{"id":23403,"date":"2020-08-27T16:50:49","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T15:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=23403"},"modified":"2020-08-27T16:50:50","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T15:50:50","slug":"up-your-game-arriva-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=23403","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Up your game Arriva\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 call"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Bus company Arriva has been accused of a lax response to public and worker safety\u00c2\u00a0when\u00c2\u00a0one of its bus drivers tested\u00c2\u00a0positive for the Covid-19\u00c2\u00a0virus.<\/p>\n<p>Unite which represents over 60,000 bus drivers throughout the UK, raised its concern following the news that\u00c2\u00a0a driver based at Arriva\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Southern Counties Northfleet depot in North Kent had tested\u00c2\u00a0positive for Covid-19\u00c2\u00a0on Tuesday August 25.<\/p>\n<p>On discovering that they were infected, the driver\u00c2\u00a0acted responsibly and\u00c2\u00a0immediately contacted\u00c2\u00a0their employer. The union is concerned that the bus company did not act with sufficient swiftness to draw this\u00c2\u00a0news to the attention of workers and passengers.<\/p>\n<p>The driver had been in work the previous day and spent 45 minutes in the staff canteen and also spent time on a ferry bus with other drivers while being taken to their route.<\/p>\n<p>Unite estimates that at least 8-10 people had been in contact with the driver for\u00c2\u00a015 minutes or\u00c2\u00a0more.\u00c2\u00a0 The union\u00c2\u00a0advised the company that, in keeping with health\u00c2\u00a0and safety best practice,\u00c2\u00a0these\u00c2\u00a0workers should self-isolate on full pay at least until they could be tested and undergo\u00c2\u00a0a full consultation with a medical professional.<\/p>\n<p>This approach was rejected by Arriva who stated that its premises are \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Covid secure\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 so the risk of infection was low.<\/p>\n<p>The failure of Arriva to take proactive measure has caused considerable alarm and distress among bus drivers at the depot.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe lax attitude of Arriva to this Covid-19 positive case is alarming,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Unite regional officer Dave Weeks.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00c2\u00a0means that potentially\u00c2\u00a0other workers and the general public are now at greater risk of exposure\u00c2\u00a0to the infection.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe drivers at Northfleet now believe that management are not interested in their health and well-being and are more interested in profits than people.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat made the case even more alarming is that Arriva\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s senior management did not appear to know what policy and procedures should be followed in such circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bArriva has to up its game.\u00c2\u00a0 It must\u00c2\u00a0ensure that drivers have not been exposed to Covid-19 and that they are not potentially\u00c2\u00a0spreading it.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFurther, any worker who has been exposed to the virus in the\u00c2\u00a0workplace should be fully supported by their employer to take the appropriate public health precautions, and not suffer a financial penalty as a result.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnless companies take a responsible attitude and ensure that workers can self-isolate and are fully paid, then workplace transmission of Covid-19 is going to increase. \u00e2\u20ac\u015b<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u00c2\u00a0By Barckley Sumner <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bus company Arriva has been accused of a lax response to public and worker safety\u00c2\u00a0when\u00c2\u00a0one of its bus drivers tested\u00c2\u00a0positive for the Covid-19\u00c2\u00a0virus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1308,1],"tags":[628,176,1295],"wps_subtitle":"Arriva accused of lax response to Covid-19 bus driver","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23403"}],"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=23403"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23405,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23403\/revisions\/23405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}