New members of AAU’s main occupational health and safety committee
: 01.06.2025
New members of AAU’s main occupational health and safety committee
: 01.06.2025
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New members of AAU’s main occupational health and safety committee
By Lea Laursen Pasgaard, AAU Communication and Public Affairs
Photo: Anders Fast Nielsen
Reforms and change processes are putting pressure on the psychological working environment of AAU staff members; it is thus important to focus on staff members’ well-being. Such is the opinion of Thomas Sørensen Quaade who was recently appointed deputy chair of the university's main occupational health and safety committee.
He is part of the new team of occupational health and safety representatives that for the next three years will make up the committee’s staff contingent, establishing policies, frameworks and strategies for occupational health and safety work at AAU.
"Good well-being is the foundation of a good working environment. It makes it easier to cope with change. There have been many of those in recent years, and there will be more in the future," he predicts.
A shared responsibility
Thomas Sørensen Quaade is a laboratory technician and occupational health and safety representative at the Department of Materials and Production. He has been an occupational health and safety representative at AAU for about 11 years and part of the main occupational health and safety committee for six. He is pleased with the trust that the other occupational health and safety representatives on the committee have shown him by designating him as deputy chair.
Through his education, Thomas Sørensen Quaade has become very aware of the importance of a good, safe working environment. And for him, a good working environment is a shared responsibility.
"AAU is not just a job for me. It is also my university. If you want to have influence, there's no point in sitting on your hands," he says.
Thomas Sørensen Quaade believes it is important to keep management firmly aware that staff and management are all part of the same working environment.
"Staff members want to have influence, not just be heard," he says.
See the list of the members of the new main occupational health and safety committee below:
Members of the main occupational health and safety committee:
Chair
- Per Michael Johansen, Rector
Deputy Chair
- Thomas Sørensen Quaade, Laboratory Technician, occupational health and safety representative, Department of Materials and Production
Other management representatives:
- Søren Lind Christiansen, Univeersity Director
- Jesper Wengel, Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Science
- Kim Dremstrup, Head of Department, Department of Health Science and Technology
- Keld Thorgård, Head of Department, Department of Culture and Learning
- Mads Græsbøll Christensen, Head of Department, Department of Electronic Systems
Occupational health and safety representatives:
- Asbjørn Haaning Nielsen, Associate Professor, occupational health and safety representative, Department of the Built Environment
- Jette Thorsen Gade, Secretary to the Dean, occupational health and safety representative, Faculty of Medicine
- Lene Hastrup Jensen, Receptionist, Conference Coordinator, occupational health and safety representative, Campus Service, Copenhagen
- May-Britt Søndergaard Justesen, Teaching Associate Professor, occupational health and safety representative, Department of Sociology and Social Work
- Niels Hannibal, Associate Professor, occupational health and safety representative, Department of Communication and Psychology
- Tina Vestergaard Lange, Communication Specialist, occupational health and safety representative, AAU Communication and Public Affairs
Alternate occupational health and safety representatives
- Jesper de Claville Christiansen, Professor, occupational health and safety representative, Department of Materials and Production
- Linda Vabbersgaard Andersen, Research Support Officer, occupational health and safety representative, Department of the Built Environment
Permanent observer for Esbjerg campus
- Rudi P. Nielsen, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry and Bioscience
Permanent staff representatives on the Main Occupational Health and Safety Committee
- Mogens Juul Møller, Campus Director, Campus Service
The election for the main occupational health and safety committee took place after elections to the occupational health and safety organisation at AAU in weeks 10 to 12. Staff members in the university's departments and units elected – or re-elected – 101 occupational health and safety representatives. Among these, seven were elected to the Main Occupational Health and Safety Committee and 3 to the Joint Consultation and Occupational Health and Safety Committee in Shared Services.
What is the role of an occupational health and safety representative?
An occupational health and safety representative is a staff member elected by colleagues to represent them with the management in relation to working environment issues.
Together with a designated manager, the occupational health and safety representative forms a working environment group that helps to ensure a safe and healthy working environment in the unit.
The local occupational health and safety group usually takes part in the department's occupational health and safety committee where they help plan and coordinate activities to prevent risks and protect employees.
The group's day-to-day tasks include:
- Participation in the workplace assessment process
- Ensuring safe working conditions
- Training and instruction of staff members
- Investigation and prevention of accidents and damage to health
- Communication between staff and the occupational health and safety committee
- Presentation of unresolved health and safety problems to the committee
Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication and Public Affairs