{"id":29560,"date":"2021-07-22T16:48:43","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T15:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=29560"},"modified":"2021-07-22T16:48:45","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T15:48:45","slug":"clear-leadership-needed-from-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=29560","title":{"rendered":"‘Clear leadership’ needed from government"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leading union, is warning that frontline workers are becoming increasing exasperated with the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failure to get a grip on surging numbers of Covid-19 infections, which has the knock on effect of requiring hundreds of thousands of workers to self-isolate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The union, which represents tens of thousands of workers in the haulage and warehousing sectors, issued its warning after stories emerged of empty supermarket shelves as a result of the high number of workers being forced to self-isolate and the ongoing shortage of HGV drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s national officer for drivers and warehouse staff Matt Draper said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members are sick and tired to the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s piecemeal approach to resolving the problems in the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorkers don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t blame the NHS app for requiring them to self-isolate, they blame the government for the rise in infections, which has been made far worse by its totally misguided decision to end all legal restrictions,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAlready our members are reporting that companies are reducing safeguards in the workplaces such as enhanced cleaning regimes, which is dangerous and is a result of the mixed messages that the government is issuing on a daily basis,” Draper continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAllowing frontline workers such as lorry drivers not to self-isolate if pinged may alleviate short-term supermarket supply issues but it will do nothing to reduce infection rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat is needed is clear leadership from the government which includes workers needing to be paid properly to self-isolate, masks need to be made mandatory once again on public transport, retail and hospitality venues and an urgent U-turn on the decision to end the supply of free tests to employers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Draper went on to say, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt must not be forgotten that the haulage industry was already in crisis due to driver shortages, before the pingdemic struck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government has ignored repeated warnings that the industry was already struggling due to the pandemic and Brexit which has led to a sharp decline in the number of drivers,” he continued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile years of driving down pay rates, excessively long hours and entirely inadequate welfare and rest facilities have made the industry unattractive to new recruits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has been warning the government of these problems for years but rather than acting upon them it has chosen not to listen.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Barckley Sumner<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leading union, is warning that frontline workers are becoming increasing exasperated with the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failure to get a grip on surging numbers of Covid-19 infections, which has the knock on effect of requiring hundreds of thousands of workers to self-isolate. The union, which represents tens of thousands of workers in the haulage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1295,1639,922,1582,1169],"wps_subtitle":"Workers frustrated and angry as government fails to get a grip of pandemic and \u00e2\u20ac\u0098pingdemic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29560"}],"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=29560"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29562,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29560\/revisions\/29562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}