Bridgwater Trades Union Council Attacks Sick-Pay Scandal
Bridgwater firms overload local health services by refusing sick pay to their workers
Bridgwater Trades Union Council has decided that something must be done to publicise and shame the scandalous number of Bridgwater firms that do not have sick-pay schemes, and who thus encourage workers to spread infection and illness among colleagues and the general public.
The Council at its October meeting heard reports from delegates that staff in many local firms are being forced to attend work when they are often suffering from transmissible illnesses such as flu.
These ailments are then passed onto the public, with the result that local GP surgeries and Bridgwater hospital are dealing with many more cases than would happen if these workers could afford to stay at home to recover.
Glen Burrows, Trades Union Council delegate from the RMT (Bristol Rail) said:
The most immediate problem is the first three days of sickness. I believe that in Bridgwater now only a minority of employers pay sick pay for these crucial first three days' absence. While managers might be pleased that costs to their firms are therefore cut, our hard-pressed NHS services, and public health as a whole, suffer for some firms� greed and obsession with maximising profit. It means also that firms which do have a decent sick-pay scheme are subsidising those who don't, when their own workers go sick- so everybody loses out.
The Trades Union Council is to undertake a survey of local firms' attitudes to sick pay, and it is expected that large or profitable firms that fail to pay their staff for those first three days, will be �Named and Shamed.�
For further details contact Secretary Dave Chapple: Telephone, 01278 450562 E-mail: dave@davechapple3.wanadoo.co.uk
Affiliations welcomed from all Trades Union Branches in the Bridgwater, Highbridge, West Somerset and Central Somerset areas,@ 10p per member