Return to work, but only when it's safe

Gabe Gooding, National Assistant Secretary

One of the things that comes from a pandemic that has lasted two years is that there is plenty of time to think about, and plan for, if and when your employees will return to in-person work. You would think that, sometime during that period, someone other than the Union would have given some thought to how to keep staff and students safe on campuses, and what employer obligations are to their staff.

Shamefully, employers appear to have either not given that a thought or have ignored their obligations to staff in a blind rush to return to 'vibrant campuses.'

Vibrant campuses are important to the educational experience but they can’t come at the expense of the health and welfare of the staff.

Almost uniformly across the board we have seen universities fail the most basic test, and their most basic obligations under work health and

safety laws across the country. And it’s not like it’s a hard concept – when considering a change to working arrangements that may impact on the health and safety of employees universities need to consult with them.

That’s BEFORE they announce the decision, not after; and it’s definitely not token consultation. Universities will need to: supply employees with an assessment of the risks and how the university intends to manage the risks; provide all relevant information to allow employees to respond; put in place reasonably practicable measures to control the risk; and ensure employees have an opportunity to contribute to those decisions.

Proper risk assessments that detail hazard and risk, rate the risk and the consequences, and apply proportionate control measures – and that do not concern themselves with items of no relevance to health and safety such as student satisfaction, or reputational risk – are as rare as hen’s teeth (in fact I haven’t seen one but I’m prepared to concede that there may be one out there). Those that have not been prompted by union intervention are even rarer.

In other words, your employers have legal obligations to you and many are failing them.

It appears that the decisions to return to campus have been made on a number of grounds including strategic and marketing considerations, and that the primary duty to the health and safety of staff and students has not taken priority.

University managements are either woefully ignorant of their legal obligations or have chosen to ignore them – either way it is damning.

Some of the reasons for returning to campus have been laughable – for example the declaration by one university manager that the reason that professional staff who don’t directly interact with students need to return to campus include, that they are necessary to make the campus feel active, and that the cafes aren’t viable without more staff on campus to order coffees.

How does it feel as a professional staff member to know that you are being placed in harms way in part to be a prop in a marketing photo and to spend your money in cafes?

In the past few weeks I have been talking to members about their very justifiable concerns and explaining their rights and what their employers need to do. Along the way some of the things that I have heard have been hair-raising.

The immunocompromised worker who does not have an outward facing role who is directed to return to campus irrespective of the risk they face. The worker whose air conditioning is not working who is told to put in a maintenance request (and presumably keep working in the unventilated workspace until maintenance arrives). The staff of a unit delivering online teaching ordered to return to work in an inadequately ventilated open plan office even though their work is entirely on-line. The refusal to support casual workers to be vaccinated or when they isolating. And the many who have reported genuine concerns about their mental health, particularly anxiety, where they have immunocompromised or otherwise vulnerable household members whose supervisors have told them that is 'no excuse for not coming to work'.

Quite apart from the WHS obligations that may be being breached, simple humanity would have dictated other responses from management. It’s really quite simple – universities can go ahead with return to campus, many will welcome that, but they need to be prepared to be flexible to meet their employees’ needs, and follow the necessary legal health and safety obligations. That’s all we are demanding. Return to work when it is safe. It’s a simple test they should all have passed. •