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Health and safety

Motion A621 was carried

NEC Attitude: support

Conference notes the budget of 22 April 2009 commits the Government to further public spending cuts on top of those already outlined and those that have gone before. Conference also notes that the spending cuts outlined in the budget are unlikely to be the last ones to be announced and expects further cuts to be proposed in the future whether a Conservative or a Labour government comes to power at the next general election. In addition to this, Commercial Sector employers will be using the recession as an excuse to force through job cuts in order to make ‘efficiency savings’ of their own.

Conference applauds all action and proposed action to defend jobs, pay, conditions and public services but feels that one consequence of mass public spending cuts; increased workload and pressure on members who deliver public services, has been ignored.

Conference recognises the impact excessive workload and increased pressure from management can have on members in all areas where PCS organises. These include but are not limited to: -

  • Increased sick absence for members due to stress and other work place related injuries and illnesses.
  • Reduced work-life balance for members.
  • Members’ relationships outside of work becoming strained.
  • Members effectively bullied and micro-managed out of the door to cut staffing levels through ’natural wastage’.
  • Loss of morale for members.
  • Poorer service to the public.
  • Lack of retention of staff.
  • Members losing confidence in their union, when action to organise resistance is not forthcoming.

Conference therefore instructs the incoming National Executive Committee to:

  • Immediately approach the Cabinet Office for negotiations on a maximum set workload limit for all members in the Civil Service and Non-Departmental Government Bodies.
  • Immediately approach all Commercial Sector employers where PCS has members for negotiations on a maximum set workload limit for all members in the Commercial Sector.
  • Encourage and provide resources for members to campaign and organise vigorously on this issue.
  • Report back to members through Branch Secretaries on the progress made by 31/08/2009 and at two monthly intervals after that.
  • Once an agreement has been reached with the Cabinet Office, ballot all members working for the Civil Service and Non-Departmental Government Bodies on acceptance.
  • As agreements are reached with each Commercial Sector employer, ballot members through the appropriate branch for each employer on acceptance.
  • Consider balloting for industrial action including strike action and action short of a strike where: -

a) There is refusal or reluctance on the part of the employer to negotiate or
b) An agreement which is worthy of balloting members for acceptance on, can not be reached.

Motion A33 Composite 3 was carried

NEC Attitude: support

Conference notes that Acoustic Shock is a problem that has been steadily rising across many workplaces PCS represents. In the past year there has been well over 100 reported acoustic shock incidents in the DWP Group alone, some of them malicious with callers blowing whistles on the line as an example. This is exampled in the DCS call centre areas of the DWP where the previously installed amplifiers, which had been installed to try and reduce acoustic shock incidents, were removed when the IPCC telephony was installed.

Conference notes that in this example there were no Risk Assessments carried out on the changes as the employer (DWP) declined to accept that there was a significant risk.

Acoustic Shock is a problem that could happen to anyone handling calls and can be distressing. Short term effects can include temporary loss of hearing, feeling sick and dizzy, and inflammation of the ear. Mid or long term effects can include permanent hearing damage and also panic attacks or depression.

Modern equipment legitimately installed correctly is compliant with noise at work legislation if used appropriately. However poor telephone lines or background noise will often cause a call handler to increase the volume of the call in an attempt to hear the caller, increasing their risk of Acoustic Shock. It is not clear if continually turning volume levels up breaches average noise exposure limits under this legislation.

Equipment exists now to monitor incoming sound, filter out excessive background noise and leaves a more clear sounding voice than if the equipment was not used. The equipment usually costs less than the price of the IP telephone it can be connected to, and can usually be used on a range of telephones, whether analogue or IP based. Conference instructs the NEC to investigate such noise filtering equipment, commonly referred to as a digital amplifier with filtering technology, and seek independent tests to demonstrate the effectiveness of this equipment.

Subject to proven effectiveness, Conference instructs the NEC to campaign at all levels throughout PCS that such equipment is installed by the employer for headset users across each workplace we represent.

Conference believes that PCS needs to be in the vanguard when taking legal test cases to defend members' rights at work and therefore Conference instructs the incoming NEC to ask Branches for details of members who have suffered an acoustic shock which has potentially resulted in a detriment to their Health and take a series of test cases against employer's who have not been taking steps to reduce the incidence of acoustic shocks.

(E marked motion associated with lead motion E296-E297)

Motion A34 was carried

NEC Attitude: support

Conference recognises that, particularly since the advent of privatised facilities management, Office lighting systems have often deteriorated, to the detriment of members, in particular by the removal of or failure to install lighting controls on individual luminaires.

Conference recognises that this loss of control by members over the lighting component of their working environment was in breach or potentially in breach of the Workplace Regulations, HSE Guide HSG 38 and CIBSE Lighting Guides LG3, LG7, and LG10.

Conference recognises however, that since 2004, CIBSE Guide LG7 has been re-written in more explicit terms, and that this re-writing makes the errors of, for example the contractor, for DWP and SPVA (Norcross), Trillium, clearer than ever for all to see. Conference welcomes this re-write as a Victory for the campaign to restore acceptable Office Lighting.

Conference notes that LG7 now specifically repudiates Trillium's misinterpretation of the previous guidance on lighting uniformity, and that there is now specific recognition of the needs of staff to have localised switching controls over luminaires. Conference acknowledges that the issue of erroneous lighting cannot be exclusive to the DWP and SPVA (Norcross), and believes therefore that there is a need for the matter to be considered by PCS Nationally.

Conference therefore instructs the NEC to:

1. Review a submission on Lighting to be provided by the moving Branch (or one of them).
2. Pursue those points relating to the unlawful downgrade of Office lighting and the need for improvement, in negotiation with the employer, at National level.
3. In conjunction with the moving Branches and the National network of Health & Safety representatives, monitor and provide support to these aims, which are to restore to members an ability to control the lighting as part of their working environment.
4. As part of the monitoring and support at point 3, to consider whether the basis for a legal challenge against one or more Departments, or Public or Private Sector employers exists.
5. To raise the issues with the HSE.
6. To sympathetically consider requests from Groups or Branches for funding to make use of expert opinion on Lighting.

(E marked motion associated with lead motion E298-E299)

Motion A35 was carried

NEC Attitude: support

This Conference is concerned about the overwhelming number of staff reporting work related stress in the Civil Service. We believe that stress is caused by production line type working practices such as LEAN, Leap Forward and Pacesetter introduced in HMRC. Similar schemes have other names in different departments.

Certain illnesses have to be reported to the Health and Safety Executive as notifiable diseases and National Statistics are recorded. However work related stress is not recognised as notifiable disease. We think that it is important to record and collect national statistics as evidence that the changes to the way we work are increasing work related stress.

Conference instructs the NEC to lobby the Government and the TUC to recognise work related stress as a notifiable disease.

Guillotined: A37, A37 and A38