"Housing association customer services have become a fourth emergency services line"

I will pretty much totally agree with this article published in "Inside Housing" (subscription) about Housing Associations (and I would say Council housing) having to become the 4th emergency service to support very vulnerable, stressed and even suicidal residents. All mainstream social housing organisations have to remember that they are Landlords first and foremost (not developers, as important as development is).

They have to provide the resources and capacity for staff to effectively support all our residents. It is also vital that they support staff who are trying their very best to provide these essential service. Too often they are unsupported and thrown into deep end with an impossible workload and unrealistic expectations by out of touch and unsympathetic senior management. Compare and contrast the support given by many Councils to their front facing social service staff with such issues and the often non-existent support ("ring our stress line contractor") provided by most Housing Associations. 

As the UNISON national NEC member who works for and supports all our 50,000 plus Housing Association members, I can say with conviction, that this is a national issue for all of us. 

"Do you know about work-related stress? Take the test"

Hat tip to the Health & Safety Executive & IOSH. If you care about stress at work and what to do about it then give this short quiz a go.

"A report from Deloitte puts the total annual cost of poor mental health to UK employers at £56 billion – that’s 25 per cent up on 2019. Test your knowledge of this growing issue with the HSE quiz".

Click here

"Cut Stress Not Jobs" - how to use H&S issues in workplaces to aid Organising and Recruiting #uNDC14

I went to the lunchtime fringe on health and safety. This was Chaired by Malcolm Harrington, from the National H&S committee. First speaker was Hilda Palmer from National Hazards campaign  & FACK (Families against Corporate Killers).

Hilda introduced herself as a "trouble maker and shit stirrer". She promoted the Hazards conference which takes place 29-31 August at Keele university (which UNISON is a strong supporter)

Health & Safety faces a perfect storm of attacks by this right wing government. As well as attacks on public services and the benefit safety net there is a  "Neo feudalism" race to the bottom.

The attack on H&S is not just about cuts but the government wants more power for employers and to get rid of minimum standards.

The Government say we should be competing with countries such as Turkey, where 200 miners were recently killed to due management negligence; Qatar, where it is estimated 1400 workers will die building the football stadiums for the next world cup and China were they have to fit suicide nets outside factories to stop workers killing themselves by throwing themselves off the roof.  Instead why don't they want us to complete with countries such as Norway which has a successful economy with high H&S standards.  

There has been neo liberals in Government since the 1970's but this one is on steroids, rowing back a century of progress. We didn't vote to die at work. It is worse now than we possibly thought. All the evidence is that regulation saves lives and money

We love red tape. Better than bloody bandages. Remember that its not 148 who die at work each year (HSE) but nearer 50,000 who die each year from work incidents and disease. Compare this is the 532 murders. Don't forget the impact of ill health on peoples lives.

While the Health and Safety Executive estimate it costs £8 billion per year due to cancer deaths, Hazards think it is nearer to £60 billion.

The damage by Con-Dems since they took power in 2010 is immense. They have had 4 "reviews". The requirement to report accidents (RiDDOR) has been reduced resulting 30,000 less reports per year. There has been a 44% cut in the HSE. While there has been a 90% reduction in pro active inspections by local authority inspectors.  The Lofstedt report said that there was no need for radical change in H&S but the self employed are being exempted from the law and if they hurt anyone they cannot be prosecuted under H&S.

Tracey Harding, the Head of UNISON H&S unit spoke next on the new campaign "Cut Stress Not Jobs". Stress is one of the top 5 hazards identified by members. Cutting jobs and increasing work load leads to stress on those workers who are left. There are 2 main aims. Campaign against cuts and support for those affected.

UNISON will relaunch stress guidance in time for European Health and Safety week (EH&SW) and provide leaflets and other information. EH&SW will focus on Stress.

Branches need to try and engage with employers and encourage them to have a stress management strategy, conduct a stress audit and carry out stress risk assessments

Stress audits help employers pin point issues rather use a scatter gun approach. Also look at staff turnover and exist interviews,

Engage with members as well and and urge then to report stress issues and provide them support mechanism.

