This article was first published by Green World on Thursday 11th August 2022. You can read the original here.

By Ben Gladwin

The July heatwave broke the record for being the hottest temperatures ever experienced in Britain. With temperatures having reached 40.2 degrees in Heathrow London, people were confronted with heat that was debilitating, dangerous, and even potentially deadly. Climate scientists have long predicted that Britain will experience more intense and frequent hot summers. In the immediate aftermath of the July 2022 heat wave they stated that, due to current models for climate change, the UK can no longer be considered a cold country, recommending that the Government set out a plan to adapt to the new reality of extreme heat. Despite this, our workplaces are still lacking when it comes to providing conducive and safe conditions for UK workers. 

The impact of the July heat wave on schools gives us an insight into how the increasing intensity of summer temperatures affects different workers in a close environment. Schools employ more than teachers; site management, caters, educational assistants and even construction workers are all part of the daily running of schools. Classrooms are spaces which can be quite confined, with up to 30 or more students plus education staff. In hot weather, and if they lack ventilation, classroom temperatures can reach high temperatures with consequences for students and staff. More than that, school catering staff working with hot implements can also add to the pressure of working in heat, and site management workers in outdoor settings also run a risk of exposure to heat and sun.

During the heat wave in July, head teachers and the National Education Union sent a warning to the Department for Education that many school buildings across the country weren’t fit for purpose for working in extreme temperatures due to lack of air conditioning and poor ventilation. 

Given the lack of existing framework, schools were left to their own discretion as to what measures to take such as stopping physical activities such as sports days, providing water for staff and students, and even school closures. For the schools that stayed open, the government inspection body Ofsted announced that inspections would still take place for schools scheduled for an inspection, which even at times of ‘normal’ temperatures add to the stress and workload of school staff. To be inspected in 40-degree heat puts schools under even greater pressure. Although Ofsted stated that schools could request to defer inspections, these requests would be considered they would not be deferred for certain.

All this left schools with a confusing framework with which to decide how to adapt to the heat wave. Some schools closed – the Telegraph reported 200 schools nationally – while others remained open. Perhaps predictably, student attendance dropped with roughly one-third of pupils not attending school. The impact of this on lessons and teachers’ planning would be to add stress as planning for a lesson for 30 pupils, and then only having half turn up means that activities need changing and the lesson needs adapting. 

Consideration needs to be taken too for pupils’ learning if they remain at home during extreme weather events. The pandemic saw schools close and online learning become a substitute for learning in the classroom – this is very difficult to adapt for short-term situations such as heat waves.     

Issues therefore arise around protection for workers in extreme weather – this is crucial, as various health problems can arise if people are exposed to heat for too long. Dizziness, fainting, confusion, and if blood temperature exceeds 39 degrees, there is a high risk of heat stroke. Given the increasing evidence that Britain will experience more extreme and more frequent heatwaves, it would seem logical that the Government puts in place a framework for adapting workplaces. 

Countries within the EU have taken measures – Germany has a defined maximum temperature of 26 degrees whereby the employer must take action such as providing drinking water, although this is not enshrined in law. Depending on the federal state in Germany, schools can close due to hot temperatures – called Hitzefrei, which translates as ‘heat free’ – but this is down to the discretion of the school. Spain has a legal requirement of physical work between 14 and 25 degrees, which, if not met by the employer, can lead to an official complaint by the workforce to the Labour and Security Inspection.

Currently, very few legal frameworks exist in the UK beyond the Government Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Workplace Regulations of 1992. The regulations state that workplace temperatures must be ‘reasonable’, without stating what a maximum temperature would be. Employers are also not legally obliged to send workers home if the workplace is too hot. The Government’s own website recommends a minimum temperature in the workplace where employees are engaged in physical work.

As the example of schools shows, workers will be faced with increasing temperatures and more extreme heat in the summer in the coming decades. Our current legislative framework doesn’t cover the reality of working in a world where summer temperatures can reach the mid to high 30s and, even as we saw in July, low 40s. 

Action needs to be taken to ensure that workers are safe to work in environments which are conducive to such extremes. This needs to include ventilation in areas such as classrooms, as well as a legal maximum temperature beyond which it is no longer considered reasonable to work. The TUC has already called for measures to be taken, but it is up to workers to organise if they want to protect themselves in an age of climate extremes.

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Green Party trade unionists have backed SOS NHS, a new campaign effort pushing for short- and long-term funding for the NHS.

The campaign, launched by Keep Our NHS Public at an online rally on Wednesday 19th January, has set its sights on three key demands: emergency funding to address short-term funding gaps; long-term investment in a publicly-run health service; a pay rise for NHS workers.

SOS NHS has a wide range of backers, from unions including the GMB, PCS, NEU and NASUWT to medical campaign groups including MedAct and NHS Workers Say NO!.

At the rally Green Party Deputy Leader Amelia Womack told supporters: “The quality of your care should not depend on the depth of your pocket. We will keep fighting for the basic principles of the NHS and social care.!

