5. The workplace and the working environment

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Key changes and developments since last year

• the government rejected a recommendation by the cross-party environmental audit select committee of MPs that it should consult on introducing a maximum workplace temperature limit;

• the government has announced it will change the building regulations to outlaw low-level letter boxes following a long-running campaign by the communications CWU union;

• union campaigns to fight “period poverty” and promote “period dignity” have resulted in free sanitary products being provided in many workplace toilets;

• new research finds the gig economy could be increasing the risk of road traffic accidents;

• Scotland’s road safety laws will be strengthened by the introduction of drug-driving limits and roadside testing on 21 October 2019;

• a bus driver and former general Unite union rep has won an unfair dismissal claim after being sacked for “implausibly” testing positive for cocaine in a random drugs test;

• the TUC has published new guides on drug testing and alcohol and drug problems in the workplace;

• offshore unions RMT and Unite are calling for a full independent public inquiry into helicopter safety.