Safety Battle Won

 by New Worker correspondent

London’s bus drivers have won what has almost been a year-long battle to secure an improved air conditioning system on the buses. Unite, which represents over 20,000 London bus workers, say the changes will greatly reduce the risk of drivers being exposed to the COVID-19 coronavirus whilst driving because the new air conditioning systems ensure air entering the driver’s sealed cab comes directly from the outside and does not pass through the passenger area of the bus.
    The first concerns were aired (so to speak) in February to Transport for London (TfL) and the private operators, even before the first lockdown. They were backed up by a University College London (UCL) report on the exposure of bus drivers to COVID-19.
    Initially the installation of the new air conditioning system was due to be finished on all buses in January, but it has already been completed.
    John Murphy, the union’s lead officer for London buses, said: “This is a major victory in Unite’s continuing campaign to improve the safety of London buses during the pandemic.
    “Unite highlighted its concerns about the air conditioning system when the first cases of COVID-19 began to emerge and it was instrumental in ensuring the air conditioning was turned off and a replacement system introduced.”
    But he warned that: “While this was a positive development, Unite will not rest on its laurels and is continuously ensuring that drivers’ safety is maintained and improved throughout the second wave of the pandemic.”
    London bus drivers have been greatly affected by COVID-19, with 30 drivers having tragically died of the disease during the pandemic.

Bob the Builder

by New Worker correspondent

In the construction industry there are at present many battles over safety issues, including many concerning the rights and wrongs of actually working at this time. At the site of a new gas power station near Scunthorpe workers successfully demanded to be sent home because they were being forced to use fingerprint machines to clock-in to the site, which would spread coronavirus. Further north, construction unions Unite and GMB are demanding that Balfour Beatty furlough workers at the TeesREP renewable energy site in Teesport and other sites.

Many employers are trying to get around the rules. The bosses of Balfour Beatty insist that redundancy consultations for more than 60 workers at the site will continue during the lockdown and that the staff are not eligible to receive 80 per cent of their wages under the government’s job retention scheme. They justify this by claiming that redundancy consultations were planned before COVID-19 shut down the country and that registering the workers would go against government eligibility guidance for the scheme.

This excuse was described as “paper thin” by Unite the union, who point to the fact that other major construction contractors, such as Bilfinger and Altrad, have furloughed workers whose redundancy consultations were scheduled to take place during the lockdown.

Unite’s national officer for construction, Ian Woodland, said: “Balfour Beatty must reverse its decision not to furlough workers at the TeesREP site, as well as those at the Crossrail site in London and elsewhere. At best Balfour Beatty’s actions are misdirected and heartless, at worst they point to a cynical financial calculation that the firm will not have to pay out advance wages for these workers while the government’s financial support comes through.”

GMB national officer Steve Kemp added: “Balfour Beatty needs to urgently re-think their decision – it flies in the face of any kind of fairness. Other construction companies have taken a totally different view on how to proceed in very similar circumstances.”

House builders Persimmon, Barratt and Taylor Wimpey have stopped work, but Redrow and Cairn Construction have not. Last week two Tory ministers were confused about the issue, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying any worker who could not do their job from home should go to work to “keep the country running”. But Michael Gove said that only construction workers doing jobs “critical to the economy” should go in, adding that builders should not be going into people’s homes. The next day Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said that work in people’s homes was allowed if it was done safely.

As for the two main trade bodies, the National Federation of Builders, which represents small-to-medium sized contractors, said builders could work on sites if they followed safety guidelines; but the Federation of Master Builders said only emergency work should be carried out.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith agreed that builders should only attend to emergency requirements. Andy Burnham, Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, deplored the fact that the decision to allow non-essential work appeared to have been made for “economic reasons”, saying: “When you're in the middle of a global pandemic, health reasons alone really should be guiding all decision-making.”

Construction workers are “angry and unprotected” at having to go work and others report being under pressure from employers to go in.

Many are officially self-employed and fear loss of income if their employers shut down.

The industry is notorious for sub-contracting and fake self-employment. Thus, Taylor Wimpey said it was looking at how to support around 2,000 directly employed staff but washed its hands of its “self-employed” freelancers on its sites. The boss Pete Redfern said on the BBC’s World at One that: “They are generally not actually operating for us, they are operating for a sub-contractor” so he was nobly going to “support our subcontractors by paying them on time or in advance”.

Trade journal Construction News has also said the industry has taken up the cause. It deplored the activities of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) being suspended. Construction News noted that: “While the HSE is understandably right to protect its inspectors and their families from the virus, the lack of oversight may mean that basic site safety regulations are no longer being adequately adhered to.”

Construction News also noted that in the industry it was near-impossible to stick to social distancing rules, citing the example that in order to comply with distancing regulations workers would have to lift heavier loads than they should tackle alone.

A director of one sub-contractor pointed out: “The measures that are put in place are then not compatible with the existing health and safety best practice for work on-site.

“We’re a risky industry, we [suffer] quite a lot of incidents and accidents. And now, when you’ve got limited or reduced supervision, the amount of accidents has the potential to go up. So we’re just going to be a bigger draw on already scant resources in the NHS.”

The journal also warns that the absence of HSE inspectors on-site could mean that there is little incentive for firms to ensure that workers make the right safety decisions or to raise the alarm when unsafe conditions occur.

