Why have we not heard complaining fro people working in private sector?

[mywayhighway]

You’d think the only people working at the moment were public sector. DH and I have luckily worked throughout the lockdown, DH is in construction, they have cracked on and found a way around every Covid19 related issue quietly and without fuss. Exactly the same in my workplace (manufacturing). Mainly it’s not rocket science. You don’t hear complaints from supermarket staff or smaller shops keepers.
I’m getting increasingly angry at sectors refusing to get back to work and it’s always public sector jobs where they have big unions and guaranteed wages and no threat of being laid off. Things need to dramatically change, people need to accept the risks and get back to work or hand their notice in. Schools are a prime example and next it’s going to be NHS therapies. Can’t they see they’re refusing to do their job is ultimately going to cause more deaths and have a much detrimental impact than Covid19 long term? Why are public sector workers so special?

Construction has been an absolute clusterfuck.

www.constructionnews.co.uk/agenda/investigations/construction-coronavirus-villain-or-saviour-of-the-economy-02-04-2020/

Loads of supermarket staff have been posting on here...

@mywayhighway that’s what they are trying to do - but who would you trust; a group of Independent doctors (BMA say returning to school is unsafe) or the totally incompetent, lying bunch of cockwombles who have sacrifiés the elderly and poor in their pursuit of neo-liberal economics? Your workplace is assessed as safe - schools are not...

I agree as do most of the public but expect to get piled on for stating the obvious.

Asos warehouse staff are not happy.

www.gmb.org.uk/news/asos-warehouse-suffers-suspected-coronavirus-outbreak

@Peggysgettingcrazy - My point being that you said you feel schools and families should be able to make their own risk assesments. So do that, make a risk assesment and meet one of your child's friends and parents at a park.
I know, but I'm also very law-abiding and it's against the rules.
If the government issues guidelines, whether it be opening up schools or meeting up in groups, I can;t help but adhere to them. If lockdown has taught me anything about myself is that I'm a stickler for rules

Yes children are receiving unequal education now. But recieving unequal education whole increasing risk isn't any better.
I don;t understand, are you saying that ALL children shouldn't have a chance of being educated at this time? If a school can make a risk assessment that risks are low, why can't some children return?

I don't think schools shouldn't be open. But I cant see how it can happen and still be low risk.
I'm no expert, but I would imagine that would depend on the school environment and the numbers of staff shielding, etc.

You shouldn't be expected to risk your life, to fulfil your employment
I don't think anyone is asking this of anyone - everyone should weigh up their personal risk and act appropriately.

though teachers probably need to accept going to work even with the risks it brings

Do people really think like this, given that the risks teachers would be undergoing are genuinely to the wider society, acting to spread the virus through society before test, track and trace are even in place, on top of the potential risks to their own life and/or those of their family

There is some evidence building that the children are less likely to suffer serious results but are therefore even more likely to be asymptomatic spreaders of the virus.

Some people scoff at health and safety but really, are we asking teachers put themselves and society at risk here?

I work in the private sector, our large corporate got going to beef up the WFH infrastructure from February, we had a load trial of every one WFH at once and have almost all been WFH ever since.

Everyone from the CEO downwards has been the health and safety of the workforce and explicitly of their families and households as their top priority. Management explicitly directed to check in with everyone individually, weekly team meetings and informal coffee/drinks groups.

The purpose of WFH is explicitly to clear the site to allow the few people who do need to be on site to social distance as much as possible. Only people who really have to be on site are allowed to go into work. Everyone going onsite has their temperature taken and refused entry if there is any chance that they may be infected. We are all on our honour to comply in everyone's interest. We are being paid.

Extensive use of person to person contact to see who needs what support and internal social media to share tips and tricks. Lots of teams who cannot work banding together to volunteer in their community.

No unions, instead a recognition that without the workforce, we don't have a business: this is simply good business practice. We operate within the law, we provide products and services that the public are interested in buying. If we didn't exist, life would continue with no great loss to society.

I am gobsmacked by how people in the public service are being treated. People providing a necessary service for society are being told they are required by society to save lives without the PPE to keep them alive. We appear to be suggesting that teachers should put themselves into a situation where social distancing is neigh to impossible. Schools, particularly primary schools will act as Petri dishes to grow and spread the virus

What goes this say about our priorities as a society and as a nation?

We are not reading a quiet recognition of the potential risks and a sober reflection on what needs to be done to mitigate those risks. That is what is needed, rather than an emotional call to doing ones duty for children.

