40Consultation procedures

#### 40 Consultation procedures (1) Consultations about the establishment or variation of a designated work group must be directed principally at the determination of the manner of grouping employees: (a) that best and most conveniently enables the employees’ interests relating to occupational health and safety to be represented and safeguarded; and (b) that best takes account of the need for any health and safety representative selected for that designated work group to be accessible to each employee in the group. (2) The parties to the consultations must have regard, in particular, to: (a) the number of the employees; and (b) the nature of each type of work performed by the employees; and (c) the number and grouping of the employees who perform the same or similar types of work; and (d) the workplaces, and the areas within the workplaces, where each type of work is performed; and (e) the nature of any risks to health and safety at the workplaces; and (f) any extended hours or watchkeeping arrangements on the prescribed ship or prescribed unit. (3) The designated work groups must be established or varied in such a way that, so far as practicable, each of the employees is in a designated work group. (4) All the employees on a prescribed ship or prescribed unit may be in one designated work group.