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Belfast Telegraph
28-04-2025
- Climate
- Belfast Telegraph
‘Climate leave' for NI workers among union's extreme weather proposals
Unite said it has been engaging with Stormont departments to discuss its proposals to protect workers from the impact of extreme weather since the 2018 death of Unite member Matthew Campbell. Mr Campbell (24) died during Storm Ali after being struck by a falling tree in Slieve Gullion Forest Park. The electrical engineer died just months before he was due to get married. He was crushed to death by a falling 200-year-old beech tree, dying instantly in what was described in court as 'a freak accident' which 'could have — and should have — been avoided'. Last April, Newry, Mourne and Down District Council was fined £20,000, while Lagan Construction Ltd was handed a £30,000 fine, after admitting 'health and safety failings'. Unite also noted that of the 17 people who have died in the Republic as a result of named storms since 2014, five were killed either while working outdoors or while travelling to or from work. The union carried out a survey for International Workers' Memorial Day today, with 1,225 members from across Northern Ireland responding. It found that 59% of those whose work included outdoor responsibilities still had to perform them on the day of the storm. Of these, only 23% said they felt safe and 66% said they did not consider their employer had taken all reasonable precautions. Of those whose employer did not require them to work on the day of the storm, over half had to take the day as annual leave, unpaid leave, flexitime, sick leave or time-off-in-lieu or holiday. Unite's proposals include an obligation on employers to conduct risk assessments during extreme weather events, cease all routine outdoor work during orange alerts, and cease all non-essential indoor and outdoor work during red alerts, with workers continuing to be paid during such closures. The union is also proposing four days' paid climate leave, along the lines of that introduced in Spain following last year's devastating Valencia floods, if conditions render travel hazardous or workers need to address pressing domestic needs resulting from extreme weather. The union says a maximum working temperature should be set depending on the type of work and the working environment. It wants obligations on employers to attempt to reduce high temperatures. 7 Day Weather Forecast: 28th April - 4th May It called for an action level of 24C where heat management controls or systems must be put in place and an absolute maximum temperature of 30C — or 27C for 'strenuous jobs' — at which work should stop if these cannot be prevented by using engineering controls. Unite's Irish secretary Susan Fitzgerald said: 'Accelerating climate change means that the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events are set to increase. 'Workers must not be made to pay the price — in terms of their safety, health and livelihoods — for a climate crisis not of their making'. A survey of members in the Republic, carried out following Storm Eowyn, found 55% of respondents did not feel safe travelling to and from work during the storm. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: 'On International Workers' Memorial Day, we are demanding that the government climate-proof health and safety laws to ensure that workers' lives and incomes are protected during extreme weather.'
Irish Times
28-04-2025
- Climate
- Irish Times
New regulations required to protect workers during storms, says union
New legislation should be introduced to protect workers during extreme weather events , trade union Unite has said. The union said more than half of its members who worked through Storm Éowyn recently did not feel safe on the journeys to and from their places of employment. A survey of members conducted by the union to tie in with international Workers Memorial Day on Monday, also suggested more than half of those obliged to work outside during the storm did not feel their employers had done everything possible to ensure their safety. Almost a quarter said there had been uncertainty in advance of the storm as to closures, related payment arrangements and any potential switch to remote working. READ MORE The union, which says it has sought a meeting with the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke on the issue, points to data suggesting that five of the 17 fatalities during named storms since 2014 in the Republic of Ireland, involved people either working outdoors or travelling between home and work. One of the union's members in Northern Ireland, Matthew Campbell, was killed while working during Storm Ali in 2018. Unite says it has been engaging with parties at Stormont since then and wants to see a range of measures adopted by the Government in Dublin, including a statutory obligation on employers to conduct extreme weather risk assessments for all employees. It wants non-essential outdoor work to be suspended during extreme weather events and the workers impacted to be paid. The union is also calling for a range of other related measures and supports with substantial fines or other sanctions for non-compliant employers. 'Accelerating climate change means that the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events are set to increase,' says the union's Irish secretary, Susan Fitzgerald. 'Workers must not be made to pay the price – in terms of their safety, health and livelihoods – for a climate crisis not of their making.' A total of 447 people have died in work-related incidents in Ireland over the past decade, 34 of them last year. An event to mark Workers Memorial Day is due to take place at the Garden of Remembrance at 9.30am.
