Trade Unions, Government, and Stakeholder Integration

Covering the final segment of stakeholder analysis within 5OS07, this video turns its focus to trade unions, health and safety representatives, and government as external and representative forces shaping workplace wellbeing. It examines collective bargaining as a mechanism by which unions influence working hours, rest breaks, leave entitlements and workload limits, alongside the individual representation role unions play when employees face wellbeing-related difficulties. The statutory position of health and safety representatives is addressed directly, with reference to the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 and the growing recognition that psychosocial hazards — such as excessive workload and poor management — warrant the same attention as physical risks.

Government's role is considered across two distinct dimensions: the legislative framework that sets minimum standards and the policy environment that shapes organisational expectations and responses. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Equality Act 2010 and the Working Time Regulations 1998 are each identified as relevant instruments. The video also covers the Health and Safety Executive's Management Standards for work-related stress, the Thriving at Work report of 2017 and more recent developments around flexible working rights. Indirect influences — welfare provision, healthcare policy and economic conditions — are brought into the analysis to place organisational wellbeing strategy within a broader societal context.

The video closes with the integration question that runs through AC 2.1 as a whole: how contributions from trade unions, health and safety representatives, government, people practice, leadership and wellbeing champions can be coordinated rather than left to operate separately. Governance structures, communication channels, shared objectives and review mechanisms are all named as components of that coordination challenge. The discussion frames the people practice function as a coordinating presence within what is presented as an inherently collective endeavour involving stakeholders both inside and beyond the organisation.