{"id":21399,"date":"2020-05-14T07:59:10","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T06:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=21399"},"modified":"2020-05-13T18:32:48","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T17:32:48","slug":"mental-health-tops-workers-lockdown-worries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=21399","title":{"rendered":"Mental health tops workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 lockdown worries"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 worried about their mental health have skyrocketed since the lockdown began \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a new Unite survey has shown.<\/p>\n

Dealing with employees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 mental health challenges on this scale is not going to be easy and Unite is calling on employers to take proactive and immediate action, following the call for workers to return to where they can, and working in \u00e2\u20ac\u0098revised\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 conditions.<\/p>\n

Unite surveyed 22,000 workplace reps. Just under two thirds (65\u00c2\u00a0per cent)\u00c2\u00a0of respondents\u00c2\u00a0recorded that they had to deal with an increase in members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c2\u00a0mental health concerns.<\/p>\n

Concerns over pregnancy, maternity, paternity, adoption and other family leave (40\u00c2\u00a0per cent) came next, then employers or managers exploiting the isolation of individual members (33\u00c2\u00a0per cent), followed by bullying (26 per cent) and finally issues related to disability (24\u00c2\u00a0per cent).<\/p>\n

Unite understands mental health issues have been caused by a variety of issues, including loneliness and isolation during the lockdown (especially if a worker is having to shield), excessive work pressures, financial concerns and fears about returning to work.<\/p>\n

The union has produced a\u00c2\u00a0mental health guide for members<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0during the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

Taking what Unite\u00c2\u00a0 calls a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098proactive lead\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 employers must carry out risk assessments with Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s involvement for returning workings, ensuring the issues identified by the survey are dealt with transparently \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0 with workforce pandemic support measures in the short, medium and long term.<\/p>\n

It is essential that employers understand what is causing the workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 mental health issues \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and then provide specific assistance on issues \u00e2\u20ac\u201c such as debt and financial concerns. It might be there are more specific mental health issues and specialist help from organisations like\u00c2\u00a0the NHS self-referral<\/a> service and Mind<\/a> should be available.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite members operate across many sectors,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMany are key and frontline workers whose mental health may well have been affected when dealing with the challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor workers who have been furloughed or working from home, problems of isolation, loneliness, concerns about debt and fears about returning to the workplace are all issues that affect workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 mental health.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

Risk assessments imperative <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cartmail continued, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is imperative that employers undertake risk assessments on workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 mental health and implement the required actions to protect workers. We urge them to\u00c2\u00a0do this\u00c2\u00a0while actively encouraging and assisting workers to raise mental health concerns and then ensure they receive the help they need.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is also crucial that employers understand that mental health issues will not disappear overnight and that additional awareness and assistance remains in place for the foreseeable future,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she concluded.<\/p>\n

The survey also\u00c2\u00a0found\u00c2\u00a0that while the majority of respondents (65\u00c2\u00a0per cent) reported that employers have behaved responsibly, nearly one in five (18 per cent) reported that their employer had acted recklessly, for example in failing to supply PPE.<\/p>\n

Additionally,\u00c2\u00a014\u00c2\u00a0per cent of respondents to the survey recorded\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bmy employer is taking advantage of the crisis\u00e2\u20ac\u0165\u00c2\u00a0including attacking terms and conditions and forcing workers to take holidays. Cartmail described this as \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdeeply troubling.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe figures of employers acting recklessly and looking to take advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic are deeply\u00c2\u00a0troubling.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is especially worrying given that Unite activists tend to operate in more responsible workplaces and the figure for workplaces which do not have a union presence will inevitably be far higher.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ: The full survey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s findings <\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

READ<\/strong>: Survey author Unite head of research John Earls\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 piece<\/a> in Left Foot Forward<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By UNITElive team @unitetheunion<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dealing with employees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 mental health challenges on this scale is not going to be easy and Unite is calling on employers to take proactive and immediate action, following the call for workers to return to where they can, and working in \u00e2\u20ac\u0098revised\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 conditions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1308,1],"tags":[1295,111,404],"wps_subtitle":"Unite: employers must take immediate and proactive measures","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21399"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21414,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21399\/revisions\/21414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}