Prospect at Adastral Park - Health and Safety Survey

Results of the Health and Safety Survey

On 11th May fifty Health and Safety Surveys were handed out to Prospect members, as they went into the Hub for lunch. This questionnaire was circulated as part of my TUC Health and Safety Stage 2 Course.

Of these fifty surveys, 36 were completed and returned to me. This represents a 72% return rate which is very good.

Members were asked to identify the main hazards of concern to them at their workplace. The responses are summarised below:

Please note, the total is more than 100% because people were encouraged to select up to five items of concern to them.

This indicated that overwork or stress, and long hours of work are major concerns, with a significant number of people being concerned about the use of display screen equipment.

However, the main concern – listed by 69% of people – was overwork and stress. These people went on to answer a second question, which asked which issues were causing this overwork or stress. The results for this second question are summarised below:

This indicated that people felt long hours, their work load, cuts in staff and change were all contributing to the stress and overwork they were experiencing. The implication being that, while staff are being cut, their work is being passed to the remaining staff who are then working longer hours to enable them to complete all the work.

Given the current economic climate, there was a suggestion that ‘everybody was the same’. However, in 2010, the TUC carried out its eighth to find out the concerns across a range of industries. The top five concerns of Prospect members in BT were compared with those reported by the TUC. This comparison is shown below:

While the results for all of the top three items are higher in BT than in the TUC’s broader survey, the long hours of work is worrying three times as many people in BT as in the general population. Clearly this is not something that is affecting people in other British industries in the same way as it is affecting managers in BT.

From this short survey, it seems that stress and, in particular, long hours of work are a major cause of concern to Prospect members in BT. This result will now be used to further develop Prospects policies and campaigns, both locally in Adastral Park, and across the whole of BT.