My comment in the Q&A at the end was that one of the best way to improve all forms of health and safety is to increase union membership and organisation. The more people in the union the safer we all are at work.

Tackling workplace stress - a one-day course for UNISON Housing Association members and activists

Date: Wednesday 15 January, 9.30-3.30
Venue: Resource for London, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA

"Did you know that 35% of fit notes are written for mental health conditions such as stress, anxiety and depression? With workplace stress a major concern for many UNISON members, the Housing Associations Branch are running a one-day course in how to deal with workplace stress - including how to cope with the stress that being a steward can create.

We will discuss stress and how it affects your working life, what employers can do to minimise stress in the workplace, and Elizabeth Cotton from Middlesex University will give a workshop on how trade unionists can develop their own strategies for dealing with the stress that being a steward can bring. You can have a look at Elizabeth’s Surviving Work online library here: www.survivingwork.org

Also "organising around stress at work" by Tony Power, Branch Chair and "Members with mental health issues" led by Jim Lewis from National UNISON.   Lunch and other refreshments will be provided. As this is a training day, stewards and health and safety reps may be entitled to paid time off to attend – contact the branch office if you have any difficulty getting permission for this.

Contact infoATunisonhablondonDOTorg on or before the 8th January to register - all branch activists and those interested in becoming more involved in their trade union are welcome. Please also feel free to circulate to members in your workplace".

#UNDC13 Health & Safety Fringe - thursday lunchtime fringe

The NDC health and safety fringe was titled "Safety in Numbers" with presentations on campaigning in hospitals and Glasgow City branch on workplace stress.

There was some disquiet on the perceived lack of emphasis by some delegates on health and safety in conference business and the UNIZONE. While I think we need to do far more on safety issues in recent years it has raised its profile at conference. We, the activists just need to do more to increase this profile further.

One suggestion was that many members do not appreciate "elf & safety" at work but when you ask are they concerned about stress, violence, overwork, bullying...? they "get it". Another was that a set time for conference ought to be set aside to debate workplace health and safety issues.

Work Your Proper Hours Day - Friday 26 Feb

From TUC Worksmart Site "Work Your Proper Hours Day (26 Feb 2010) is the day when the average person who does unpaid overtime finishes the unpaid days they do every year, and starts earning for themselves. We think that's a day worth celebrating.

Over five million people at work in the UK regularly do unpaid overtime, giving their employers £27.4 billion of free work every year. If you're one, why not take some time to reflect on how well (or badly) you're balancing your life? This is one day in the year to make the most of your own time. Take a proper lunchbreak and leave work on time to enjoy your Friday evening - You deserve it!

Long hours are not good for us; they cause stress; they're bad for our health; they wreck relationships; they make caring for children or dependents more difficult; and tired, burnt-out staff are bad for business.

People do long hours for a variety of very different reasons, and work life balance expert Professor Cary Cooper has helped us put together a long hours clinic tool, to give you tailored advice to fit your own situation.

You can also use our online balance check to diagnose what your workplace's working style is, and then add yourself to our big interactive map to see how you stack up against everyone else. Or just check the map, to see what others have said.

Let your friends in on the act too by downloading posters to print out, sending ecards, or linking to us from your own sites.

Work Your Proper Hours Day for 2010 will be 26 February, but your own pay day may come earlier or later, depending on the hours you work above your contracted hours. Use our online unpaid overtime calculator to find out when you can celebrate paying off your long hours debt".

HSE Stress Enforcement Notice: The Triumph of Experience Over Hope

Positive news for a change in the Health & Safety at work world. An improvement notice has finally been issued by an HSE inspector against Hope University in Liverpool for its continual failure to carry out adequate workplace risk assessments over occupational stress.

