CWU Puts Spotlight On Call Centre Stress
A major survey to establish stress levels in Virgin Media, Everything Everywhere and TalkTalk call centres was launched by the CWU yesterday (Thursday 27th September).
The Unions website news item explains that the major exercise in information gathering around the issue of work related stress will be based on questions devised by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and stems from a Government initiative designed to help both employers and employees tackle the problem.
In a bid to achieve the highest possible participation, the survey has been directly emailed to all members in Virgin Media, Everything Everywhere and TalkTalk for whom the union holds email addresses, with paper versions and an online survey accessible via the union's website also being provided.
CWU's Deputy General Secretary Andy Kerr explains:
"Call centres have long been renowned as stressful places to work. Typically that's because they are pretty controlling environments in which employees are monitored extremely closely against a range of targets.
The trouble is that much of the evidence about the stress this generates is circumstantial - especially in workplaces where the union doesn't currently have recognition - and that's why we're focussing this survey on three major companies in which the CWU has fast-growing call centre memberships but no formal recognition.
By achieving a clear and impartial picture of what's actually going on on the call centre floor, the CWU can start the work of pinpointing the main stress trigger points - and that, in turn; will provide pointers as to how unhealthy stress levels can best be tackled."
However, within the health and safety community, there are those who believe that it is too late when ‘unhealthy stress levels’ are evident, and that the factors which cause work related stress are well known. They believe that work related stress has to be ‘designed out’ by good job design in the first place, adequate work-flow control provided to individual workers themselves, employee determined rest break periods and adequate staffing levels.
Many also feel that despite the HSE stress surveys being in use for many years, neither they nor employers have used them adequately in such a way as to mitigate the levels of work related stress being experienced in British workplaces. Indeed it has now overtaken Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) as the major occupationally caused illness in this country.
Despite this, the Union says that because the HSE stress survey is scientifically respected, and widely used and recognised by employers, it is hoped that Virgin Media, Everything Everywhere and Talk Talk will engage positively with the union when it comes to discussing the findings.
Andy Kerr explained further:
"Stress is the number one cause of workplace absence, costing organisations millions of pounds each year and contributing to illness and depression, so tackling it is in everyone's interests.
The survey we're using has an analysis tool, provided by the HSE, which scientifically analyses the results and benchmarks them against an average of results gathered in over 130 other organisations.
We intend to share the results of the three parallel surveys we're running amongst our members in Virgin Media, Everything Everywhere and TalkTalk with the respective companies, the aim being to start a conversation on this very important issue.
The more responses we get, the stronger the results will be and the better chance we have of making the positive changes our members are crying out for."
The results of the survey will form part of the CWU’s response to the International Call Centre Action Month being co-ordinated by UNI Global Union.
This year UNI is using its annual focus on call centre issues to explore problems experienced by call centre workers stemming from performance management - and specifically on the stress and anxiety caused by call handling times and other performance measures, along with the use of scripts in call centres.
Members and non-members alike in Virgin Media, Everything Everywhere and TalkTalk who wish to participate in the survey should click on the relevant link below - safe in the knowledge that their feedback will be kept completely anonymous.
If you want to take the survey, simply click on the company logo within the article on the CWU website, accessible by clicking on the pic above to get started with the survey.
Expressing a personal opinion, Chris Ingram, Unionsafety web editor commented:
“Despite the fact that Work Related Stress was evident way back in the days of dumb computer terminals in the late ‘70s, employers have failed to seriously address the issue and design both jobs and workplaces in such a way as to mitigate the physical and mental health stresses and subsequent associated illnesses suffered by their employees.
People are now managed as machines are managed, with jobs and work processes designed as if run by machines; with every last detail of output and control measured and determined in the same way as one would a machine.
In my view, one of the main reasons why this issue has not been adequately addressed, certainly in the UK, is that work related stress in call centres in particular; is always tackled as an industrial and occupational related issue, and not as a health and safety issue; which of course it is.”
He continued:
“Until work related stress in call centres is addressed mainly as a health and safety issue, based on scientific facts relating to the causes of stress at work: bad ergonomics, bad job design, absence of employee work flow control and of associated computer programmes and equipment designed properly to facilitate effectively the task they are designed for; nothing will change as nothing has so far in over 40 years.
Trade Union industrial relations officials, based within occupational hierarchies, will never in my view be able to adequately address the issues of work related stress; simply because they are not the experts in this field to the same degree as Trade Union health and safety officials are.
It is also a fact that the use of health and safety legislation is hardly ever used in situations were occupational based trade union officials are solely involved in tackling this issue with their members’ employers. The lack of knowledge of H&S legislation, and how it relates to tackling this problem, is once again in my view, the sole reason for this.”
Chris added:
“The evidence in relation to workplace stress, its triggers and the effect upon workers is a given, and NOT circumstantial.
The degree, however, to which work related stress is experienced within specific individual workplaces, may be viewed as anecdotal, purely because it is not in the interest of the employer to determine the extent of the problem. It is also a health issue which few workers actually understand, recognise in themselves in advance of becoming ill, or know how to address when they do become ill.
Again because health & safety officials and USRs within Trade Unions are usually not utilised in dealing with members who seek support when suffering from work related stress; individual’s Unions and their branches are often less effective in supporting the members concerned and seeking appropriate remedial action from the employer.”
Chris concluded:
“When it comes to work related stress, prevention is better than cure, but this is something British employers simply ignore, in preference to wringing every ounce of productivity from their individual employees; merely to discard them through the use of inadequate occupational health services and punitive HR policies when they inevitably become ill through work related stress.”
Do you have a view on this issue and wish to comment?
You can do so by filling in the on-line form which can be found here
If enough opinions are received, they may well be responded to in a follow-up article later this month.
Source: CWU / UNI Global
