Dear Member
Hello Everyone! We hope you had a lovely weekend and enjoyed the sun and the storms!! With lockdown easing, shops re-opening and government plans to review some of the guidance, the focus of our work remains enhancing your pay, terms and conditions and most importantly at this time, ensuring your safety at work. So, with this in mind, today’s update is mainly focused on safety- we hope you find it helpful!
Risk Assessments
We have talked a fair bit about the importance of risk assessments, and thought it may be helpful to reflect a bit on what a ‘risk assessment’ is? Risk assessments are part of the risk management process and are included in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations. A risk assessment is the process of identifying what hazards currently exist or may appear in the workplace. A risk assessment defines which workplace hazards are likely to cause harm to employees and visitors and how those hazards can be managed.
Risk assessments need to consider risks in all aspects of the working environment. Here are some examples of the things that should be included in a risk assessment:
- Hazards: electrical safety, fire safety, manual handling, hazardous substances, risk factors for repetitive strain injury, stress, violence;
- Tasks: cleaning with chemical substances, maintenance work or dealing with the public;
- Organisational factors: staffing policies, systems of work, equipment-purchasing policies, consultation and participation, management techniques or working hours, shift patterns, lone working;
By law, every employer must conduct risk assessments on the work their employees do.  If the company or organisation employs more than five employees, then the results should be recorded with details of any groups of employees particularly at risk such as older, younger, pregnant or disabled employees.
Risk assessments should be simple to conduct, following a process that includes:
- looking for and listing the risks to health and safety;
- deciding who might be harmed and how;
- checking that protective measures are effective;
- evaluating the risks arising from the hazards and deciding whether existing precautions are adequate;
- recording the findings;
- reviewing the assessment from time to time and revising it when required, particularly if the building is refurbished, moved, or when there is a change in staffing.
Unison Safety reps have an important role in examining employers’ risk assessments and deciding whether they are suitable and sufficient. They should be systematic and thorough, looking at what happens in real workplaces, not what employers believe should happen. In considering the assessments reps can:
- talk to people who do the jobs and have practical understanding of the hazards and risks involved;
- observe what happens by inspecting the premises;
- check the written assessment and plans and make sure that all the risks are being covered;
- check that it’s clear who is responsible for implementing the action;
- challenge shortcomings;
- agree priorities for action with your employer.
COVID-19 Risk Assessments. COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of risk assessment in the workplace. During the pandemic employers should make every reasonable effort to enable staff to work from home in the first instance. If this is not possible, then before workers can return to their normal workplace employers should undertake a risk assessment to make it ‘COVID–secure’. COVID-19 may cause you harm so employers must therefore put in place measures to prevent its spread. A risk assessment is the process of  identifying  what hazards currently exist or may appear in the workplace. A risk assessment defines which workplace hazards are likely to cause harm to employees and visitors. Employers must identify all those for whom they have a duty of care, whether they are staff or service-users who are classed as being either at most or moderate risk from COVID-19.
Some workers may be deemed as vulnerable because of individual circumstances and will therefore also require a personal risk assessment to ensure that they are protected and any reasonable adjustments are in place. This may include people with disabilities, who are pregnant, or other circumstances. If you are in one of these categories and have concerns about the risk assessment process, please get in touch for support.
Government to review shielding guidance
We had expected that this evening’s government press conference may have given detail about the planned review of guidance being offered to those in the shieling category, unfortunately this was not the case. We are aware that for our members who are shielding, this will be an anxious time as you await both news from the government and following this, advice from ourselves about your working practices. We are clear that if you are in the extremely clinically vulnerable group (shielding) you should remain at home on full pay, working from home if possible. As soon as we hear news from government about how they plan to review their position we will be in touch with additional advice and guidance.
Schools and people who are shielding and clinically vulnerable
As schools move towards wider re-opening, notwithstanding our broader concerns about safety and social distancing, it is important that risk assessments address support for the clinically vulnerable and people who are shielding. There should also be individual risk assessments for any support staff in these categories and that is covered in national agreements between the unions and the local government association. It is concerning that there is a suggestion that people in these categories, in some schools, can be required to attend work and that if they do not they may face formal action in respect of not following a reasonable management instruction. We find any such suggestion concerning and we would oppose strongly any formal action taken against someone who was not attending school out of genuine safety concerns. If you fall into one of the categories and feel you are being pressured to attend the work place, please get in touch with us for support.
Free School Meals
The government announced last week that it would not extend its free school meals voucher system for low-income families over the summer holiday period. The national voucher scheme, which is worth £15 a week to recipients, was introduced in March to help poorer families feed their children when schools were closed under lockdown measures.
This decision which puts more than 1 million children at risk of holiday hunger, shows the hypocrisy of the government when it talked of its concerns for disadvantaged children with regards to when schools should reopen.
The families of about 1.3 million children in England who are on free school meals qualify for the voucher scheme, and about 5 million people in households with children have struggled to put food on the table each day during the coronavirus crisis, while a third of children on free school meals did not have adequate alternative options, according to estimates by the Food Foundation thinktank.
England Footballer, Marcus Rashford has today written a powerful and emotional letter to all MP’s pleading with them to protect the vulnerable. He pointed out “to put this pandemic into perspective, from 2018-2019, nine out of 30 children in any given classroom were living in poverty in the UK. This figure is expected to rise by an additional one million by 2022. In England today, 45% of children in black and minority ethnic groups are now in poverty. This is England in 2020…”
Wirral Unison echoes demands and calls on the Government to make another U-turn (they’ve made a few recently) reverse the decision to cancel the food voucher scheme and enable families to feed their children over the summer holidays.
International Justice Day for Cleaners and Security Guards
- International Justice Day for Cleaners and Security Guards is held each year in memory of a group of Los Angeles janitors being beaten up by the police during a peaceful demonstration against their contractor. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the incident and comes in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis that has seen cleaners and security guards on the frontline in protecting us, often at great personal risk to themselves. Security guards are more likely to die from Covid-19 than any other profession.
The Covid-19 crisis has served as a stark reminder of what work is essential. Cleaners and security guards have been on the frontline during the crisis. They have put themselves and their families at risk to keep us clean and safe. Yet they continue to be badly paid, insecure and undervalued.
The crisis must mark a turning point. Our claps for key workers during the height of the crisis must be turned into action to bring justice to cleaners and security guards. This international justice day, the TUC are calling for:
Fair pay and decent contracts for all cleaners and security guards – including a £10 an hour minimum wage, an end to zero hours contracts, fair notice of shifts, a decent pension and reasonable rights to holiday, sick leave and sick pay.
Safe working and PPE – full access to appropriate PPE and testing and published risk assessments.
Insourcing and responsible procurement to restore terms and conditions - a new approach to commissioning and public procurement that makes in-house provision the default and only contracts out when there is a demonstrable public interest case for doing so and in a way that enforces high service delivery and employment standards.
Recognition, dignity and respect for cleaners and security guards as key workers – the previous measures will go a long way to show our appreciation of their sacrifices during Covid. The best way to ensure continued dignity and respect after the clapping has stopped is to support cleaners and security guards’ ability to self-organise by ensuring access to workplaces for unions.
The crisis must mark a turning point. Our claps for key workers during the height of the crisis must be turned into action to bring justice to cleaners and security guards.
That’s all for today everyone. We’ll be back in touch tomorrow with further updates for you.
Take care and stay safe.
In solidarity!
Lois and Dave
Dave: davidnjones@wirral.gov.uk 07880199539
Lois: loisfounds1@wirral.gov.uk 07384512521
Branch Office:0151 6663040
Published on: June 16, 2020