At long last the HSE is actually enforcing the law of the land with regard to this serious subject. All, repeat, all, organisations with more than 4 employees have to carry out and write suitable and sufficient assessments of all significant risks. Occupational stress is obviously a significant risk. In 2007/08 according to the HSE 442,000 Brits reported that they had been made ill by work related stress.

Arguably since the 1974 Health & Safety at Work Act and certainly since the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations in 1992 these assessments should have been done. Well done to the HSE for finally taking action but note that it has taken at least 17 years to do what they have always been legally required to enforce. Congratulations to the local trade unions that were forced to complain to the HSE to get meaningful change. The HSE now need to start banging heads together.

Senior Directors are potentially personally at risk of imprisonment or massive fines from this failure. So why on earth do they not do what they are supposed to do?

I suspect that the main reason is simply that the HSE have not enforced this legal requirement in the past. Q.E.D.

No excuses then. It is a criminal act not to properly assess workplace stress risks. Senior managers not only need to ensure that it is done and done properly but maybe it would be a good idea for them to set a good example and declare that they have carried out their own such assessments for the senior management team and consult with their safety reps upon this?

I would love to know how many of the G15 top housing associations fully comply with their lawful responsibility in this regard.

I’ll “hazard” a guess it’s a big round figure.

Check out Health & Safety Professional and HSE Enforcement site

(Apologies for the very weak puns – such things are one of my trade union de-stressor control measures)

Bullying in the Workplace Petition and Workers Memorial Day tomorrow.

I’ve received this email from anti-bullying campaigner Vicky Gray (no known relation!). Bearing in mind that it is Workers Memorial Day tomorrow I thought I would post a link to her petition.

By co-incidence yesterday I was watching the London marathon from next to the Statute of the Building Worker opposite the Tower of London. Where people will be gathering tomorrow morning at 10.15am.

With the current recession employees need more protection in the workplace. I have started a new petition to Stop Bullying in The Workplace. It's called 09Bullying could you please sign it and pass it on to all members? http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/09Bullying/ When you complete the petition - it will email you a link which you have to click to actually have your name added to the list. Please do remember to check your spam folder if your email doesn't appear and make sure your name is on the list!

Stop Bullying in the workplace

40% of UK organisations still do not have an effective policy bullying. Introduce legislation that makes it compulsory that all workplaces have an effective policy on bullying. All organisations will submit a report on how many staff have submitted grievances or complained of bullying to the local newspapers who will report the bullying figures. Reports repeatedly reveal that between 10-50% of employees experience bullying which prevents them from fulfilling their duties the absence of legislation on bullying at work leaves both employees and employers unprotected.

Bullying is the cause of under performance, not the solution. Stress is now the number one cause of sickness absence; bullying is a major cause of stress. The cost of bullying to industry and taxpayers is estimated to at least £12 billion annually. The cost of conflict in the workplace could be in excess of £20-30 billion annually. This is equivalent to a hidden tax burden of over £1000 per working adult per year. Protect the worker change the law.
Vicky Gray

National Stress Awareness Day – Wednesday 5 November

I’m not sure that it is a good idea to have a National Awareness day on Stress on November 5th?

“Gunpowder, Treason and Plot “ is far more likely to catch the imagination than trying to encourage folk to “Remember, Remember... the HSE stress managements standards”.

But the first Wednesday in November for the past 10 years has been designated as this day by the International Stress Management Association (ASMAuK).

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) support this event on their website (here). This year's theme is "Don't Worry Take Action". While the idea is right that workers should not be passive but take action if they are stressed, if you don’t have access to strong local unions then workers will not take “action” since they will not feel powerful enough. Also, free massages, stress counselling, blood tests etc are fine and dandy, but do not absolve the employer of organisational responsibility for making sure their employees do not become ill due to occupational stress. Some employer's will not address structural problems in the workplace that cause stress and try to put the responsibility back on the employee.

I found this judgement below about a latest case useful. The worker had complained about stress and just because the employer provided access to confidential counselling it is not enough to protect them from a claim for liability. This might make claims against negligent employer's more easier in the future and of course may make them take stress more seriously.