Check out the campaign’s website for more information on how to get involved and show support.

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The theme for the BMA’s Annual Representative Meeting next month is an examination of the critical changes needed to the NHS as it recovers from covid, and, as part of that, the call for the public inquiry of the Government’s handling of the pandemic to begin much sooner than Spring 2022.  The BMA is to undertake its own Lessons Learned inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic and will gather evidence from members across the UK and seek accounts from stakeholders to inform the resulting conclusions and recommendations. 

The impact of the pandemic on healthcare workers has been immense and so motions and debates at the ARM will also focus on valuing doctors through our calls for improved pay as well as addressing the need for substantial staffing increases.

More widely, the conference will consider how to provide better support in the workplace for disabled doctors and improved facilities for doctors who are pregnant and breastfeeding. In addition, there will be motions on a wide range of topics, including recognising and supporting medical student sex workers, training for awareness of hostile environments, public health underfunding, becoming zero-carbon by 2030, doctors’ pensions and awareness of the needs of asylum seekers facing deportation.

There will also be motions on physician assisted dying – last year the BMA carried out a survey of its membership, following an instruction from delegates at its 2019 Annual Representative Meeting (ARM) to poll members to ascertain whether they felt the BMA should change to a neutral position about a change in the law on assisted dying.

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The long process of reducing services and closing hospitals in the NHS has a new name ‘Integrated Care Systems’. Private companies will be represented in new organisations deciding how to spend NHS money. Democracy has taken a back seat while corporate America created the system it will benefit from.

The post Health & Care Bill 2021: the NHS, the law & democracy appeared first on Green Party Trade Union Group.

With speakers:
John McDonnell MPJohn Lister – Health Campaigns Together editorHolly Turner – NHS Nurse & NHS Workers Say NO! #NHSPay15 campaignerMatthew Dore-Weeks – Unite repDiscussion chaired by Alia Butt from NHS Staff Voices *TONIGHT* 27th July @ 7pm – REGISTER:

The post Vital Keep Our NHS Public/NHS Staff Voices Meeting tonight appeared first on Green Party Trade Union Group.

NHS unions have slammed the government’s proposed 3% pay offer for NHS workers on Agenda for Change contracts.

GMB National Officer, Rachel Harrison said:

“NHS staff are on their knees – exhausted, fatigued and anxious – as we look set to enter another wave of the covid pandemic. Staff morale is rock bottom.

“This was the opportunity for Government to turn their clapping in to genuine recognition. Their response is paltry. They have failed spectacularly. NHS workers know their worth and so do the public – shame on the government who don’t.”

Writing to Green Party members the day after the announcement, oncology nurse and founder of grassroots campaign NHS Workers Say NO! said:

“We have been denied proper PPE, overworked, and literally required to put our lives on the line just to do our jobs. This is something that no-one should have to do at work.

“I am so proud of the lifesaving work that over one million NHS staff have done during the pandemic. But at the same time, I am furious at what this government has done to all of us.

“And after all this, the government announced it would be offering NHS workers just 3% as a pay rise this year. After 18 months of the Covid pandemic, I believe that NHS workers deserve a real pay rise.”

Since 2010, most NHS workers have seen their pay fall by at least 10%. Workers on Band 5 of the Agenda for Change pay scale – the band with the most workers on it – have seen their pay fall by more than 15% in real terms.

Agenda for Change is the main national pay scale for NHS workers. It covers over one million staff, including nurses and occupational therapists. It does not cover doctors, senior managers or those employed by arms-length bodies like General Practices and private contractors.

According to the King’s Fund, there were the equivalent of 84,000 full-time posts unfilled in the NHS in England in 2020, leading unions including the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to warn of a structural crisis of staffing in the NHS caused by persistent low pay.

Unions including the GMB, RCN, UNISON and Unite the Union are consulting members on their response to the pay offer.

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The three big issues facing NHS workers today:

The impact on Covid on the NHS workforce has already been dramatic. 1500 NHS workers have lost their lives keeping the public safe and while morale is low, do NHS workers feel they’re being properly equipped with the next wave of the pandemic?

The suggested pay offer for workers was 1% was an insult after years of pay freeze and covid sacrifice. We’ll know soon what the Government is really offering? Will they see sense and grant workers pay justice, or will they cause a crisis in the NHS workforce with more insults?

The new Health and Care Bill, which was passed this week, allows for the most far-reaching selling off, partitioning, and restructuring of the NHS we’ve seen, and poses a serious threat to the founding principles of a universal health care service.

Join us to hear from NHS Staff themselves talking about how these huge issues affect them and our NHS workers and the broader social movements can come together to fightback. Organised by Keep Our NHS Public and NHS Staff Voices.

MEETING JULY 27th 7PM

REGISTER HERE NOW: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMlc-mhqTkrGtx_qvYbJfO6usAqOugyGIsr

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