To make matters worse, there is a global shortage of face masks. Moldex, one of the largest suppliers of PPE [personal protective equipment] has stopped taking orders in Britain. It will prioritise first responders, the health sector and critical services when more stock becomes available.

Level three filtering face-piece (FFP 3) masks essential for dust protection are being sold on eBay for around £20 each, before the crisis they were only £1 – roughly 20 times the pre-crisis cost.

In January there was dramatic increase in demand, at time when Asian manufacturers stopped exporting. To make matters worse, the Germans banned exports of certain FFP masks within the European Union. Moldex reports that the number of sometimes desperate enquiries from doctors, hospitals and aid organisations is still increasing. It’s hoped masks from Asia will begin to arrive on the market soon and help to relieve the situation.

Last Friday Unite called on the Government to appoint a minister concerned exclusively with the delivery of adequate PPE to protect workers from COVID-19, specifically mentioning the lack of supplies for the NHS and bus drivers. It claims that a lack of central government co-ordination is hampering efforts to deliver safety equipment on the scale and with the urgency needed.

Steve Turner, Unite’s assistant general secretary for manufacturing, pointed out that: “Household name businesses like JLR and the Royal Mint have released stock, provided and produced raw materials, designed, shaped, cut and assembled everything from face masks to visors, googles and medical gowns to gloves and hand sanitiser to deep cleansing materials.” Some gin distilleries have already been converted to deal with the last item.

“Like the generals of the First World War directing the troops from the safety of horseback far from the front, we now see a failure to lead from the front from today’s generals in Cabinet. We encounter competing interests, factional and departmental tensions and disjointed messages when what is desperately needed right now, not tomorrow or next week, is for government to act as one in the national interest.”

On track with the RMT

 Down the Tube

 

By New Worker correspondent

The RMT is stepping up preparations for ballots for strike action by its 10,000 London Underground members after the tube union accused London Underground bosses of stringing staff along and playing fast and loose after eight days of pay talks failed to secure any kind of meaningful offer out of the management side.

The union is both angry and frustrated at what it sees as blatant delaying tactics. General Secretary Mick Cash warned: “Our negotiators are angry and frustrated at what they see as blatant delaying tactics by London Underground throughout eight rounds of pay talks. RMT is not in the business of being strung along by anyone and the company should wake up, recognise how angry staff are becoming at this cavalier attitude from their top brass and come up with an offer that meets our expectations.”

Death by Contracting Out

By New Worker correspondent

The same union (RMT) has demanded an absolute ban on contracting out and an end to the cuts culture on the railways, along with the replacement of the Office of Rail and Road, a non-ministerial Government Department, with a genuinely independent safety regulator, after the death of a track worker death at Purley, near Croydon.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report criticised “Victorian” methods of protection and the fatigue amongst zero-hours contract staff. RAIB’s report revealed the man was on a zero-hours contract. He was on his own because another worker failed to turn up, and was “probably fatigued and possibly distracted by personal and financial issues”, thus concluding that “the terms of his employment was an ‘underlying factor’ in the incident”.

The Chief Inspector of Rail Accidents continued: “When workers are employed on a casual basis on zero-hours contracts, there can be great pressure for them to try and juggle multiple jobs to make ends meet.

"We are therefore recommending that the railway industry reviews the way it manages the use of staff on zero-hours contracts, to minimise the risk associated with this pattern of work.”

He added: “I believe that the industry should continue to explore ways of eliminating the need for Victorian methods of protection on the twenty-first century railway.”

The RAIB recommended that Network Rail should ensure its labour suppliers improve the way they manage the risks associated with such contracts, particularly lifestyle and fatigue. Network Rail merely said it will “review our standards and our supplier practices”.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash was more specific: “Warning after warning from this trade union on fatigue, zero-hours and casualisation has not been properly addressed by Network Rail or the safety regulator the ORR. As a result, lives are at a risk and that is a scandal. For all the talk of a modern, digital railway those in charge can't even guarantee basic levels of safety for track records.

“If those responsible for protecting the safety of rail workers are not doing their job then we need a genuinely independent safety inspectorate with real teeth not linked to budget controls and the cosy world of the industry players which is the reality of the failed ORR model.”

Going Down the Tube

By New Worker correspondent

London Underground (LU) workers belonging to the transport union RMT have voted by 9–1 in favour of three days of strike action in opposition to safety-critical cuts. The strike, scheduled for 17–20 May, involves over a thousand key LU maintenance and engineering staff who are opposing the drastic cutting of train preparation and inspection schedules, which RMT warns will have a devastating impact on both service reliability and public safety.

The planned action will also include the tube fleet maintenance teams who are imposing a ban on lone working, and a ban on working without valid licences and fire wardens being in place.

Earlier this year RMT warned LU of the problems over its intentions to extend the fleet train preparation schedules. London Underground refused to consult with RMT or to provide the union with full information on all safety aspects.

The union warns that what LU proposes will devastate inspection frequencies beyond all recognition. This will inevitably lead to more train failures in service, putting unacceptable pressure on members and leaving passengers at risk.

Mick Cash, RMT General Secretary, said: “The nine to one ballot result showed just how angry tube staff are at proposals London Underground are attempting to bulldoze through that would decimate the inspection and safety culture on the fleet. Despite that result tube bosses have ignored the workforce and are pressing ahead and it is that intransigence that has left us no option but to confirm industrial action today.”