Our ref: HSR
Head Office Circular: NP/176/24
22nd July 2024
To: The Secretary
ALL BRANCHES
REGIONAL COUNCILS
Dear Colleague
NETWORK RAIL – ALIGNING HEALTH & SAFETY ROLES TO IOSH
I have received correspondence from the company informing me of change it plans to make to job descriptions for Health and Safety roles within Network Rail which fall into scope of a recommendation made in the Eastleigh long welded rail depot fatality report (Rec A8.15) to mandate IOSH membership for H&S roles.
The company’s Technical Authority has consulted with H&S senior management across all five regions, Route Services, System Operator and the H&S team within Technical Authority. All the roles that should be in-scope of the recommendation have been agreed as has the appropriate level of IOSH membership for each of those roles.
The company has determined with IOSH that it can buy a corporate membership with them, and this would mean that no employee would be required to pay for their own membership (before claiming this back from Network Rail.)
The company plans to go live with the amended job descriptions in two phases:
Phase 1 - Job descriptions including IOSH as a requirement for newly appointed role holders to go live in October 2024.
Phase 2- Job descriptions including IOSH as a requirement for those who are substantive in post to go live in March 2025- With a 3-year compliance window- ending in March 2028.
Th company has asked the union to be part of these discussions to ensure it has engaged fully with our members, some of whom will be in scope of these changes.
At its meeting on 18th July 2024, your National Executive Committee noted and adopted the following report from its Health and Safety Sub-committee:
We note the correspondence on file from the company.
The General Secretary is instructed to respond to the company noting its proposals to align Health and safety roles to IOSH.
Relevant Branches and Regional Councils to be notified.
I am acting in line with these instructions. Please bring this circular to the attention of all relevant members.
Yours sincerely
Michael Lynch
General Secretary