Dear member,

Following on from yesterday’s email and after the meeting attended by your reps, DCC were not willing to listen to or address the serious concerns with Health and Safety.

Gravediggers should be attending. BUT there must be upto date Risk assesments and all other required PPE and restrictions should be in place for you to do your job safely.

We have issued a collective grievance to DCC for breaches of H&S this morning. We will be sending out an electronic version for you all to sign later today

Raising these issues under H&S means that they must be addressed and dealt with ASAP.

You can ask your employer to provide you will a key workers letter if they believe you are one.

Irrelevant of that there still needs to be a new Risk assessment which has not happened. Please read all comms that we send as they provide dets of what is expected from your employer.

Finally, you will be paid for anytime away from work due to this. Just like you all were last year, and we have passed the dets of these managers to DCC.

Please note we will be sending more H&S comms today. So please read these.

Please press release below –

GMB Scotland have today, accused Dundee City Council of putting its workers and the public at risk. The Union has submitted a collective grievance citing Health and Safety legislation to insist that GMB union members in the Environment Department are stood down and that management have done nothing to mitigate the amount of workers out doing non-essential work. GMB Scotland have accused the leader of the council of ‘rank hypocrisy’ when it comes to observing the current lock down rules.

Helen Meldrum, GMB Scotland Organiser said,

“The First Minister has stated that we are in lockdown and that employers should not be looking for loopholes to try to have as many people as they can at work, yet that is exactly what Dundee City Council are doing. The guidance does state that outside work can continue but it also states that they should have the ‘minimum levels of staff physically present to maintain production and services’. That is the guidance for work critical to the national infrastructure of Scotland yet workers are currently being made to attend work to carry out work that cannot even be carried out in winter, whilst their manager works from home. He also felt the need to antagonise our members by stating he had managed to build a deck at his own home during this lockdown. That is astonishingly arrogant.

John Alexander as the leader of Dundee City Council has been out in the press accusing local people of flouting the rules. He either doesn’t have a handle on what is happening on his watch, or is simply willing to point fingers without taking any responsibility. Local Government should be setting an example, not putting people at risk of transmission.  It is rank hypocrisy.

These managers are being completely irresponsible and GMB Scotland will no longer accept them playing fast and loose with our members health. I also understand that some workers have contracted covid 19 at work and we will hold them liable and accountable. A worker from a recycling centre in Perth and Kinross has very sadly passed away – how many working class lives are too many for this council and the Scottish Government to care? Elected members must step in and do the right thing if the officers of the council won’t – send every non-essential worker home to protect them, the public, and the NHS.