health and safety committee at the university-wide level 

Members of the central health and safety committee at the university-wide level (HR web, in Swedish)


Election of health and safety representatives 

The current term of office for safety representatives expires on 31 December 2026. 

The election process

Elections of health and safety representatives and their substitutes are conducted in three stages: nomination, election procedure at the workplace and formal election by the employee organisations. 

Who can vote?

All employees are eligible to vote and can vote.

Stage 1: Nomination of health and safety representatives and substitutes 

The head of department/equivalent provides information about the upcoming election and invites the employees to nominate candidates, i.e. to submit proposals for a health and safety representative and a substitute within their own protection area. Some protection areas include activities from several departments. In these cases, the heads of department/equivalents concerned must collaborate in organising the nominations and election process. 

Employees can nominate new or existing health and safety representative. They may also nominate themselves.

Please note that only employees who are members of the employee organisations with which the University has collective agreements (Saco/S, Seko, OFR/S) are appointed as health and safety representatives.

The head of department/equivalent/nomination coordinator emails the nominated candidates from the protected area to skyddsombudsval [at] hr [dot] lu [dot] se NOTE! Specify NOMINATION in the title line of the email.

The proposals for nominees that have been agreed in the workplace are to be sent to the following email address: skyddsombudsval [at] hr [dot] lu [dot] se State the protection area, the health and safety representative (name, email, employee organisation) and substitute (name, email, employee organisation). 

The nominated candidates are confirmed as eligible by the employee organisations with collective agreements at LU, via an email to the workplace. The election procedure can then be implemented in the workplace. 

The nomination of safety representatives and alternates will take place in weeks 37, 38 and 39 of 2023.

Stage 2: Election procedure in the workplace 

The head of department/equivalent sends out a summons in good time to all employees in the relevant protection area, no later than two weeks before the election day. The head of department/equivalent also ensures that an election official is appointed. 

An election report is compiled by the person appointed as the election official.

The election report and attendance list are to be registered at the workplace. Once the election procedure is complete, the proposals for health and safety representatives are sent to skyddsombudsval [at] hr [dot] lu [dot] se. State the protection area, the health and safety representative (name, email, employee organisation) and substitute (name, email, employee organisation).

Stage 3: Formal election of health and safety representative and substitute 

The employee organisations appoint the health and safety representatives collectively, on the basis of the proposals sent in from the election procedure. When the employee organisations have appointed the health and safety representatives, they send out an email to the head of department/equivalent responsible for the election and to the health and safety representative to confirm that the election process is complete. The confirmation, or the message that the election has not been approved, is to be sent out no later than one month after the submission of the proposed candidates for appointment. 

The election can start as soon as the workplace has received confirmation of the nominees, but must be completed by 31 October 2023.

Election of the principal health and safety representative 

Once the election of health and safety representatives is complete, the employee organisations ensure the appointment of the principal health and safety representative. The principal health and safety representative is appointed from among the elected health and safety representatives within the principal protection area. 

Training for health and safety representatives 

Safety representatives are offered a basic work environment training programme, which has been developed in collaboration between the safety representatives, the HR Division and the occupational health service. The training contains two parts – a digital part and a workshop (both in Swedish).

The digital part is available in the Professional Development Portal and involves self-study that can be completed at any time.

Work environment knowledge for all employees – basic course in Swedish (Kompetensportalen/the Professional Development Portal)

The second part, the workshop, is carried out several times a year and the safety officer registers for it via the Professional Development Portal (Kompetensportalen).

Read more about the workshop Work environment knowledge for safety representatives – in-depth, in Swedish (Kompetensportalen/the Professional Development Portal).

By-election

A by-election must be carried out if the elected safety representative ends his or her assignment before the mandate period has expired. A by-election is conducted in the same way as a safety representative election.

Contact

Bengt Meuller
Chief health and safety representative
+46 46 222 39 73

Benny Mårtensson
Chief health and safety representative
+46 70 797 39 00

Agneta SanMartin
Chief health and safety representative
+46 46 222 15 34

universitetets_overskyddsombud [at] hr [dot] lu [dot] se

List of elected health and safety representatives at Lund University, in Swedish (PDF, new tab)

To be a health and safety representative at Lund University

Marcus Tegler works as a study administrator at the Faculties of Humanities and Theology and is also a health and safety representative. 

Marcus Tegler is a health and safety representative at Lund University.
Marcus Tegler is a health and safety representative at Lund University.

What is most enjoyable and most important about being a health and safety representative? 

- It is great fun to meet other health and safety representatives and get inspiration, but also to meet others who have the same attitude as me to feeling safe and comfortable in the workplace”, says Marcus. “Of course it is also great to have the ability to improve things.
- The most important thing for me is for my colleagues within the University to do well, to thrive and feel safe in their workplace. Above all, I want them to know that I am at their disposal as a resource and a help. If I can contribute, with the authority I have as a health and safety representative, to making the workplace into a better and safer environment, then I feel I have done a good deed and worked towards maintaining a good workplace and work environment.