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UNISON survey leads to stress action

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A UNISON survey of stress problems experienced by council staff in Glasgow has resulted in the employer agreeing to implement a 'prevention and control' action plan. UNISON City of Glasgow branch used the Health and Safety Executive's stress management standards as the basis for the survey. The initiative was prompted by concerns raised by UNISON members about the effect spending cuts were having on workloads and workplace pressures. Among other findings, almost a quarter (23 per cent) of respondents said they were always, often or sometimes bullied. UNISON branch health and safety officer, Scott Donohoe said: 'We had a 96 per cent response rate, which was excellent. Unfortunately, a lot of the members' responses were in the red, meaning that work stress was a big issue and that urgent action was required.' He added: 'After presenting our findings to the employer, we agreed that a couple of focus groups, consisting of employees, members and safety reps, would be set up to discuss the results of the survey and identify stressors. As a result of the focus groups, the employer completed a risk assessment and produced a work stress action plan to implement necessary 'prevent and control' measures.' He said the stress campaign 'has been successful in recruiting new members and activists. Our next step is to review the risk assessment to ensure that the 'prevent and control' measures have been implemented and are still relevant, and widen the work stress campaign to include other employees.'

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