Legal Rights of Employees in Unsafe Working Conditions

Since the introduction by government of measures to contain the Coronavirus epidemic the Health and Safety Department has been receiving a steady stream of enquiries from concerned members and representatives about the legal rights of employees in a situation in which they are expected to work in conditions which appear to be unsafe.

It is emphasised that the intention in advising members of their legal rights is not in any way to encourage unofficial industrial action.  It is important to emphasise that in the first instance the Safety Rep and/or IR Rep should immediately raise the issue with the relevant manager or person in charge of the building. If the problem is not immediately addressed, it should be escalated to area or equivalent level and if still not resolved should be escalated without delay to the relevant senior field official.

Royal Mail is publishing regularly updated Q&A sheets on measures which should be in place to minimise the risk of infection.  The most recent, issued yesterday, has been circulated in LTB177/20 issued today.

The key measures which must be in place are social distancing – a distance of 2m (6ft) should be maintained between individuals at all times; and facilities must be available for regular handwashing and collection and delivery staff and other staff working outside the office should be provided with hand sanitiser.

There are a small number of situations where a 2m distance cannot be maintained – for example engineers working on a fault which requires two-person attendance.  Urgent discussions have taken place with the business to identify and obtain appropriate clothing/equipment to enable the limited and specific situations to be dealt with safely.

In situations where members believe there is a failure to implement and maintain safe working conditions and this represents a “serious and imminent danger” Section 44 of the 1996 Employment Relations Act (ERA) protects employees from detriment or dismissal:

(d) in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent and which they could not reasonably have been expected to avert, they left (or proposed to leave) or (while the danger persisted) refused to return to their place of work or any dangerous part of their place of work, or

(e) in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent, they took (or proposed to take) appropriate steps to protect themself or other persons from the danger

In plain language, section (d) means that where an employee reasonably believes that there is a danger which is “serious and imminent” they can tell RMG that they intend to leave the workplace, or that part of the workplace where the danger exists, to actually leave if not given permission to do so or to refuse to attend for work but only for the specific health and safety reasons.

Whilst this is expressed as an individual right in the legislation, in Royal Mail where there are well established safety and industrial relations structures and procedures, mechanisms exist to quickly raise concerns with the appropriate manager and to escalate them if legitimate concerns are not fully addressed.  It is imperative that wherever possible concerns are raised with Royal Mail so that action to remove the perceived threat can be taken.

None of the actions protected under Section 44 of the ERA 1996 should be treated as industrial action.  Once again it must be emphasised that in responding to members’ enquiries in situations producing major stress and anxiety, the union is notencouraging un-balloted industrial action.  We will of course support members exercising their rights under Section 44 to do so without suffering any detriment from the employer.  The union’s primary role in the current situation is to ensure that the workplace is as safe as possible and that membership concerns are appropriately addressed by Royal Mail which has a legal obligation to adopt and apply appropriate measures to protect the safety of its workforce.

Any enquiries to this LTB should be directed to Ray Ellis (rellis@cwu.org).

Yours sincerely

Ray Ellis
Acting National Health, Safety & Environment Officer

20LTB178 Legal Rights of Employees in Unsafe Working Conditions

Legal Rights of Employees in Unsafe Working Conditions

Since the introduction by government of measures to contain the Coronavirus epidemic the Health and Safety Department has been receiving a steady stream of enquiries from concerned members and representatives about the legal rights of employees in a situation in which they are expected to work in conditions which appear to be unsafe.

It is emphasised that the intention in advising members of their legal rights is not in any way to encourage unofficial industrial action. It is important to emphasise that in the first instance the Safety Rep and/or IR Rep should immediately raise the issue with the relevant manager or person in charge of the building. If the problem is not immediately addressed, it should be escalated to area or equivalent level and if still not resolved should be escalated without delay to the relevant senior field official.

Royal Mail is publishing regularly updated Q&A sheets on measures which should be in place to minimise the risk of infection. The most recent, issued yesterday, has been circulated in LTB177/20 issued today.

