“Climate leave” needed 

In September 2018, during Storm Ali, Unite member and engineer Matthew Campbell was killed by a falling tree after being sent to work in Slieve Gullion Forest Park. 

In January of this year, two-thirds of Unite members who had to work outdoors during Storm Éowyn did not feel that their employer had taken all reasonable precautions to make work safe.

Despite growing evidence that the climate crisis, coupled with environmental degradation, is set to increase the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, our health and safety legislation is not in keeping with the science.

The Health and Safety At Work (NI) Order was brought in 1978 and the Employment Rights Order in 1996. Neither do enough to protect workers.

Today, in Stormont’s Long Gallery, Unite will be publishing the results of a survey conducted after Storm Éowyn. We will also be launching a set of proposals designed to keep workers safe during extreme weather events.

The event is being sponsored by MLAs Phillip Brett and Emma Sheerin and will be addressed by Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald.

There is a growing political realisation that workers will not tolerate being asked to pay the price — in terms of their safety or their pockets — for a climate crisis not of their making. If that realisation is not translated into concrete action, talk of a ‘just transition’ in relation to the climate crisis will be empty words.

The day before Storm Éowyn struck on January 24, siren alerts were sent to every mobile in Northern Ireland warning of potential danger to life and advising people to stay indoors.

Yet nearly a quarter of those who responded to Unite’s survey said their employer did not provide timely information on closure, working-from-home or payment arrangements.

Of those not required to work on the day of the storm, a quarter were told to take the day as annual leave, sick leave or time-off-in-lieu — shifting the cost of closure onto workers.

Nearly a third of those whose workplaces remained open had to arrive early or leave late to avoid the storm. This often meant extending their shifts for several hours without compensation. This is exploitative.

Of those who went to work on the day of the storm, as it was deemed essential by their employer, almost three-quarters said they did not feel safe.

While Unite’s survey findings make stark reading, they understate the challenges faced by workers because the survey was confined to Unite members who enjoy the ‘union safety premium.’

Unionised workplaces with union-trained health and safety representatives are safer workplaces.

In fact, Unite and our shop stewards intervened repeatedly to ensure our members were safe and paid as usual during Storm Éowyn and its aftermath.

What about workers in non-unionised workplaces? What about young workers, migrant workers or those in precarious employment?

Robust health and safety legislation protects all workers, but the most vulnerable workers benefit the most. In protecting them, we protect our communities against the negative impacts of extreme weather.

Unite’s proposals aim to create a science-based health and safety framework to protect all workers from the impact of extreme weather events while also ensuring that they are not financially penalised and are properly supported.

In addition to mandatory ‘extreme weather’ risk assessments and alert-dependent closures, with all non-essential work ceasing during ‘red’ alerts, we propose statutory maximum working temperatures depending on the type of work and working environment.

Crucially, Unite is demanding an explicit prohibition on any attempts to make workers pay for weather-related closures by insisting that they take the time as unpaid leave or similar.

Instead, we are proposing a new ‘climate leave’ provision modelled on measures adopted in Spain following last year’s devastating Valencia floods.

This would allow workers to access up to four days’ paid climate leave if extreme weather makes it impossible to travel to and from work, or if they need to address urgent weather-related domestic needs.

After four days, companies should be able to access government support as part of a package of temporary suspension measures. Provisions for such action established during the Covid public health emergency should be extended to extreme weather events resulting from the climate emergency.

Robust legislation requires robust and transparent enforcement. That means explicitly tasking the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland with enforcing relevant legislation and holding employers to account.

All workplace accident investigation findings should be disclosed to survivors, victims’ families and their trade unions.

For the HSENI to be effective, it must enjoy the confidence of workers. That is why three seats on the HSENI board should be reserved for trade unions, and a provision should be made for ‘roving’ trade union health and safety inspectors with a right to workplace access.

We have a chance to climate-proof our health and safety legislation and ensure that Northern Ireland is best in class when it comes to protecting workers from the impact of extreme weather events. Let’s seize that opportunity.

By Susan Fitzgerald, Unite Regional Secretary for Ireland

This article first appeared in the Belfast Telegraph on Monday (June 16)