‘Return to UCL?’ Extraordinary General Meeting, Tue 19 May, 3-4pm

• have not been given a risk assessment for your building, department/research group or activity, signed off by union health and safety reps, and had a chance to discuss it with your line manager
• are medically vulnerable, or are shielding a vulnerable member of your household
• cannot get to your workplace on foot, by bicycle or by your own car

1. The Government’s announcement on 10 May of an active promotion of a return to work by the government, regardless of the daily death rate still remaining high, the absence of an effective test, trace, and isolate regime, and the announcement that schools in England will open on 1 June for some primary school children.
2. Images of packed commuter trains and tubes in and around London within a day of this announcement.
3. That London is at the epicentre of the UK pandemic in terms of both cases and deaths.
4. UCL UCU survey data indicating that some two thirds of research staff have a journey of half an hour or more on public transport.

1. UCL Management's stated commitment to staff that returning to work will be carried out in a considered and careful manner and involve consultation with unions and staff
2. The TUC letter to the Government stating that there will be no return to work until it is safe to do so.
3. Over 500,000 signatures on NEU's petition against opening schools unsafely.

UCL UCU recognises that the responsible position of any public authority is to ensure the safety of all its citizens. Returning to a UCL workplace in the absence of a vaccine involves two specific types of risk: 

1. Risks to the individual: i.e. the risk that an employee on returning to work contracts Covid-19 and passes it on to their household.
2. Risks to wider society: the risk that an employee on returning to work spreads Covid-19 to other workers and public service users, contributing to a second surge in cases (including through unnecessary journeys on public transport).

1. That we oppose returning to workplaces until it is safe to do so.
2. That every staff member deserves to be safe at work and on their journey to and from work, and must be instructed and supported accordingly. Members of their household are also entitled to be safe.
3. Risk assessments for every single building (including sub-areas), and organisational unit (department, and sub-units, e.g. each research group and individual project, each teaching module and cohort) must be carried out, in consultation with union reps, prior to their reopening/resuming.

3. UCL must ensure that staff are supported to complete a personal risk assessment for themselves, their household and their commute.
4. Clear guidance about dealing with ‘the public’ (including research subjects and students) must be issued to frontline staff and managers.
5. Managers will be responsible for ensuring that risk assessments are communicated to all staff, consulted with staff and followed.

4. Basic principles of risk assessments must be followed, noting the risks to individuals and society. If risk cannot be eliminated it must be mitigated.
5. Only essential services should be run. For research projects, Covid-19 research projects and those that are strictly time-limited could be deemed ‘essential’.

5. Where work can be carried out in a safer way it should. Thus where work can be done from home it should be done from home, with appropriate DSE assessments in place.
6. Adaptations to face-to-face activity could include: using screens, masks, gloves, wash stations; limiting public numbers and enforcing social distancing measures.
7. There can be no safe return to hot desking, where desks and IT equipment  are shared between staff. Staff must be allocated their own desks and equipment.
8. Workers who refuse to return to work if they believe it is unsafe for them to do so should not be disciplined. Where a dispute arises it should be handled through mediation and discussion and not through disciplinary measures. Alternative actions may include offering temporary alternative work and telephone counselling.

ENDS

(d) in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent and which he could not reasonably have been expected to avert, he left (or proposed to leave) or (while the danger persisted) refused to return to his place of work or any dangerous part of his place of work, or

(e) in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent, he took (or proposed to take) appropriate steps to protect himself or other persons from the danger.

 

Extract from TUC summary of recommendations on safe return to work

• No worker should face a sanction for refusing to work in an unsafe workplace
• Every employer must carry out a specific Covid-19 risk assessment.