The key measures which must be in place are social distancing – a distance of 2m (6ft) should be maintained between individuals at all times; and facilities must be available for regular handwashing and collection and delivery staff and other staff working outside the office should be provided with hand sanitiser.
There are a small number of situations where a 2m distance cannot be maintained – for example engineers working on a fault which requires two-person attendance. Urgent discussions have taken place with the business to identify and obtain appropriate clothing/equipment to enable the limited and specific situations to be dealt with safely.
In situations where members believe there is a failure to implement and maintain safe working conditions and this represents a “serious and imminent danger” Section 44 of the 1996 Employment Relations Act (ERA) protects employees from detriment or dismissal:

(d) in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent and which they could not reasonably have been expected to avert, they left (or proposed to leave) or (while the danger persisted) refused to return to their place of work or any dangerous part of their place of work, or

(e) in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent, they took (or proposed to take) appropriate steps to protect themself or other persons from the danger

In plain language, section (d) means that where an employee reasonably believes that there is a danger which is “serious and imminent” they can tell RMG that they intend to leave the workplace, or that part of the workplace where the danger exists, to actually leave if not given permission to do so or to refuse to attend for work but only for the specific health and safety reasons.

Whilst this is expressed as an individual right in the legislation, in Royal Mail where there are well established safety and industrial relations structures and procedures, mechanisms exist to quickly raise concerns with the appropriate manager and to escalate them if legitimate concerns are not fully addressed. It is imperative that wherever possible concerns are raised with Royal Mail so that action to remove the perceived threat can be taken.

None of the actions protected under Section 44 of the ERA 1996 should be treated as industrial action. Once again it must be emphasised that in responding to members’ enquiries in situations producing major stress and anxiety, the union is not encouraging un-balloted industrial action. We will of course support members exercising their rights under Section 44 to do so without suffering any detriment from the employer. The union’s primary role in the current situation is to ensure that the workplace is as safe as possible and that membership concerns are appropriately addressed by Royal Mail which has a legal obligation to adopt and apply appropriate measures to protect the safety of its workforce.

Yours sincerely
Ray Ellis
Acting National Health, Safety & Environment Officer

Covid-19 Update – BT Property and Facilities Services

Further to LTB 122/2020 the CWU has been in continuing discussions with BT Property & Facilities Services and CBRE regarding their arrangements for dealing with the coronavirus.

Please see below a summary of the measures and arrangements which are in place across the BT estate.

CLEANING
There are 150 critical sites across the BT estate that will receive additional touch point cleaning.  The top 50 of these sites will receive specific cleaning due their critical role. The selection criterion combines both the building criticality and occupancy. Efforts have shifted to cleaning intensification at the key occupied workplaces and additional resource has been provided via the cleaning company SBFM and is in addition to the normal services provided by ISS.

At Voice Services sites (999 operational sites which are in the top 50) priority 24/7 cleaning has been mobilised to give full support to the vital role which these operational sites provide.

Enhanced cleaning is taking place across the more densely occupied sites, targeting high touch surfaces in communal areas such as reception, lift lobbies/buttons, light switches, phones, door handles, stairways, restaurants, toilets, breakout areas, light switches, taps, toilet, stairwells etc.

At locations with a full-time housekeeping presence more frequent checks of washrooms is  taking place to ensure cleanliness and the availability of consumables such as hand soap, toilet roll and paper towels.

A cleaning/consumable stock management process is in place nationally.  Additional consumables such as soap, toilet paper and hand towels are being stored across regional hub locations.

Building signage regarding washing hands, covering coughs and keeping the workplace clean have been distributed and displayed

To support with suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19, the on-site housekeeping teams are able to disinfect impacted areas.  In isolated cases, there is an option to carry out a full decontamination of the workplace to allow safe re-occupation.  In the event of a confirmed case decontamination cleaning will be coordinated using specialist teams and equipment.

