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CWU Telecom & Financial Services Conference 2013 Debates Health, Safety And Environment Bournemouth International Centre Derek Maylor, Chair of the North West BT Unions Health & Safety Co-ord reports from the section conference at which important propositions dealing with health, safety and welfare issues were debated:
The type of work undertaken in the BT Fleet Workshops can often be regarded as ‘heavy’; this can limit the duties in the workshop environment, that people who develop illnesses or conditions which mean they need workplace adjustments can do. There is seldom consideration given to the purchase of mechanical aids, the restricting of duties, adjustments or alternative roles and consequentially workers often decide to leave the company. This is mainly due to the lack of knowledge many managers have on the subject of equality and therefore we want to educate them on managed return to work processes, reasonable adjustments and the Equalities Act. The Co-ord has seen an increase in violence to our members at all levels and verbal abuse of members in call centres is on the increase in terms of both the frequency and severity. Some have been astonishingly vile and include threats to family yet many go unreported. We will therefore actively encourage members report incidents of verbal abuse and seek the strongest possible action is taken against abusers. All companies have Portable Appliance Testing system for electrical items used. BT’s in-house current process is failing in many areas and some items in the operational estate such as transmission testers have not been electrically tested since the late 1990s. With the transmission equipment that has been developed over the last ten years there is an increase in the volume of electrical equipment that is now powered by transformer units within equipment racks that have not been tested since they were installed. The testing structure and maintenance of such equipment must be brought up to standard. Up to a few years ago each building within the company was looked after by a location manager with whom the CWU safety representative could liaise with over health and safety issues. They were able to build a working relationship allowing joint inspections to be carried out on a regular basis and a single point of contact for each building. We will seek to return to this system which will go a long way in improving the whole estate; a coherent infrastructure for management responsibility of the operational estate. There is a clear responsibility under Section 2 of the Health & Safety at Work Act for BT and dedicated management structure can oversee that responsibility. There is a need to reduce the need for working at heights; it is the last option for the HSE, removing the need to do being the first. All new residential and business building developments should be fully ducted underground radial distributions and also where all or part of the development faces onto an existing highway. The principle of removing the need to work at heights overrides considerations of costs should there be an existing overhead network. On any working day two fully trained operators both trained in all aspects of the Mobile Elevating Work Platforms including pole rescue should be assigned to the same MEWP. On such a safety issue any training for MEWP operators must be via practical, facilitated training and not computer based training. We have previously raised concerns over breaches of safety rules and procedures by some contractors engaged by BT and Openreach and this was again discussed. We have to address this with BT and Openreach Management and include CWU in any monitoring or audits. We must reduce the incidence of free climbing and the casual use long ladders for working at increased heights and specifically restrict the use of such equipment in favour of either MEWPs or scaffolding. The use of long ladders should only be considered where there are problems of access that dictate that the choice of long ladders is the final solution. |
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The three day telecom conference included concern on the impact of performance management and the current management style on the health and well-being of CWU members employed in by all the companies within BT Group with the impact on older sick and disabled workers being those most affected. We are to look at the extent of the impact of this style of management on the mental health of our members including any suicides that have occurred in the past three years. We have similar concern on the cynical managing of sick absence and health appointments