{"id":22565,"date":"2020-07-06T11:28:01","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T10:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=22565"},"modified":"2020-07-06T11:28:02","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T10:28:02","slug":"covid-crunch-time-talks-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=22565","title":{"rendered":"Covid crunch time talks tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Crunch talks are due to take place tomorrow (Tuesday aJuly 7) to resolve health and safety concerns over the lack of Covid-19 prevention measures at the Crayford refuse depot which serves the London Borough of Bexley.<\/p>\n<p>Pressure from Unite has prompted the talks with controversial outsourcing giant Serco which runs the council contract.<\/p>\n<p>This follows criticism from the Health and Safety Executive over the failure to have adequate social distancing measures in place at the Thames Road depot, Crayford, Kent from where about 200 employees work.<\/p>\n<p>The HSE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s criticisms from an inspection visit in May included that cleaning was \u00e2\u20ac\u0098not robust enough\u00e2\u20ac\u2122; inadequate monitoring of those visiting the site; and people passing on the stairs with no social distancing.<\/p>\n<p>Unite also said that there had been two separate serious injuries recently when one member had his foot run over by a lorry and another nearly lost the use of his fingers.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat we are seeking from tomorrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talks is a dramatic step-change for the better in the health and safety regime which we think should mean a change of management at the Crayford depot,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Unite regional officer Ruth Hydon.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 lives have been put at risk due to managerial incompetence. Many members are on \u00e2\u20ac\u0098poverty wages\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and have been working right through the pandemic ensuring that the refuse of Bexley residents is collected regularly \u00e2\u20ac\u201c so, at the very least, they deserve the best Covid-19 preventive measures in the depot and their working environment when they are on their collection routes.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe HSE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s damning inspection report was a marker that Serco urgently needs to get its health and safety act together \u00e2\u20ac\u201c there needs to be a radical change of culture in this area. Cost should not be a factor when combating coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI do not say this lightly, but the workforce at Serco Bexley has completely lost confidence in the local management\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability to be responsible for their safety,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Hydon.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 125 members working on the Bexley contract took a day-and-a-half of strike action over the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098dire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay they receive from Serco \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but called off further industrial action as the lockdown came into force in March. The refuse workforce was earning about \u00c2\u01414 an hour less than their counterparts in Greenwich.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>By Shaun Noble <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crunch talks are due to take place tomorrow (Tuesday aJuly 7) to resolve health and safety concerns over the lack of Covid-19 prevention measures at the Crayford refuse depot which serves the London Borough of Bexley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1308,1],"tags":[1295,290,349,135,582],"wps_subtitle":"Unite angry over lack of health and safety at Bexley refuse depot","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22565"}],"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=22565"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22567,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22565\/revisions\/22567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}