DEALING WITH FATIGUE

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: april 2010 :: RMTnews 13 This year’s RMT Health and Safety Conference in Doncaster again attracted an excellent number of delegates from across the sectors that the union organises. The event ran under the banner “Fatigue – I’m sick and tired of it” and the guest speakers were chosen to pick up that theme. Conference chair Gregg Hewitt and senior assistant general secretary Mick Cash opened the meeting and it was straight down to business with Michael Woods, Head of Operations and Management Research at the Rail Safety and Standards Boards opening up from the platform. He outlined a range of projects and research that his organisation is involved in around fatigue management . He openly identified a flaw in his RSSB’s approach in that not all of the project groups that they convene include full trade union representation. Much of Michael’s presentation focussed on work around sleep deprivation and approaches that were being taken to examine causes and solutions with the emphasis on drivers. This was a point picked up by delegates who pointed out that tiredness and fatigue were also issues for guards, other members of the train crew, station staff and the infrastructure workforce. Michael accepted that his organisation had done no work on fatigue as it affects OHL crew and Network Rail maintenance – a glaring gap and delegates left him in no doubt about the importance of making sure it is addressed. Throughout the conference CIRAS – the rail industry’s confidential reporting system – ran a stall and their publicity material on how to use their services was well received – CIRAS can be contacted through www.ciras.org.uk OFFSHORE Next up was Rob Miles a principal specialist inspector at the Health and Safety Executive. Rob’s specialist area is in offshore but he addressed a broad range of issues and even managed to incorporate RMT’s taxi membership in his presentation. Rob talked about the relationship between the long hours culture, tiredness and fatigue and inefficiency – having tired staff doing safety- critical jobs is not only dangerous but also doesn’t get the best out of the workforce. He closed his speech by urging members to make sure that all incidents and potential incidents are properly reported. With the issues thrown out for discussion the point was made again from the floor that there is a massive contradiction in employers, like Network Rail, talking the talk on safety and fatigue while at the same time planning to get rid of 1,500 safety critical maintenance staff. Similar points were made on job cuts at the train operating companies and specifically attacks on the important role of the guard. WELFARE Conference moved on to motions from branches. Key decisions included unanimous support for a proposal to include the word “welfare” in the title of the Health and Safety conference and for a motion condemning Network Rail for expecting signallers to attend training the morning after they have completed a late turn. BLACKLISTING A crucial motion on the blacklisting of trade union health and safety representatives kicked off an angry debate with widespread condemnation of organisations recently exposed for keeping data bases of trade union activists with the purpose of denying them employment. RMT members have featured on those blacklists. Gregg Hewitt spoke in the debate – attacking those involved in the blacklisting industry and demanding proper punishments rather than the slaps on the wrist that have been handed out so far. The point was made that you cannot have effective health and safety without having effective trade union organisation and the blacklisting industry was designed to block exactly that. The conference wound up with a motion on seafarers and the working time directive – an issue that RMT continues to campaign strongly on with a public and parliamentary campaign aimed at tackling the high levels of fatigue amongst our seafarer members. DEALING WITH FATIGUE The union’s annual health and safety conference in Doncaster gets to grip with issue of fatigue at work