Better Occupational Health Needed

The TUC has today (Monday) called on UK employers to give better occupational health assistance to the two million employees who every year believe they have become ill as a result of their jobs.

To coincide with Workers’ Memorial Day - which this year focuses on good occupational health for all workers - the TUC and unionlearn, its learning and skills organisation, are publishing a new guide to occupational health for union safety reps.

Over the next year, the TUC hopes that around 15,000 workplace safety reps can be trained using the new educational workbook, Occupational Health: Dealing with the Issues. The reps will be able to use the guide to assess the extent of ill health in their workplaces and work with their employers to find the best ways of making the business a healthier place to work.

The TUC workbook says that apart from the huge personal cost to individuals when they become ill as a result of their work, 175 million working days were lost as a result of sickness absence in 2006, costing firms £650 per poorly employee.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “Workplaces where there are union safety reps tend to be both safer and healthier places. But the UK is currently facing an epidemic of occupational ill health. Many people are ill and in pain as a result of lifting injuries, slips and trips, stress and noise-induced hearing loss suffered either at, or caused by, their work.

‘Using this workbook, union reps can learn about all the aspects of occupational health. Then they can use it to encourage their employers to do much more to make employees feel they are getting a decent level of support from work when they are ill and again when they are on the road towards a full recovery.”

Worker’s Memorial Day is held on 28 April every year, when all over the world workers and their representatives conduct events, demonstrations, vigils and a whole host of other activities to mark the day. The day is also intended to serve as a rallying cry to ‘remember the dead, but fight like hell for the living.’

More Have Vocational Qualification Than Degree

The number of people with vocational qualifications is now higher than those with degrees but the awards still suffer from negative prejudice. In an article on their website, ATL report the findings of research carried out by Edexcel which shows 38% of the population having a vocational qualification and 26% having a degree.

Dissatisfaction Widespread Among FE Staff

A report published just a few days before today’s industrial action taken by members of the University and College Union (UCU), shows widespread dissatisfaction among FE staff. The report by the Learning and Skills Network (LSN), shows that:

• Only 39.1% of staff say that they would recommend their organisation as a good place to work and this drops to 31.1% among lecturers and teachers. Furthermore, many respondents (42.2%) said that they didn’t feel valued by their employer.
• A significant number of people (56%) reported that they don’t think they are adequately rewarded for their work. This rises to 60.9% among lecturers and teachers but drops to 34.6% among senior managers. By comparison, the majority of people (68.4%) say they are happy with their pension scheme.
• 21.9% of teachers and lecturers, and 35.8% of senior managers, say they are not able to take their full holiday entitlement.
• Only 7.4% of respondents do not work beyond their contracted hours. Out of the staff who said they often work beyond their contracted hours, 29% of teaching staff, 38% of managers and 63% of senior managers said they often worked more than 11 additional hours per week.
• 40% of people say that their organisation will tolerate managers or colleagues who bully others.
• Overall, 53.9% of people said they had been verbally abused by learners, with 37.4% of staff saying they had felt physically threatened by a learner.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the findings also reveal high levels of stress and job insecurity: Most staff (69.8%) say they feel too much stress in their job, with teaching staff and middle managers more likely than other groups to say they are stressed.

And reflecting the widespread instability caused by continual restructuring, 48% of staff said they do not feel they have job security, with teaching staff and middle managers feeling the least secure.

Further details can be found in the full LSN report, FE Colleges: the frontline under pressure.

Jumbo Jet Load of Workers Killed Each Fortnight

The equivalent of a jumbo-jet-load of passengers dies every fortnight in Britain because of the failure to ensure safe and healthy conditions in workplaces, RoSPA said as Workers’ Memorial Day approaches (April 28).

Roger Bibbings, Occupational Safety Adviser for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: “Because workers rarely die in high-profile disasters, their plight and the silent suffering of their families tends to go unnoticed.

