Survey leads to mental health guide

Mental health tops workers’ concerns during the lockdown, a new report from general union Unite has found.

Its survey of 22,000 workplace activists found just under two thirds (65%) of respondents were dealing with an increase in members’ mental health concerns since the lockdown began. Isolation and loneliness, excessive work pressures, financial concerns and fears about returning to work were all to blame. It also found that, although a majority of respondents (65%) said employers had behaved responsibly, nearly one in five (18%) said their employer had behaved recklessly, by, for example, failing to supply personal protective equipment (PPE)

A Unite mental health guide, Under the strain of a pandemic, says employers must take a proactive lead in monitoring and protecting workers’ mental health during the lockdown, as they prepare to return to work, and while they readjust to the workplace. They must carry out risk assessments, with Unite involvement, implement the required actions to protect workers, and understand what is causing mental health problems.

https://unitetheunion.org/media/3013/202-unitementalhealthguide-20-04-09-v01b.pdf