G4S prison workers are pissed off.

www.gmb.org.uk/news/g4s-sick-pay-fails-prison-officers-among-most-likely-die

I've been working all the way through as well (industry supply chain sector) and it has been easy for me. I see no-one on my drive to work, and I sit on my own in a huge office. The other staff are in different parts of the building, and we are all able to keep our distance from one another. It's been a piece of cake to be honest.

However, my relative works in a shop and he says it's a nightmare, and I certainly wouldn't want a public-facing job at the moment.

Would I be happy to go back to work if it involved being in close proximity to adults, or a classroom with small children? No, I don't think I would. If I belonged to a union, then I would hope that they would do everything they could to ensure health and safety at work is maintained.

You shouldn't be expected to risk your life, to fulfil your employment
Dramatic statements like this are going to destroy us. Use some common sense.

I’m private sector, have been at my desk in the office throughout this. Our office normally has 180, currently there are on average 4 of us in. No major changes (except all documents are now scanned to post boxes which is incredibly time consuming).
They are not bringing people back until September/October except for those really, really struggling.
Everyone is WFH with perhaps 15 furloughed.
I’m thankful to be working, I miss many of my colleagues and I’m doing a lot of extra menial tasks (like printing off everyones stuff that needs sent in the post). We’re also having to deal with customers who still think its fine to turn up at our office with their paperwork 🙄.

I'm a public sector worker. I have worked right the way through. Anyone who thinks that there's no job losses, no people being laid off, and life is cushy in the public sector hasn't tried working on it. And nobody I know has refused to work. Despite the fact that we work directly with the public and with those most at risk. When was a brick likely to give you covid-19?

If you have a bone to pick with SOME teachers, then don't tar all public sector workers with your prejudices. And what about all the parents refusing to send their children to school? You could have a go at them.

All these people not wanting schools to open. Will you feel the same in a year's time when there's still no vaccine and the "big bad outdoors" is no safer? Or in 2 years time??

Hopefully by then our monitoring, track and trace will be better. But # need to be much lower than currently for that to be a realistic possibility.

This

My DH is public sector and has carried on working all the way through. He heads to his “office” in our spare room at 7.30am. Comes out for lunch - about 40 minutes - and then disappears again until around 5pm, sometimes later. I only see him if I take him a coffee.

I am public sector (school) and have been working on a rota which included the holidays and actually meant I’ve worked on Good Friday, Easter Monday and the VE Day holiday, I will also be working May half term including the Bank Holiday.

I usually only work part time but my rota days are full days. I am working the same hours as my colleagues BUT as they are usually full time I am working a higher percentage of my normal hours than they are. I am also still dealing with emails every day (which teachers &TAs don’t) and have washed all our spare uniform and PE Kit. No one is getting extra pay to cover the fact that we have worked bank holidays and school holiday time which we are not usually paid for.

We have no PPE apart from the gloves we use for first aid, we cannot get hand sanitiser. There is no social distancing. I WANT to get back to normal at work BUT I also don’t want to get sick and bring it back to my DH and DC.

BAE interesting article. They shut down for three weeks and rejigged everything. My point is it seems unions were on board and safety is obvious priority. 100s of jobs would be at risk if they weren't.
www.business-live.co.uk/manufacturing/how-bae-systems-bringing-forward-18261078

My husbands a private periodontist and he has no idea when he's going back to work. Private practices will go under soon because they just can't work. Nothing is being done it's very very worrying

@Clavinova his job is to protect his members and as he's from an ethnic minority himself he knows how difficult to stand up to bosses without being bullied out of a job or worse die while working.

Funny thing is due to working for a nasty employer I've always been in some union or association that helps to protect my employment rights. One of my siblings joined a union, and they worked with company to protect as many jobs as possible by making it cheaper for the company to operate.

To those saying teachers are not so much worried about their own/their families risk of catching it but are worried about the increase in transmission rates I call b's. There's is no evidence that children pass it on to any serious degree. Schools were open in the peaks infection weeks in March and there wasn't hoards of hirspots around schools with teachers and pupils dropping like flues. Far from it. You are not keeping the country safe by refusing to teach at least own your fears and examine yours, and the Unions, true anti_government, anti-Boris agenda.

"yours, and the Unions, true anti_government, anti-Boris agenda"

What on EARTH makes you think that teachers are not currently working? They've been working the whole time - either supervising keyworkers' children, or providing work for children schooling at home.

Surprisingly, they don't particularly want to go back into an environment with pretty unknown risks both to the children and themselves.

You have a very poor attitude.

Ah yes, must adhere to a pro government mindset - I mean, they've been exemplary in handling this pandemic, doffs cap