The purpose of this circular is to provide an update following members’ decision to roll-out the turret pilot. The roll out of the pilot starts in Unit 5 on Monday 6th October 2008. PCS met with Senior Management on 2nd October 2008 to discuss the scheduling pro-forma and get feedback on its progress so far in Unit 5, and to check on the continuing progress in Units 1 & 4.
Unfortunately some staff in Unit 5 had still not been asked for their availability and preferences by the time of our meeting. This is too late in our opinion, however Senior Management gave assurances that they would ensure this was done promptly in future.
PCS discussed some of the issues that had been raised by members at the members’ meetings. In particular we mentioned members’ concerns that they felt that work was piling up and staff felt pressured in that they were effectively doing two jobs. Senior Management stated that staff should not panic if work appeared to be piling up, as it was still within what Senior Management considered to be acceptable and manageable levels. PCS asked that Senior Management cascaded this message to all staff.
We also raised the issue that if there were instances where slots could not be covered through preference or availability, some turret coordinators had been told to contact other areas to try and cover the slots. We voiced our concerns about this with Helpline Senior Management who assured us this should not be happening. Although staff do have a responsibility to ensure that the turret slots are fully covered, as per the Joint Statements, this should only be done through availability and preference and there should be no coercion. Therefore, if a slot cannot be filled through preference or availability it should be reported to Helpline as being ‘unfilled’. This opinion was supported by Senior Management and confirmed at the Warbreck Safety Committee.
We also discussed our concerns that some areas were requesting availability and preferences three weeks in advance. We advised that we felt weekly or fortnightly in advance was more appropriate; but that three weeks in advance is acceptable providing there was an understanding that if staff availability changed in the meantime, their turret availability would be amended to take into account these changes.
Members’ still had concerns regarding the lunchtime slots, which seemed to arise from areas which had 12-2pm slots. We reiterated the point that staff should be given time for a lunch break and that it should not fall on the same staff to cover the lunchtime slots. We also advised that they may wish to consider changing the structure of the slots over the lunchtime periods, so that morning slots finished and the afternoon slot started at 12:45 for example. This would then allow everyone who wanted to take a lunch break to have one.
If anyone experiences any problems or has any concerns about the pilot, please contact myself (Emma Haslehurst), Duncan Griffiths or Victor Carman. It is important that issues are raised now so that we can try and address them during the pilot roll out stages.
