DSE Workers Health Risks Reflected In Poor Customer Service

The CWU have recently highlighted (LTB1025/07) a report first published April 2007 regarding a survey of some 2,300 UK Office (DSE) workers undertaken for "Tickbox.net survey" for the "ViewSonic Corp." The study report entitled "The atWork atRisk Report" states that three quarters of British Office workers who undertake DSE Computer work are suffering from chronic health problems due to the workplace according to study conclusions.

Interestingly, it came on the back of a December 2006 survey of 1,600 contact centre customers undertaken by communications firm Empirix which showed that the level of service experienced by customers had gone downhill in the last year. More than a third believe call centre services are getting worse.

Of Course Union Safety Reps have been stating for years that the way in which staff are treated and the condition in which they work in contact centres will always have a detrimental effect upon customer satisfaction. It takes no rocket science to understand this principle although contact centre industry management don't yet seem to be convinced and instead of getting the health and safety correct, ignore this issue and spend millions each year trying to reinvent the wheel coming up with more and more technical ways of measuring output, ensuring greater output and all the while both customer and staff suffer.

According to the BBC news website which reported in December 2006 some of the findings are:

People in the north east of England disliked contacting call centres the most, while Londoners were the least dissatisfied by the level of service.

Telecom firms provided the worst call centre service, the survey said.

Only 8% of those asked said that they had experienced a good service from call centres provided by phone companies.

By contrast, call centres representing the banking industry scored the best, with 37% of respondents saying they had had a good service.

Viewsonic's press release, April 2007 stated that the online survey of 1,500 UK office workers, conducted in February 2007, shows a clear link between poor ergonomics knowledge and an increase in symptoms such as headaches, eye fatigue and backache.

The Research Study conclusions revealed:

The rise in work based health problems is attributed to the amount of time people spend chained to their desks working on their computer without a rest break. Nearly half the country's office workers spend over six hours a day in front of their computers and less than half take regular breaks.

A third of workers say it is management or peer pressure that prevents them taking 'ergo' breaks.

Almost half of workers say they've been offered no advice on the best desktop layout or ergonomics best practice in the last 12 months as per the DSE Regulations.

Staff aged between 16 and 24 claim they work far longer screen hours than older employees and 67% say they are prevented from taking regular breaks. The result is more than two thirds of young workers would consider suing their employers if they developed a long-term illness or disability because of poor working conditions.

Although most office workers say that ergonomic issues are important to them (75%), only a fifth have ever complained to their manager and asked for a better desk, chair, phone or screen, despite the high incidence of health issues.  Indeed, a third admit not knowing where to start improving their desktop environment.  The lack of knowledge is compounded by low levels of personal initiative; only 15% have tried to investigate best desktop policy or sought professional help, or spoken to friends or colleagues for ergonomic advice.

Mel Taylor, Vice President, Director of European Marketing, ViewSonic said:  “The research shows that not only are we a workforce plagued by chronic ill-health, but that we lack the will to change at both an individual and corporate level.  Employers could eliminate these issues instantly for many staff by promoting better desktop ergonomics.  Sadly, the issue is not on the board’s agenda, despite the potential for huge productivity gains.”

In stating that employers are simply ignoring their duty of care, Mel Taylor continued:

"Not only are employers ignoring the clear productivity benefits of better IT equipment and ergonomics, they are also ignoring their duty of care responsibility and may be opening themselves up to serious legal liabilities in the future.  We urge both employers and employees to change this casual attitude to ergonomics – companies can do a lot more to instill better working practices but armed with even a little more knowledge, employees can look after themselves a lot more effectively too.”  

According to the BBC News Online, Claudia Hathway, editor of industry magazine CCF, which co-organised the survey, described many of the findings as "extremely worrying".

"It's easy to blame the media for bad publicity, but the only way call centres can counter negative coverage is to start providing a standard of customer service to be proud of," she said.

The initiative has been taken up by many trade unions in educating their members via seminars, circulars, training sessions and magazine articles promoting the health and safety issues involved in working with computer equipment.

Despite this, the trend in WRULD injuries, bad work stations and computer equipment, simply continues in the UK whilst at the same time customer experience of contact centres also declines.

Relevance 12 months on? - Nothing has changed!

The atWork atRisk Report in full

Viewsonic press release

Source: Viewsonic/CWU/BBC News On-line

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