5. Union action on stress and mental health at work

Unions have long campaigned for work-related stress to be taken seriously by changing the law, and see better regulation, either from Europe or by the UK government, as the most effective means to ensure all employers tackle stress.

Unions have also been at the forefront of workplace action to deal with stress, for example, by negotiating policies and agreements. Unions also support the UK National Work-Stress Network, which organises an annual conference and stress awareness day in November (see final chapter - Further information).

In 2010, general union Unite launched its “Stressbusters” campaign, to encourage reps to raise the profile of workplace stress in the not-for-profit voluntary sector. The union says its 60,000 members in the sector are feeling the increasing pressure of central and local government spending cuts and the pursuit, by some managers, of a ‘more for less’ contract culture.

Rachael Maskell, Unite national officer for the not for profit sector, said: “When Unite surveyed its members in the sector, 92 per cent said that they were experiencing stress at work, so there is an urgency to tackling these issues. The coalition’s vision that the voluntary sector will pick up the services that have been axed by government — without any regard to the financial squeeze many charities are grappling with, and the pressures of long hours, unreasonable workloads, and job insecurity that our members are facing — is misguided.”

Some unions, such as PCS, offer a stress counselling helpline. The union says its reps at the Department of Work and Pensions are reporting that there has been a huge increase in the number of cases involving members with mental health issues. Stress, anxiety and depression being the most common, with some members experiencing severe discrimination in the workplace. A common complaint is that line managers find it difficult to deal with mental health issues highlighting that there is a serious lack of training for line managers.

In July 2010, teachers’ union NASUWT surveyed its members, finding widespread evidence of stress, burnout and depression due to inadequate management support in schools.

Several unions, including UNISON, have developed model stress policies. The National Work-Stress Network is at: www.workstress.net.

At workplace level, many reps report having negotiated for improved recognition of stress and for better policies to tackle it, including more widespread awareness of the Management Standards on Workplace Stress and the need for stress levels to be properly monitored and action taken.

A GMB safety rep at a county council told LRD how reduced workloads were negotiated after the union identified excessive demands, leading to physical problems. One rep in the fire service reported successfully lobbying for stress to be recognised as a workplace illness, so that data on stress absence could be properly collated and the size of the problem recognised.

And one UNISON rep working in the NHS reported active collaboration with the Trust to develop the stress policy, including sitting on the Trust Stress Forum as part of the steering group, being trained as a stress trainer through IOSH and being utilised by the Trust to train managers and to help raise awareness of stress issues.

Stress was the cause of what is thought to be the first-ever strike by call-centre staff in 1999, when 4,000 CWU members in BT’s customer service centres took action. Their grievances included insufficient staffing and tight targets, which prevented them from dealing professionally and effectively with customers.

More recently, PCS members in the 37 Jobcentre Plus call centres in England, Scotland and Wales took strike action over working conditions including excessive monitoring.

And in 2005, journalists at Sheffield Newspapers walked off the job three times a day in a dispute over their workload and the non-replacement of staff. Members of the NUJ media union voted overwhelmingly to take a 10-minute screen break every morning, an hour’s lunch break every day and another screen break every afternoon, as well as leaving work at their normal finishing time and refusing to work extra hours.

Negotiating a stress policy

Paper policies on stress, with some provision for counselling are quite common in large workplaces. However, these do not necessarily translate into quality primary prevention strategies that can deal with stress before it gets to epidemic proportions. Union agreements are one vital way to help workers suffering from stress to tackle the issue in their workplace.

The CSP physiotherapists’ union has produced some useful guidance on negotiating stress policies. It says a policy should involve:

• recognition by the employer that stress is an organisational problem;

• recognition that employees are experiencing work-related stress;

• employer commitment to fulfilling their legal obligations and reducing occupational stress;

• finding out the extent of the problem, usually by a joint management/union anonymous survey;

• negotiation of a prevention of stress policy;

• clear identification of preventative measures and reporting systems; and

• clear and sympathetic ways of helping employees experiencing stress.

