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Irresponsible companies are exploiting looser lockdown regulations to drive thousands of nonessential workers to sometimes busy workplaces, with little chance of the nation’s safety watchdog taking enforcement action.
Analysis by the Observer shows that Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors have not delivered compliance notices to companies for Covid security breaches since the country entered the last lockdown, despite being contacted 2,945 times for security issues in the workplace between January 6 and 14. Overall, only 0.1% of the nearly 97,000 Covid security cases dealt with by the agency during the pandemic appear to have resulted in a security enhancement or ban notice, and not a single company prosecuted for violations of related security laws. with Covid.
This comes as the latest surveillance data from Public Health England suggests that workplace infections increased when people returned to work in January. The number of coronavirus outbreaks in workplaces increased by nearly 70% in the first week of the national shutdown, with 175 clusters of Covid cases reported in English workplaces, not including residences, hospitals and schools. A new survey by the TUC shows that less than half of workers are in workplaces with secure Covid risk assessments.
In the past week, the government has turned its attention to some people’s breaches of social distancing rules, from posting a video of police approaching a person in a parked car to an ad warning that “take a coffee can kill. ” . But experts and unions have warned that unsafe workplaces may be playing a bigger role in fueling the pandemic.
“If the government is increasing enforcement, ministers should start with employers who violate Covid security rules,” said TUC Secretary General Frances O’Grady. She called for large increases in resources for the HSE to prevent dishonest employers from getting away with putting staff at risk.
Non-essential shops are supposed to be closed and most workers are expected to work from home to reduce transmission of the virus, but unlike the first national shutdown, all businesses can provide click-and-pick services in England. This is in contrast to Scotland, where non-essential retailers were banned on Saturday from allowing customers to pick up products ordered online.
Store attendant Mike Richards, who works at a luxury fashion store in central Birmingham, was laid off during the first national shutdown in March, but was ordered into work last week to make sales calls. together with his colleagues under the guise of clicking and collecting. “We got an email out of nowhere saying, ‘You have to go back to the store to sell.’ This is a luxury fashion brand, how can it be essential? “
Richards (not his real name) had to ride the train to work and was told to call customers who had previously purchased luxury handbags. “That day there were eight of us in the store. We were masked but there was hardly any social distancing, ”he said. “Every facet of what we are doing could be done in the comfort of our own homes. But we are forced to enter. It is an irresponsible act, for the sake of a small profit for a company of billions of pounds. “
He added that staff had received letters in case police stopped them on the way to work. “It says, ‘We’re doing click-and-pick and home delivery.’ Nowhere does it say, ‘This person is selling in the store,’ which is what we’re really doing. “
Professor Susan Michie, who sits on one of the government’s Sage subcommittees, said people were being forced to go to workplaces unnecessarily amid a raging pandemic, which has pushed the NHS to the brink in many places. from the country. “I am contacted every day by distressed people who are forced to go to workplaces, who feel they are completely unsafe. They have to choose between the risk of serious illness or death and losing their job, not to mention the risk of spreading the virus on the way to and from work.
He added that click-and-collect services were providing transmission routes for Covid. “They should all be shut down unless absolutely essential,” Michie said.
In addition to cracking down on click-and-collect abuses, Scotland’s Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon also imposed a legal obligation on employers to ensure that people can work from home whenever possible. This is in contrast to England, where companies only have to facilitate working from home.
Administrator Sandra Jackson, who works for a small vehicle supplier in Essex, was ordered to come last week, even though there has been a coronavirus outbreak, and just over a third of the workforce tested positive in December. and January.
“I worked from home for a day and then I got a message saying, ‘This is not working. We will not allow you to work from home. I am absolutely furious about it. “
Traders in England can still do all kinds of work in people’s homes. Electrician Stuart Collins was ordered to install smart meters in multiple homes every day. “If people had lost the supply or if it was a new connection, they would not have any problem,” he said. “But changing existing meters for smart meters is not essential. All we are doing is helping this virus to spread. They are putting financial gain before people’s lives. “
Professor Stephen Reicher, who advises both the UK and Scottish governments, called on UK ministers to follow Sturgeon’s example. “People have to have the right to work at home if they can,” he said. “These are not wild and confusing ideas. They are happening in Scotland. They could be done very easily. But the UK government seems to want to keep its head in the sand. “
Michie said that more companies were allowed to trade in England and more workers were going to workplaces because the government’s lockdown rules were so broad that almost any company could claim it was essential. “The government has handed the responsibility to employers to say whether they are essential or not,” he said.
The HSE said it had expanded its proactive work to verify, support and advise companies on public health guidance. He added that he had made more than 32,000 visits to the site during the pandemic. “Inspectors keep going, putting employers in place and checking that they are complying with health and safety laws. Our role in contributing to the national response to reduce Covid-19 transmissions and support economic recovery has been widely recognized, ”said a spokesperson.
A government spokesman said: “The law is clear in the sense that people can only leave home to work if they cannot reasonably work from home. We have worked with unions, businesses, and medical experts to produce a comprehensive Covid safe guide so businesses that are allowed to stay open can do so in the safest way possible for workers and customers. “
