Union secures mental health first aid agreement with Royal Mail

The CWU communications union has reached a major agreement on mental health first aid (MHFA) training with the Royal Mail Group (RMG). The initiative is part of a wider five-year mental health strategy named Because healthy minds matter. This also includes, for example, a whole office group stress risk assessment tool, jointly developed by the company, the CWU, and the CMA managers’ section of the Unite general trade union.

In this latest initiative, RMG agreed to provide MHFA training to around 10,000 managers, 5,500 CWU members who are first aid volunteers, 150 CWU area health and safety reps, and 700 health and wellbeing ambassadors, most of them CWU reps. The training aims to increase their mental health awareness, skills and confidence, so they can help when they notice signs of poor mental health. It will be provided by in-house, accredited, licensed MHFA instructors who have completed the MHFA England Trainer’s Course.

• A new Labour Research Department (LRD) booklet, Stress and mental health at work – A guide for trade union reps highlighting examples of union action to prevent work-related stress will be published later this month.