Model stress prevention policy

Unions have developed a variety of model policies, adapted to the particular needs of the industries where they organise. However, there are a number of common headings that union reps need to be aware of, either when they negotiate a new policy or audit an old one:

• a statement of intent and commitment from senior management;

• definition of stress — emphasising organisational causes;

• statement of the law with respect to stress;

• application of the policy to all workers, including employees, contractors and agency staff;

• stress policy treated as part of health and safety, with links to disability and other relevant areas;

• clear lines of management responsibility to tackle stress, its causes and effects;

• specific roles for union safety and other reps;

• priority given to measures to prevent stress — tackling the causes;

• information and training for all workers;

• a commitment to change the duties and working environment of workers who become ill with work-related stress;

• modification of performance management systems for those suffering from stress;

• modification of sickness absence monitoring for those with stress;

• relocation, reduced hours and phased return to work implemented with the consent and approval of sufferers, not imposed from above;

• use of best practice from the HSE, Acas and other official bodies;

• paid time off for counselling services;

• independent and trained counsellors; and

• regular review of the effectiveness of measures at least annually.

Agreements using the Stress Management Standards

Many unions have used the HSE’s Management Standards to negotiate national and local agreements on stress. For example, the NASUWT teachers’ union says it “promotes the HSE Stress Management Standards, which define a desirable set of conditions to work towards. The HSE also has indicator and analysis tools to define the gap between where schools and colleges are now and where they should aim to get to” (Representatives’ Bulletin, Stress in the Workplace, 2008).

TUC guidance

The TUC guide to the Stress Management Standards is useful for negotiating an agreement. It argues that the first step for an organisation implementing the Standards is to set up a group to oversee the stress risk assessment process. This can be the existing safety committee or a group set up specifically for this purpose. There should be union involvement.

It warns that the process will probably talk a long time. It means that union and/or safety reps need to be given sufficient time off to deal with the additional demands.

The TUC also recommends that all members of the group receive training on the Standards right from the beginning. The TUC runs a short course programme that includes stress at work and using the Standards.

Unions can also do their own surveys locally to find out the levels of stress and the causes. The TUC has produced a simple Stress MOT that safety reps can use (see the Appendix to this booklet).

The Better Health at Work Initiative

The Better Health at Work Initiative is an innovative Northern TUC health and wellbeing project involving a partnership between the region’s NHS Primary Care Trusts, the Strategic Health Authority, the TUC and local employers, aimed at improving worker health and well-being outcomes through collaboration. Volunteer ”Health Advocates” are appointed from within the workplace. Anyone can volunteer, but in practice, volunteers are very often union safety reps.

The first step under the initiative is to carry out a health survey amongst the workforce. Based on the survey results, strategies and initiatives on relevant issues such as smoking cessation, Ride to Work schemes, blood pressure checks, cancer awareness sessions and stress-busting workshops are offered to the workforce.

The aim is to provide support, advice, information and guidance on achieving better health at work. More than 100 regional employers have become involved, with a strong focus on mental health. Mental Health First Aid courses are run for reps, to help them identify and support colleagues who may be suffering from stress.

Carrying out a workplace survey

Unions can devise their own stress surveys, either as part of HSE’s Stress Management Standards process or as a separate exercise. The TUC’s Stress MOT has been widely used by safety reps.

The TUC Stress MOT

The Keighley Work Safe project developed a stress tool for the TUC, known as the Stress MOT that has two elements:

• a people survey designed to assess whether people’s work is making them stressed; and

• an organisation survey which checks how well employers are managing the risks of stress among their workforce.

Workers completing the people survey are asked to say how much some of the known causes of workplace stress are affecting them.

Safety reps who complete the stress MOT are asked to draw a workplace stress map, noting the percentages of workers in each area of the workplace who feel that stress is causing them harm.

“Pass” or “fail” the MOT?

If a workplace “fails” the MOT, the TUC advises safety reps to press for a proper risk assessment and stress audit to be carried out. As a guide, the TUC suggests that a workplace has failed its stress MOT if:

• more than a fifth of respondents exhibited one or more health symptoms in the ‘‘how are you?’’ section of the people survey; or

• there are any stressors where more than a quarter of respondents circled the ‘‘5’’; or

• there are five or more ‘‘fails’’ in the organisation survey.

What if your workplace “fails” the MOT?

The TUC advises reps to write up a report for fellow safety reps, the union branch, safety committee or a meeting with management, including the stress map. The report could include:

• the percentage of people who believed that stress levels were unacceptable, and how many have the symptoms of stress;

• using each heading of the “what makes you stressed at work” section, set out which stressors got the highest number of “5s”. These are the main problems that managers need to address;

• a draft action plan (with a realistic timetable for implementation) on how you think excessive workplace stress should be tackled to present to your employer;

• a request for a working group to be set up to do this work. Make sure the group itself has a deadline for agreeing the action plan;

• a request to the employer to fulfil their duty to assess the main risks and make sure that safety reps are consulted on the risk assessment process and action plan; and

• a request for the employer to provide training for managers and employees on dealing with workplace stress and its victims.