There are four levels of cleaning being followed across the estate:-
L1 – L4 cleaning definitions

·       Level 1: Standard Contracted Cleaning – Delivery of cleaning in line with agreed contract specification.

·       Level 2: Enhanced Touch Point Cleaning – An increase to standard cleaning targeting specific touchpoints as a preventative and control measure.

·       Level 3: Local Disinfection Clean – Where BT requests a targeted disinfection of a workstation or nominated area.

·       Level 4: Full Decontamination Electrostatic Spray (Fogging) – Where BT requests a targeted treatment of a nominated building, floor or area.

SECURITY
New front of house visitor health screening checks and social distancing measures have been put in place.  Teams will now be asking key questions to visitors. Questions are set to identify if any visitors are at risk of carrying infection and will prevent entry if there is a risk.

CATERING
Sit down restaurant services are now closed.
the current headlines are:
·       Free meals to contact centre staff commenced back end of last week. Over 6,500 meals have been issued to date.
·       Seeking to expand free food to other non-catered sites from this week. (Barrow, Stoke, Sandwell & Aberdeen)
·       PlusNet trialling a “grab & go” free food throughout the day which is landing well onsite.

FAULT REPORTING
Faults should still be reported via the normal process however during the Covid-19 crisis however it is expected that there may be resource challenges.
If consumables, such as toilet paper, soap etc. is running low these should be reported. These jobs have been increased to a level 2 priority from a level 3 for operational sites.

Further reports will be issued as information becomes available.

Yours sincerely,

Brendan O’Brien – Assistant Secretary
Tracey Fussey & Dave Tee – Executive Members
BT Property & Estates Team

LTB 175.20

RE: CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 SICK PAY AND POLICY UPDATE

Further to LTB 164/20 dated 30th March 2020, I received an email yesterday afternoon from Royal Mail and a telephone call from RMPFS stating they have reviewed the current sick pay and attendance policy and are not changing it at this time. The policy will be reviewed mid-April.

Royal Mail & RMPFS are blatantly ignoring the safety of employees and customers, despite not having any valid reason for not implementing full sick pay, to keep members and the public safe.

I have written to Helen Diksa, Royal Mail Group, IR, HR and Policy Director (which covers all Royal Mail Group members including Parcelforce, excluding RMPFS) and Charlene Ryan HR Director for RMPFS and requested Royal Mail/RMPFS reconsider the decisions they have made to simply re-endorse their current policy.

The letter points out:-

Their current policy, is outdated as this was made over 2 weeks ago, when the self- isolating period was a maximum of 14 days, it is now 12 weeks. As we all know, this was also prior to a lot of new information being given and prior to the emergency measures implemented by the Government to stop the spread of Coronavirus Covid- 19.

Royal Mail and RMPFS should follow the statements they have made about making your safety their number one priority by ensuring full sick pay for anyone who has to go sick due to having symptoms/contracting the virus or has to take time off to look after a dependent. This will bring consistency with the policy to pay members with less than 12 months service and it will save lives. If our request is refused, it is clear the policy decisions they are making are based on cost and not on the safety of their employees.

The update published by Royal Mail & RMPFS yesterday does not explain why they have not updated their policy, we have asked them for an explanation.

It cannot be right our members who have had to previously take time off to battle Cancer or recover from a Heart Attack etc. are now penalised by a decision to self- isolate which is out of their control and enforced by the Government.

It was announced yesterday the number of UK deaths in hospitals rose to 2,352 – an increase of 563 (31%), the highest day-on-day rise so far. Also, during the period of the next two weeks, between now and your next proposed review date, it is expected the number of positive cases of Coronavirus Covid-19 will peak. This is and will continue to be at a time when the NHS staff are not getting the correct equipment and are already overwhelmed with patients.

How this crisis is handled will never be forgotten and I believe our suggestions will go some way to giving members comfort in not being forced to take risks by having to come to work, due to not being able to afford to stay at home.

A copy of the letter in full is attached to this LTB.

