One week left to Vote for Dave Prentis as UNISON General Secretary

Picture of long standing East End Housing Caretaker and UNISON Steward, Peter Sambrook (middle) with 2 colleagues reminding members that only a week left to vote for Dave Prentis as General Secretary.

The ballot closes next Friday 4 December 2015. "Dave will be campaigning right through to the end of the contest to make sure all UNISON members know about his pledges, his strong track record and his experience of delivering for UNISON members at such tough times.

Monday will mark the third and final “Vote Dave Day” – so do share your support for Dave on social media and encourage other UNISON members to back Dave too.

And if you haven’t voted yet, make sure you post your ballot paper soon – there’s now only a week to go!"

Free Schools in London & Mayor Education enquiry

This is a speech that I made as an UNISON delegate to the London Labour Party Biannual conference last month.

"Conference, the mover has already spoken about this ideologically driven threat by Gove and Boris to education in London and its democratic deficit.

But it is not only that the principles behind so called "Free Schools" are wrong. We must also oppose this latest privatisation of key public services, because it is yet another example of turning accountable and transparent bodies, responsible for huge amounts of public money, into what often becomes self selecting oligarchies and "mates clubs".

Whose senior management teams first task is to award themselves a massive pay increase while at the same time they contract out the jobs of UNISON members; the cleaners, the cooks and the school caretakers onto poverty wages, with no protection if they become sick and no pensions, so they retire and die in poverty.

Free schools epitomise much that is wrong with our society under this Tory Government. Instead of a planned, accountable and joined up approach to running essential public services, we have a selfish and divisive route, driven in many cases but not all, by simple greed and the wish to enrich themselves at the expense of those ordinary working people, the UNISON members who clean their offices, cook their school meals and unblock their office toilets; the people who they consider to be their serfs.

Conference, let us also make sure that while opposing Free Schools we also make sure that our own house is in order. Can all of you here, who like me are school governors, make sure that at your next Governor meeting, that all the workers in your school, are on decent nationally agreed terms and conditions or their equivalent. Not only a living wage, but living sickness benefits and living pensions for all who work in your school.

Conference, please support this motion. (I then had to rush off to another commitment. The motion was passed)

Picture of 100 Sefton school staff left high and dry by a Free school.

Skin Cancer and Outdoor Working

Quite rightly last week there was a lot of media coverage about the link between the use of sun beds and cancer. Coincidentally I met up with a branch member who had just been diagnosed with facial skin cancer.

He has been an estate based housing caretaker for the past 15 years. If paying 50p per minute to lie on a sun bed is “carcinogenic to humans” and “on a par with smoking and exposure to asbestos” then sweeping and cleaning outdoors in the sun for several hours a day is obviously a matter of concern.

As the branch health & safety officer I have asked to see if the caretaking risk assessments cover this danger from skin cancer. This is mandatory under the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations (MHSWR). I suspect it does not and will be sending a note to all our safety reps to ask their housing organisations for sight of their risk assessments and to make sure that they properly protect not only caretaking staff from this risk but any other members who spend their time predominantly outside – direct repair staff, enforcement officers, gardeners etc. I think that organisations are also legally obliged to check that sub-contractor staff they use also has such risk assessments in place.

Of course fine sounding risk assessments that are written by consultants and just sit on shelves unread are useless. Risks assessments need to be written by trained line manager and fully consulted upon with employees and trade union safety reps and then implemented and monitored.

Risk assessments should include protective measures such as suitable clothing (broad brimmed hats and a uniform which has high sun protection and is “breathable”); supply of fresh water; rest breaks; regular health screening; awareness training and provision of sun block (at least factor +15). Maybe even consider sun glasses? As this is under the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations (PPE) it should be provided free of charge to all employees.

Although the basic principle of health & safety at work is to try and design out the risk whenever possible and use PPE only as a “last resort”. So the top preventive priority should be a change to working practices. For example during summer ensure that only the minimum amount of exposed outdoor working takes place when the sun is at its highest i.e. 11am-3pm. During this time caretakers could sweep and clean internal stairs and furniture or check communal lights. In the early morning they should sweep and litter pick outdoor areas.

Obviously staff that are known to be vulnerable will also have specific assessments (done in co-operation with advice from occupational health?).

This is a good web site recommended by HSE.