ATTENTION CWU REPS – caring for your members and yourselves
Health & Safety September 16 2019Practical advice on mental health workplace policies and procedures is now available in a new booklet from the Labour Research Department, reports CWU health, safety & environment national officer Dave Joyce.
“The booklet aims to help health & safety and IR reps make workplaces supportive for individuals experiencing either long-term or short-term mental health difficulties and to ensure that mental health problems are not created by work itself,” explains Dave.
Workplace Action on Mental Health – A Trade Union Guide covers the law on mental health, health and safety legislation and the Equality Act, with details on combatting victimisation and harassment, training in mental health first aid, capability, reasonable adjustments and various other aspects – along with ‘best practice’ guidance and examples of action already undertaken by unions around the country.
“Mental health and ill health may currently be high in the news agenda, but people experiencing mental health problems are still facing numerous difficulties at work,” says Dave.
“In the circumstances, our representatives may well find this guidebook extremely useful – and pages 33-36 feature the CWU, Royal Mail and BT specifically.”
- Single copies of the booklet cost £8.95 but per-copy prices come down with multiple orders. For example, if bulk-buying over 50, the price of each booklet reduces to £5.10 each. See full details here: IMG Workplace Action on Mental Health
“And while caring for your members, please don’t forget to take care of yourself,” says Dave Joyce, highlighting a new CWU guide aimed at reminding all our reps of this.
“Many members come to place demands on their local CWU reps believing them to be capable of delivering all that they want and in their preferred time frame and IR and safety reps are placed much more under pressure and under the microscope by employers as well,” he explains.
“All of these pressures and especially from members in need and distress can create high levels of distress for CWU reps, who deserve to be recognised for their dedication and great contribution but at the same time recognising they are entitled to be able to cut off, have a life of their own and de-stress.”
CWU reps work stress guide is a new, simple guide produced by the health, safety & environment department in conjunction with the UK National Stress Network, which, it is hoped will provide good sound basic advice to all reps.