Health and safety representatives, health and safety committees

• Read more about health and safety committees
• Read more about election of Health and Safety representatives

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.

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.

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

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 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 will run from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2023. By-elections are to be held if the elected representative terminates their appointment before the term of office has come to an end. The by-election will follow the same procedure as the election of health and safety representatives. 

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. 

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. 

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 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. 

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. 

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 

Health and safety representatives are offered training developed jointly by the chief health and safety representatives, the Occupational Health Service and LU Human Resources. The training provides the health and safety representatives with basic knowledge of work environment legislation and is offered several times per semester. Applications to the training course are made through Kompetensportalen.

Read more about the training course at Kompetensportalen (in Swedish)