Health workers in Dudley Primary Care Trust completed the stress MOT. Over 69% felt stressed at work and 71% said the level of stress was causing them harm.

Action by union and safety reps

Many unions have resorted to industrial and other forms of action to force their employer to deal with stress-related issues.

Industrial action

In April 2011, PCS members in the 37 Jobcentre Plus call centres in England, Scotland and Wales took strike action which had massive support. The union reported that almost all its members refused to go into work, with some new members signing up to join PCS on the day.

The action was a result of having to work in a target-driven culture where workers are monitored by computer every minute of the day, including how long they take for toilet breaks. The working conditions had resulted in high levels of stress and sickness, with demoralised staff leaving at “an alarming rate”, PCS claimed. Since April 2010, more than 20% of the total workforce of 12,800 have left, the equivalent of 2,700 employees.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said the strike: “... sends a clear message that we hope the employer understands and responds to positively. It can’t be right that staff are being forced to get callers off the phone as quickly as possible just to meet arbitrary targets. Our members care about the lifeline services they provide and they want to be able to help people properly, not have to fob them off.”

The BBC unions BECTU, the NUJ and Unite balloted for strike action over cuts and redundancies in 2007. Unions made the point prominently that stress was a key issue in the dispute — for those threatened with redundancy and for those left with greater workloads. This pressure helped persuade the BBC to agree to a national framework to tackle the immediate issues.

UCU members in further education took strike action on pay in 2008, but the union argued that dissatisfaction with the working environment, including stress, contributed to lecturers’ anger.

PCS civil service workers took strike action in 2007 over job cuts, privatisation and pay and conditions. In some branches such as Brighton DWP, the mood for action was strong because of particular discontent over the sacking of staff off sick due to the stress.

Support for individuals suffering from stress

Union reps can also get their employer to provide help for individual members on how to cope with stress and associated conditions.

Under the Jobcentre Plus stress policy, negotiated with the civil service union PCS, line managers are expected to:

• encourage a working environment in which stress can be discussed openly and frankly and the concerns of staff addressed directly, sympathetically and positively;

• give any member of staff showing warning signs of stress the opportunity to talk in a sympathetic and constructive atmosphere;

• take any reasonable steps to minimise their problems, including appropriate training and reviewing their work demands; and

• offer avenues of support when a person suffering from stress is ill and away from work and provide support and rehabilitation for some time after their return to work.

The TUC wants employers to have comprehensive rehabilitation plans for all work-related health issues, so that workers returning to work after prolonged sickness absence can be reintegrated properly.

Many employers provide support to staff through Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), which offer help lines, counselling and sickness absence monitoring. Unions and others have raised concerns about EAPs, in particular about the lack of fixed standards for EAP providers and the qualifications and training of counsellors. The Court of Appeal ruling in Sutherland v Hatton (see Chapter 3) emphasised the need for counselling services. A number of unions have engaged with providers to negotiate improvements.

Some unions provide confidential help lines for members suffering from stress at work.

Other things unions can do

Unions want workplaces to be a good place to work for everyone, and there are things they can do to improve the workplace environment for everyone. This will not only support people who already have a mental health problem, but may also help others from developing them in the first place. The following TUC list indicates what union reps can do:

• Ensure that as many reps as possible have had some training on mental health at work issues. Try to involve members with mental health problems in this training.

• Train one or two people in each branch or area to be mental health champions. These people can have a more thorough understanding of mental health problems and how people can be better supported in the working environment.

• Network with other unions to share knowledge and good practice.

• Review policies and procedures to ensure they are not discriminating against members with mental health problems.

• Develop a union position statement about being positive and supportive of members with mental health problems, and back this up with events and networking.

• Support employers to set up internal or external support meetings with people with mental health problems reporting concerns and recommendations to managers.

• Encourage employers to set up a formal Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).

Returning to work

Many workers suffer depression on returning to work after a period of prolonged absence from both physical and mental illnesses, new research by Loughborough University for the Mental Health Foundation has shown.

Its report, Returning to work, found that nearly half (45%) of those who returned to work after a physical illness, such as chronic back pain, cancer or heart disease, reported mild to moderate symptoms of depression. And three-quarters of people who had been off sick with a mental health condition reported symptoms of continuing depression.

Researchers concluded that many employers could do more to help those returning to work after sickness absence. They found that shorter working hours, fewer tasks and support from colleagues were some of the key issues that were beneficial to the employee’s mental health. Training was also essential to help improve understanding of the issues.