RMT on staff isolation exemptions

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said:

'RMT will give consideration to proposals from companies on critical workers exemptions but nobody should be under any illusions about how fraught with difficulty and potential danger any system will be to operate in practice.

'All workers have the right to work in a safe system and environment that is properly risk assessed with proper controls. Our members in workplaces where pinged staff are exempted will clearly be subject to an elevated level of risk as the alerted staff would normally be isolating for very good reasons.

'There is a real danger of a headlong rush into these new measures driven by this inept government which could make a bad situation even worse.

'Before any implementation employers need to produce proper risk assessments agreed with the union that consider and control the enhanced risks to all staff and ensure that the principle objective of workplace safety is maintained and fully enforced.'