“But if one jumbo jet crashed every two weeks killing all 400 people on board there would be a national outcry – and that is the rate at which workers are dying. Workers’ Memorial Day offers a chance to remember those who have been harmed at work and to redouble efforts to protect those who remain at risk.”

He said Government ministers claimed justifiably that reportable workplace injuries had come down and that the UK was now almost in pole position in the world when it came to accident rates. But the latest HSE figure of 241 notifiable deaths due to accidents to workers could disguise the true extent of the health and safety problem in the UK.

Over 100 members of the public (still under-reported) die annually in accidents connected with work activity. About 1,000 people die in work-related road accidents and many thousands suffer early death due to work-related health damage (estimates vary from 6,000 to 24,000 cases).

“By focusing only on accident deaths at the top of the casualty iceberg, there is a danger of losing sight of figures for the overall injury and ill-health toll which tend to remain below the water line,” Roger Bibbings said.

“There are more than 1.1 million work-related injuries annually – excluding road injuries – and about 2.2 million cases of ill health caused or made worse by work. In all, this is estimated to contribute to about 36 million lost working days.

“This is equivalent to more than 20 jumbos landing every day in the UK loaded with sick and injured people. And around the world more workers continue to be killed, injured or made ill by their work than all those who die in armed conflicts.

“For families and friends affected by each of these tragedies, their loss cannot be measured by statistics.

“At a time when it has become fashionable to poke fun at ‘elf and safety’, these stark figures should serve to remind everyone of the true extent of pain, suffering and loss due to the failure to manage risks associated with work.”

Wales Pay Claim Presented

Unions representing the majority of employees in further education colleges in Wales formally presented the 2008/9 pay claim to the employers’ organisation, fforwm, at a meeting of the Wales National Negotiating Committee on Wednesday. The claim, which had been approved by all of the FE unions in Wales, calls for a 6% pay increase and a minimum increase of £1,500, the removal of the bottom point on the management spine, an increase in holidays for managers, and for business support managers to be moved onto the management spine. The claim also seeks nationally agreed core conditions of service.

ACM General Secretary Peter Pendle, who chaired the staff side at the meeting, said “We believe that this is a very fair claim and were encouraged by the response of the employers at the meeting. We hope that we will be able to make much quicker progress this year so that the increase is paid to employees at the start of the academic year”. A response to the claim from fforwm is expected early in June.

Also represented at the meeting were ATL and UNISON. The UCU declined to attend as a result of the strike being held on the same day.

Protection For Women Undergoing IVF

The Eurpoean Court of Justice has confirmed that dismissal or unfavourable treatment of women undergoing IVF amounts to sex discrimination. In a case referred from Austria (Mayr v Backerei und Konditorei Gerhard Flockner OHG ECJ C-506/06, 26/2/08), the EJC said that the Pregnant Workers Directive only had effect from the moment of pregnancy, which in a case of IVF was when the fertilised ova was implanted.

However, the court felt it appropriate to conclude that the Equal Treatment Directive precludes the dismissal of a woman where it is established that the dismissal is based on the fact she had undergone IVF treatment.

Currently ACM is dealing with a case where a member undergoing treatment is facing questions about her commitment to her job, directly arising from her need to attend a fertility clinic. This recent ruling is therefore both welcome and timely.

Dealing With Mental Health Problems

Employment relations service Acas has issued advice on how to spot and deal with mental health problems at work. The advice comes ahead of Depression Awareness Week (21 – 26 April) which is focusing on employment this year.

Gill Trevelyan, Head of Training and Equality Services says: “Spotting and doing something about troubled employees is an important business skill. As well as being good managers in the traditional sense, we urge bosses to look out for early indicators before they develop into something more serious, like stress or depression. Healthy and content workers translate directly into productive employees.”

The advice also coincides with the release of Acas’ new free guide on Health, work & wellbeing.

UCU To Strike Before Negotiations Begin

College lecturers in England have voted to strike on Thursday 24 April in support of a demand to bring their pay up to that of schoolteachers. Over 27,000 lecturers in more than 250 colleges were balloted by the University and College Union (UCU). On a 38.6% turnout, 65.5% voted to support strike action.

Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), who teach in schools, are also striking on Thursday 24 April over a separate pay claim.

In both schools and colleges, many teaching professionals believe their employers are ignoring their professional status and serving business interests at the expense of community needs. NUT, UCU and the National Union of Students recently launched a joint campaign ‘Our schools, our colleges, our communities’ to draw attention to threats to the quality of local, public education from college marketisation, ‘city academies’ and cuts in public services.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of UCU, said: “College lecturers feel undervalued, despite their successes, which the government has recognised.

‘The considerable difference in the average pay of lecturers and teachers doing the same work is grossly unfair.

‘It is more than four years since FE employers agreed to move lecturers to the same length pay scales as school teachers but 47% of colleges still haven’t done that. The treatment of FE staff is a scandal. Pay has been further eroded by below-inflation pay awards.

‘Further education is central to the government’s plans for reskilling the nation but colleges must also serve their communities, not simply be factories for qualifications. Lecturers are delivering. Now college employers must tackle the deep dissatisfaction amongst their staff.’

Responding to today’s announcement by the UCU, Sue Dutton, Association of Colleges (AoC), Acting Chief Executive, said: “Colleges are disappointed that the University and Colleges Union (UCU) has called its members out to strike on 24 April over the 2008/09 pay claim.

‘The action is unprecedented as it is being called before national pay negotiations have even begun. Despite the decision, AoC is still committed to national pay negotiations, which are due to start 1 May.”

None of the other five unions who are party to the national pay claim have held industrial action ballots.

Steve Sinnott

Following the sudden death at the weekend of NUT General Secretary Steve Sinnott, ACM has written to the union asking for our condolences to be passed to his wife Mary and their family, and also to the executive, members and staff of the NUT.

General Secretary Peter Pendle said, “We were all very sorry to hear the sad news about Steve Sinnott. Steve was an extremely well respected and hard working trade union leader. His commitment to the NUT was widely recognised, and he was a skilled and principled advocate for the teaching profession. I know he will be sadly missed by all who knew him.”

College Fined For Breaking Safety Law

City of Bristol College has been fined £14,000 and ordered to pay £18,000 costs for a breach of health and safety law. The case, brought by the HSE, related to the College’s failure to ensure the safety of its employees, particularly with regard to the use, handling and storage of hazardous substances and to the provision of appropriate training and supervision.

Further details are available on the UCU website.

Search For Lost Adult Learners

Over the past two years there has been a fall of nearly one and a half million adult learners on publicly funded courses. This week the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is launching a nationwide search to find out what has happened to those adults.

NIACE is exploring how the cuts in publicly funded adult learning have impacted on individual learners and wants to hear about what people have done without publicly supported classes. In particular NIACE is interested in finding out from learners, tutors and providers.

Alan Tuckett, Director of NIACE, said, “These are challenging times for adult learners. Because of our ageing population we need more – not fewer – adults of all ages learning. Learning increases confidence, reduces isolation and has positive effects on your mental health, particularly as you get older. This is why we want to hear about how adults are learning now – if not on publicly-funded courses.”

Anyone interested in sharing their experiences should contact NIACE at: lostcourses@niace.org.uk or write to: Lost Classes, NIACE, Renaissance House, 20 Princess Road West, Leicester LE1 6TP.

EHRC Publishes Single Equality Scheme

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published its first single equality scheme.

The scheme lays out the practical steps the Commission will take to promote equality and human rights in everything it does. The document will be the starting point for its three-year scheme which will be developed during 2008/9. All public authorities have a duty to produce an equality scheme.

Because of the Commission’s unique remit, the scheme goes beyond the legal requirement to address gender, disability and race and also covers issues around age, sexual orientation, religion or belief and human rights.  The Commission has a special position among public authorities as these duties are identical to its own remit. The Commission is also responsible for ensuring other public bodies meet the legal requirements of the equality duties.

A copy of the scheme can be found on the EHRC website.