We have had reports into the department Managers are telling members if you have to self-isolate due to someone in your household having symptoms, this is without pay. To be clear if you have to self-isolate due to someone in your household having symptoms, you should self-isolate for up to 14 days, i.e. 7 days after you develop symptoms. E.g. If you get symptoms on day 3, self-isolation is until day 10. The 14 days should be extended if you get symptoms in the latter stages and this should be paid sick leave. Managers should choose “Coronavirus with Symptoms” if the employee has symptoms and “Coronavirus Self Isolation” if they do not have symptoms.

All enquiries regarding the content of this LTB should be addressed to the PTCS Department, quoting reference 415. Email address: snicholas@cwu.org

Yours Sincerely,

Carl Maden

Assistant Secretary (Acting) PTCS Department

20LTB174 – Coronavirus Covid-19 Sick Pay and Policy Update

Attachment 1 – Letter to Helen Diksa

D2D NHS CAMPAIGN – April 2020

Dear Colleagues,

Branches will be aware that the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson is writing to every household in the UK, enforcing the stay safe policy being ordered by government.

Accordingly, we have learned that this letter is to be the subject of a Special D2D drop to c32 million households across the UK in the coming week or so. The items will start to arrive in the upstream system today and be shipped to Delivery Offices following that over the remainder of the week.

We are currently in discussions with Royal Mail and have requested that we set out a clear and concise programme for the delivery of these items over the period leading up to and just beyond the Easter Weekend, which also takes into account the effect of social distancing and the current absence levels in Delivery Offices.

The information we currently have on the NHS mailing is as follows:

The below supersedes all previous emails on the National D2D campaigns for England, Wales, Scotland and NI.

See below update on the details of each National Covid-19 campaign and enclosed outer for the National D2D campaign. The standalone Scottish campaign art work has not yet been provided.

Overview of the Covid-19 D2D Campaigns

There are 2 separate D2D campaigns running in parallel for priority delivery between 07/04/20 to the 09/04/20; with a cumulative volume of c32m items. The two campaigns are:

National D2D campaign (c.29m items two weight bands)

27.     Vers#1 – English: c27.5m items, >20-35g: for England, Scotland and NI (expected 3-day delivery service)
28.      Vers#2 – Welsh/English:  c1.5m items, >35-60g: for Wales (expected 3-day delivery service)

Scottish standalone D2D campaign (2.6m items, 0-20g; expected majority over 3-days and up to 5 days (running to 14th April 2020); given the Easter weekend 10th -13th April.

Note: we have stressed the impact of delays to handover adversely impacting delivery timescales and also the fact that RMG frontline will also suffer from resource constraints.

Priority order for Delivery of the National D2D campaign

The priority order for the National D2D Campaign is:

1st – Scotland (2.6m)

2nd – Wales (1.4m)

3rd –  NI (812k)

4th and where feasible in parallel to the above – England (24.2m).

Note the Scottish arm of the National D2D campaign is separate from the standalone Scottish D2D campaign and they may overlap in delivery. Therefore, Scotland will receive 2 mail packs with different content but both are Covid-19 messages. The artwork for the standalone Scottish mailer has not yet been shared.

As you will no doubt see, these items take precedence over all other national D2D items. Clearly, local discussions will have to take place as a matter of urgency in order to ensure compliance with the dates outlined as much as operationally possible given the measures in delivery offices already, and any changes to working patterns as a response to the letter the CWU sent to The Company and Government which is contained in LTB168/20.

Once again these are unprecedented and extreme measures being taken and we were the last to know once more. Our complete dissatisfaction has been made clear to the company who seem to believe that it is better to plough on regardless without the CWU, whilst showing disregard to our members.

Further details will be circulated in due course.

Any enquires as to the content of this LTB should be directed to the Outdoor Department, reference 230.03, email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Baulch                         

CWU Assistant Secretary

LTB 173.20 – D2D NHS CAMPAIGN April 2020