Stress at Work Claims

The Court of Appeal has handed down its decision in Dickens v O2 plc, dismissing O2’s appeal against the trial judge’s finding that O2 was liable for stress induced personal injury suffered by one of its employees.Whilst purporting to apply the guidance given in Hatton v Sutherland, the Court's application of that guidance to the facts before them arguably indicated that the requirements of reasonable foreseeability, breach and causation may not be as difficult for claimants to satisfy as a strict reading of Hatton may have suggested.

In relation to reasonable foreseeability, it was sufficient that the employee had previously complained about the stress of her job, had been coming into work late on a regular basis, and had told her line manager that she did not know how long she could keep going before she would become ill;

In relation to breach of duty, O2 ought to have sent its employee home pending urgent investigation by occupational health, even in circumstances where she had not been signed off sick by her GP. The Court held that the mere suggestion of confidential counselling was not an adequate response to a situation where an employee was complaining of severe stress;
In relation to causation, the Court inferred a sufficient causal connection between the breach and the illness, finding the series of failings by O2 to address her problems had materially contributed to her illness.

Check out this post on stress and trade union solicitors Thompsons

HSE work-related stress event for Trade Union Reps

This looks interesting. This Wednesday is also National Stress Awareness Day. I'll post on this later.

No one with an interest in employee well-being can afford to ignore the problem of work-related stress. Recent statistics show it to have caused half a million sufferers and 13.8 million days lost in the UK.

Managers have a duty to prevent work related stress from affecting the health and well-being of your members. But employees and their representatives have an equally important role to play.

This free event is for TU representatives who have an understanding of the Management Standards for work-related stress and want to find out more about protecting employee well-being.

Lunch will be provided and the day is expected to run from 10am-4pm. Directions to the venue will follow.

To book your place please register online by 10th November:

http://hse.gov.uk/stress/tubookingform.htm

Work related Stress, Bullying and Harassment

On Monday we had our regional health & safety committee. We held committee elections (I am now the London rep to National Health & Safety committee), discussed the usual minutes, matters arising, then reports, budget, conference fringe (new “Violence at Work” booklet), issues regarding the HSE, Hazards conference, Workers Memorial Day, European health & safety week and why no national safety seminar this year.

Afterwards we had a Network meeting of London branch safety officers with guest speaker, Henrietta Phillips (pictured with Chair, all round nice bloke, John Caulfield), who is a personal injury specialist from trade union solicitors, Thompsons.

Henrietta started off by pointing out how prevalent work related stress was – 1/3rd of all new incidences of ill health, average of 30.2 working days per year and a total of 13.8 million days were lost last year. Despite being so widespread it is notoriously difficult to get compensation, but not impossible.

Being off sick with "stress" is not enough by itself; you have to have a clinically recognised psychological or psychiatric condition (diagnosed by a psychiatrist). You have to be able to prove “causation of injury” and that your illness is linked to work. Solicitors acting for the employers will have access to your medical records and will try to prove that your illness is non-work related e.g. marital or financial problems. There are also strict time limits. You must usually commence court proceedings within 3 years.

Proving negligence or a clear breach of duty is not enough, you also need to show clear evidence that the employer should have foreseen the risk of psychiatric injury to the individual from work. So – tell your employer if you are suffering or are otherwise vulnerable. In the real world of work, its not that easy. Maybe better still, get a GP or a mental health professional to tell your employer you are vulnerable. Hopefully this will get their alarm bells ringing.

At one stage, it looked like the "Protection from Harassment Act" could be used to gain compensation from employers who failed to take adequate steps to stop their employees bullying and threatening other staff. An unhelpful Court appeal means at the moment (unless it is overturned) that action can only be successful if the harassment is extremely physically violent.

