Workers right to sit down

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) reports that two union reps at the BBC appear to have established a precedent by winning the right for thousands of retail and catering workers to sit down at checkouts.

NUJ rep, David Campanale and broadcasting union BECTU activist, Brian Dale, contacted the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after the Aramak contract catering company removed seats for workers running the BBC tea bar at its broadcasting studios in White City, London. The move meant they were left standing for hours without a break, with some working up to eight hour double-shifts.

The HSE inspector who investigated the complaint, Andrew Verrall-Withers, ordered the chairs to be restored to the catering staff and said that “the same principle applies to other workplaces.”

The inspector referred to the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 which state that: “A suitable seat shall be provided for each person at work in the workplace whose work includes operations of a kind that the work (or a substantial part of it) can or must be done sitting.”

Commenting on the outcome of the case, Dale said that although the decision had taken two years: “The result now has national ramifications for similar workers exploited in the same way by their employers.”