Employee claims staff ‘being forced to work in office’
A WHISTLEBLOWER claims staff are being “forced” to work in a Bristol city centre office – reportedly prompting two resignations.
Care provider Newcross Healthcare has two floors of office space in Colston Tower, a 15-storey highrise on Colston Avenue.
One admin worker, who did not wish to be named, said staff were angry about having to go into the office, despite reportedly being able to easily work from home.
She claims Newcross refused to change its stance after Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said on September 22 that people should work from home “if they can” to reduce social mixing.
“Two people resigned over it last week,” she said.
Newcross, which has 9,000 staff across the country, says it has “strictly adhered to all Government guidelines” to ensure Covidsecure working environments across all its offices.
The employee said:”It’s a healthcare company and they seem to be putting their profit before their staff’s health.”
The employee said there were around 15 to 20 staff on each of Newcross’ floors, though the company says it has a maximum of 10 on each.
She said: “Since last week, they’ve allowed marketing employees to work from home – about five people – but it seems unfair to the other departments.
“Colston Tower is a big building with lots of people. There are multiple tenants in there, and there are shared toilets used by different companies.”
“After the Government changed its guidance, the directors said everything has been risk-assessed and it’s safe to go in.
“But there are no partitions between departments, no screens between people at their desks. People aren’t sitting two metres apart - it’s around one metre.”
She said most roles at the branch can be done from home.
Newcross said it takes “very seriously” its commitment to safe working conditions for both frontline carers and office-based staff.
A spokesman said: “We have regularly communicated with staff throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In an anonymous [nationwide] staff survey undertaken in September, 84 per cent of our staff overwhelmingly endorsed us for supporting them during this time.
“This staff survey also showed that our team felt that some roles, which are critical to delivering our service, benefit from staff interaction to be most effective. We have therefore adopted a sensible blended approach combining homeworking and a skeleton office staff.”
He said its Bristol office has single occupancy of two floors, with a maximum of 20 employees working in over 6,000 square feet of space.
“We have strictly adhered to all Government guidelines to ensure Covid-secure working environments in our offices across the UK, putting in place stringent cleaning regimes, rearranging workspaces to allow for ample social distancing, investing in hand sanitising stations and advising our teams of all the latest government advice through numerous communication channels,” he said.