One positive thing is that the courts have somewhat overturned a previous ruling that if an employer offers a confidential advice service that they can refer employees to then they are “unlikely to be found in breach of duty”. I remember several years ago being shocked by a senior manager boasting how his organisation would never be sued because they offered a telephone help line.

I think trade unionists need to send a message that you cannot rely on the law to remedy your employment problems. People genuinely have the wrong impression of how easy it is “to go to law”. The tabloid press gives the impression that you can get huge pay outs if your boss forgot to say good morning to you. This is rubbish. The best way to protect yourself at work is via a well-organised trade union to challenge employment practices that make people ill in the first place.

Maybe also we ought to consider a “no fault” compensation scheme for workers who become seriously ill thorough work without having to prove employer negligence. It may put quite a few highly paid lawyers out of business. I think that Thompsons will be one of the few that won’t mind.

Work stress causes heart disease

Today’s TUC Email Newsletter on health & safety “Risks” has a very interesting article on recent research that appears to directly link work related stress with heart disease.

“Stressed workers suffer a greatly increased risk of heart disease, a study of UK civil servants has found. Stressful jobs have a direct biological impact on the body, the research indicated. The study reported online by the European Heart Journal focused on more than 10,000 British civil servants, part of the ongoing Whitehall II study. Those under 50 who said their work was stressful were 68 per cent more likely to develop heart disease than the stress-free”.

A 68% increase is significant. In my previous job I tried unsuccessfully to ask the employer to record and report incidents of heart disease and strokes to the safety committee, so we could try and identify if certain jobs were in fact prone to stress related illness. That request got no where fast.

Should I in the future ask trade union members who have suffered heart disease and who work in stress full jobs to fill in an accident/incident report?

Safety of Front Line Housing Officers

Excellent article and survey in yesterday’s “Inside Housing” by Simon Brandon on the risks from violence at work and occupational stress for front line housing staff.

Working in “social housing” (ugly word, wish they could think of something else) has changed dramatically in recent years. The article has housing officers pointing out that they are now expected to be “social workers.....environmental health officers, plain clothes police officer and agony aunts”. None of which is in any job description. 73% have feared for their safety while at work.

I remember another inside housing survey in 2005 where 11% of staff reported that they had been held against their will in resident's homes.

I think that one of the biggest challenges is that most housing organisations are now really trying to tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB). For years “neighbour nuisance “was sweep under the carpet as the sector complained about either the lack of effective legal powers or not having any co-operation with the Police.

However, “More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.” St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). The government have now responded with an avalanche of ASB legislation and reorganised local policing. If you tackle this behaviour then the risk to housing staff has to be reassessed. Not only is the threat of being thumped (or worse) increased but often staff are expected to carry out this time intensive role without adequate extra resources.

Specific problems were identified such as inadequate sharing of information about known violent residents. Staff report that they are often alone in a room with someone whose background they know nothing about. They later find out that this person has a history of violent conduct. Also the massive increase in the size of many housing associations is also blamed for “driving a wedge between bosses and their housing officers”.

I think (surprise, surprise) that the role of the union safety representatives is central to addressing these problems. We need to make sure that suitable and sufficient safety risk assessments (including the risk of occupational stress) are carried out and regularly reviewed. Regular safety inspections of workplaces are undertaken, particularly of receptions and interview rooms. Accidents and incidents must be reported and properly investigated. There should be formal joint safety committee meetings with union reps and management. Problems and issues should be sorted out locally whenever possible.

The safety management system of an organisation must be constantly reviewed and audited. An organisation may have the best policies and procedures, however if they are not actually being implmented in practice and are just gathering dust on a shelf (or nowadays a computer hard disk) then they are just a waste of time.

The unions also have a responsibility to make sure that we recruit enough, train and properly support our safety reps.

One positive outcome of the survey was that a majority of staff (70%) reported that they enjoyed their work (despite low pay). I think we all recognise that the overwhelming majority of residents are not a threat, it is only a small minority of “vulnerable, desperate, manipulate or unwell people and they can often be very unpredictable”.