Dave Joyce

Head of Health, Safety & The Environment

Dave Joyce is the Union’s National Health, Safety & Environment Officer. Dave is a qualified Health & Safety Professional, and is the Union’s lead spokesperson and negotiator on all Health, Safety and Environmental issues dealing with employers, government departments, Ministers and enforcing authorities (Health and Safety Executive, Local Authorities, Fire Service and Police).

He is a member of the TUC’s Union Health & Safety Specialists Committee, and has represented both the CWU and the TUC nationally and internationally on workers Health & Safety issues, in particular those affecting CWU members. He is now widely recognised as a leading Trade Union authority on Health & Safety at work, and leads a number of CWU and Trade Union campaigns for improving occupational health & safety at work.

Dave was elected as the CWU’s Health, Safety & Environment National Officer in 2003 and was re-elected unopposed in 2008. Before that, he was Chair of the CWU’s National Executive Council’s Health, Safety & Environment Committee for 8 years. Prior to joining the National Executive at Union HQ, when the CWU was formed in 1995, he served the Union as a local Health and Safety Representative, a Branch Secretary, as a Regional Secretary and member of the Union’s TUC delegation.

Dave worked for both Royal Mail and BT prior to the Post Office split in the early 80’s, after joining the Union the day he started work as a young teenager. He comes from a solid working class Labour and Trade Union background, with his late father a GMB Union Representative and late mother a Tailor and Garment Workers Union member.

Dave says “My involvement within our Union as a Branch, Regional then National Officer brought me into regular contact with Health and Safety issues; sadly I encountered too many accidents at work and industrial illnesses ranging in severity for the victims and tragically several of them resulting in fatalities. My personal experiences have cultivated my interest in matters of Health & Safety in the workplace. Therefore, I’m passionate about workers’ health & safety and its importance to our Union and its members”

The Union’s National Health, Safety & Environment Department is one of the most important departments in CWU HQ. The Department has a critically important role, through the provision of appropriate and effective leadership, working with and on behalf of the Postal and Telecom and Financial Services Departments by providing a negotiating lead, guidance, advice and support on all health, safety and environmental matters in order to achieve a healthy and safe working environment for all CWU members.

Dave adds “There is great enthusiasm within CWU Branches for the prioritisation of Health, Safety & Environmental challenges. To do this, we need a strong pro-active, well resourced Union Health and Safety organisation, promoting the integration of H, S & E thinking into the policies and daily work of the employers for whom our members work, changing managers’ mindsets to create improved occupational safety, health and environmentally conscious cultures.”

He continues “The Health, Safety & Environment Department has continued to broaden its horizons, expand its frontline involvement and the range of issues covered, going beyond traditional Safety at Work issues to pursue improved standards and provisions for both Men’s Health and Women’s Health issues, as well as rehabilitation support for ill and injured workers, and for new Laws to deal with reckless, negligent employers and managers who subject our members to unsafe workplaces and working methods”

“The CWU has now taken its rightful place amongst the UK’s leading Trade Unions, having a loud public voice and being recognised as a campaigning Union on Health, Safety & Environmental issues.”