Last year the Scottish Government set up a working group to look at call centre safety.  This group, made up of academics, trade union representatives and others, achieved some excellent concessions which have kept many call centre workers safe up to now.

The Covid-19 variant has made further safety measures increasingly important.  We must ensure that call centre employers meet their responsibilities and assume the safety duties that are incumbent on any decent employer to deliver. 

The STUC, with Call Centre Collective and Better Than Zero, have sent an open letter to the Scottish Government demanding that the following happens:

1)      An audit to establish which contact centres are requiring their employees to attend their workplaces.

2)      For those contact centres where worker attendance is required, that justification for this continued attendance is provided.

3)      Where a satisfactory justification cannot be provided, employees must be working from home.

4)      A legal requirement for revised Risk Assessments (RAs) with trade union and workers involvement, and RAs being made available to all workers.

5)       The onus should be on employers to provide appropriate face covering for employees that are required to be onsite

Safe workplaces mean safe communities.  Unnecessary attendance in call centres may mean unnecessary deaths.  The Scottish Government needs to enforce compliance on these key points to keep us all safe.

Please sign this petition to show your support for these demands and push the Scottish Government to act.