Covid 19 poses a serious risk to all workers. This is especially true for those at work during the crisis, which is why we demand the highest Health and Safety workplace standards.
The question facing us is how do we respond, if and when, despite local union reps best efforts, the employer has not done enough to ensure that our working environment is safe.
A clue to this is provided by PCS reps and members at Paisley Jobcentre on Friday 24th April. They had an outdoors union meeting (with proper social distancing arrangements in place) following an outbreak of Covid-19 in their office.
More than twenty staff, whose numbers had already been drastically reduced by the need to keep home and safe colleagues with underlying health conditions, voted that their office was not safe to work in. After the vote members stayed out of the building for several hours while they waited for the union’s negotiators to get a deal out of senior managers.
National managers, however, were unwilling to budge. They insisted, despite the concerns raised by staff at the site and by Health and Safety reps, that a thorough clean had been conducted and that staff should return to work.
A compromise was eventually reached that allowed staff to go home on full flexi credits with the office closed for 72 hours. Local union reps were applauded for their work.
Union reps at Paisley acted decisively to protect themselves and their members. They correctly determined that the health and safety of members was paramount and collectively refused to work in a workplace they deemed unsafe.
Had the Paisley reps and members relied on advice and a lead from the union nationally they would have been disappointed and still waiting.
A PCS Briefing “Coronavirus – can employees refuse to attend the work place” has been recently issued. At the end of a lengthy cataloguing of bits of legislation on health and safety the Briefing concludes with a statement bereft of guidance and leadership -. “This briefing provides general information about statutory rights which are available to all employees in the UK. We are NOT advising you to do, or refrain from doing, anything.”
Current health and safety legislation provide only limited protection. The anti-union laws are another obstacle.However the health and safety of union members must always come first.
The incident at Paisley highlighted the need for the DWP Group Executive to secure arrangements which give better protection to members. Something BLN members on the GEC have been arguing for.
Other areas have successfully achieved this. For example a “Serious Incident Protocol” has been negotiated by the PCS Group Executive in HMRC. It can be found here. It’s not perfect. The Government advise self-isolation if a member of your household has (or is suspected to have) Covid 19. Unfortunately, the employer refuse to apply the same standards to contact with a person at work. However, it has forced the closure of several HMRC buildings for periods of up to a week. The DWP GEC should negotiate a similar or better agreement for our members, and the NEC should try to get a similar or improved agreement to cover all our workplaces.
The NEC also needs to act more decisively to ensure staff (our members) and reps are in a safe place whether at home or in the workplace.
BLN members were active in the Paisley Jobcentre demand for a safe workplace and in the action supporting this demand. We have no hesitation in recommending reps follow their example.
PCS should demand of management that they make all the workplace adjustments needed to ensure workers safety. These include:
• Everyone should work from home unless their work is both critical and can’t be done at home.
• All staff with underlying health conditions, live with someone with underlying health conditions or have caring responsibilities must work from home or be placed on paid special leave
• Where office attendance is necessary, agreed social distancing of at least 2m in all areas of the office – no compromise on capacity.
• Thoroughly cleaned premises and equipment
• Hand sanitisers available at every point where they are needed
Where demands are not met to the satisfaction of reps and members a car park meeting should be held (with proper social distancing arrangements in place) to agree collectively how to respond. Stick together until a solution is agreed and accepted by members. Yes, unity is our strength in these difficult times. A lesson it seems the national leadership of the union has yet to learn. Our members’ safety is not for sale.
PCS Broad Left Network 