13 September 2004 - Maternity Health and Safety Issues: Employers Awareness Questioned by USDAW
Health and Safety for pregnant women within
the retail trade, once more has been highlighted by The Union of Shop,
Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), this time in the form of a survey
conducted in the early part of this year, namely, USDAW Survey -
Delivering for Pregnant Women.
The survey, given to around 4,000 women, asked of their experiences of
pregnancy at work, of which 1,239 completed and returned their forms.
After analysis of the survey, USDAW believes it provides evidence to show
that some employers may, either by ignorance, or even disregard for the many
risks involved in provision of work tasks for pregnant employees, may cause
adverse effects to the health and well-being of employees and their unborn
child.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), have clear guidelines, particularly
on Risk Assessments, and USDAW, having 337,000
members working in areas such as retail, call
centres, food manufacturing, distribution, transport, dairy process etc. is
in a very good position to check whether these HSE guidelines are being
implemented by employers.
Examples of findings by the survey are as follows:
-
an encouraging 38% of pregnant women felt their employer became more helpful and supportive, 62% reported a negative change in attitude
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many retail employers are unaware of what constitutes 'suitable alternative work', a common response is to assign a pregnant retail worker to checkout duties (the average checkout operator lifts 1 tonne every 4 hours)
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over 70% maintain they either did not get a risk assessment, or didn't know if they had
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40% of pregnant women told Usdaw their employer either did nothing or made an unhelpful suggestion when they brought to their employer's attention to the fact that they were experiencing difficulties with certain aspects of their job because of pregnancy.
John Hannett, Usdaw General Secretary commented:
"Many pregnant women had a positive experience and felt supported by their employer. Usdaw is extremely concerned, however, that the examples of good practice are outweighed by the bad experiences. Many women told us they felt undervalued, ignored, humiliated, even made to feel guilty about being pregnant. Women who asked for help were told to stop complaining, repeated requests for maternity uniforms fell on deaf ears and women were excluded from decisions on the basis that they were pregnant.
Where we found good practice, Usdaw will be working with employers to help encourage its spread. But equally we're already approaching retail employers to ask them to work with Usdaw to tackle the many problems highlighted by this research".
Head of HSE's Health Management Unit, Colleen Bowen, had also commented previously on this subject:
"Pregnancy is not an illness. Pregnant women should not be signed off sick for work-related ill health problems. New and expectant mothers are entitled to a change in working conditions, should be offered suitable alternative work, or if that's not possible, suspended from work at the same rate of pay if risks to her or her child's health and safety have been identified. Employers have a legal and moral duty to protect women of childbearing age from hazards and risks in the workplace. HSE will investigate complaints made to them and take whatever action is deemed necessary under health and safety legislation.
Setting up a maternity policy is not difficult, the new guidance tells you how to do it, and gives greater benefits to employers and employees. If employers fail in their duties they could be found in breach of health and safety legislation and be prosecuted by HSE. They could also be taken to industrial tribunals where they could face substantial compensation payouts".
Further information can be found on the HSE web site - Health and safety for new and expectant mothers
The USDAW survey can be found by clicking this link: Delivering for pregnant women
Article by Alexandra Johnston
