TUC - PM must “crank up” pressure on employers to publish risk assessments as more people return to work

The TUC has today (Tuesday) called on the Prime Minister to “crank up” pressure on employers to publish risk assessments as he announces further plans to reopen the economy. 

Responding to Boris Johnson’s speech on easing lockdown measures, the union body says too many firms are flouting government safety guidance.  

The government’s “Covid-Secure” guidance says that employers with over 50 staff are expected to publish their risk assessments on their own websites.   

But a number of large employers, who despite having staff already working onsite, have failed to publish risk assessments on their websites as the government has asked. These include Amazon and The Range. 

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: 

“Re-opening the economy must go hand-in-hand with protecting workers. But we are already seeing examples of companies playing fast and loose with workers’ safety.  

“The government must crank-up the pressure on employers to publish their risk assessments, so that people have the confidence that it is safe to return to work. This is particularly important for vulnerable and shielded workers. 

“Voluntary publication of risk assessments isn’t enough. The government must change the law to require bigger employers to publish them.   

“Getting this right is in the national interest. If rogue employers get away with cutting corners it puts us all at risk of a second spike in infections.”    

The TUC believes the government should take a tougher approach and introduce a legal requirement that employers publish their risk assessments on a central government portal.   

This is in line with the gender pay gap reporting requirements, and would allow workers, customers and the wider community to check that employers are operating safely.   

COVIDsecurecheck.uk  

The TUC has launched its own online platform to collect risk assessments in one place and identify employers who have failed to publish them.  

COVIDsecurecheck.uk will be used to monitor good and bad safety practice across different sectors as the economy reopens, and to put pressure on government and employers to keep their workers safe. 

The TUC is inviting all workers to use the site to check if their employer has published their risk assessment, and to find out more about safety at work.