Dear Member

We have been in contact with Dundee City Council and asked several questions on your behalf.

Unfortunately, there has not been enough guidance, support or additional resources provided to you by your employer, and we now understand that some of you may have been put at risk by being sent to households where Coronavirus is present. This is completely unacceptable.

You need to be able to keep yourselves fit and healthy to ensure you can continue to look after our most vulnerable. If you feel that you have not been provided with the appropriate PPE, you can refuse to put yourselves in danger. This must be done responsibly and appropriately.

This is an unprecedented situation which needs unprecedented thinking from managers on how they will get appropriate PPE to you. Having hand sanitiser on order is simply not good enough.

If you encounter any problems, then please let us know and we will support you as your Union. We have informed DCC that we would be informing you of your rights under the Health & Safety Act 1974.

Section 44. provides employees with the ‘right’ to withdraw from and to refuse to return to a workplace that is unsafe. … means employees don’t have to wait until they (or someone else) suffer injury before they can take action to get suitably safe working conditions.