Manufacturing firms were amongst the first encouraged by the government to welcome their employees back to the workplace. Were you amongst those returning to work?
Perhaps inevitably, the UK government’s tentative plan to get the economy back on its feet has raised more questions than it has answered. Indeed, whilst implementing lock down was difficult enough, the challenge of easing it – and reopening different parts of society at different times – is on another level of plate-spinning complexity.
Of particular note is Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s advice that from Wednesday 13th May those unable to work remotely should return to work if safe to do so.
Despite published government guidance on this, and a requirement for employers to carry out risk assessments before reopening, many employees are understandably concerned about the level of risk they will be exposed to. Particularly those who rely on public transport to get to work.
With manufacturing one of the key sectors singled out in the PM’s recovery plan, engineers are amongst those most likely to be affected by this first phase of lockdown easing. This prompted us to ask those of you working in the UK manufacturing and engineering sectors what the government’s announcement meant to you.
Did you return to work after a lay-off or period of furlough? If so, were you confident that your employer put in adequate measures to make your workplace “Covid-Secure”? Does the current economic situation mean that there’s still currently no demand for your skills? Or perhaps, like many in the manufacturing sector, you’ve been working all the way through the current crisis – either remotely, or travelling into your normal workplace.
As always, we also welcome your comments on this issue below the line. Please note that all comments are moderated.
But the Conservatives are the ones who decimated Professional and manufacturing industries in the UK in favour of service industries in the first place and now they want them back to get money from them.
Although retired, I have for some time, acted as a free of charge consultant, working from home, whenever my expertise has been requested, this PC is siting on a spare desk in the main office, so all design work is freely accessible by remote access to those involved in running whatever project, I can send Autocad drawings direct to the Plotter, and design data to the central printer, to be collected at a convenient time.
However, since many of the projects involved University sites, Teaching Hospitals, and Pharmaceutical Research Centers, in respect of safe working, we are not going to be able to resume the installation and commissioning element of any current projects any time soon, except where they are a new build, on a clear site, where we can employ full industrial grade P.P.E. and ensure safe working distances between operatives.
Needless to say, out of respect for the safety of our staff, much of the routine service and maintenance of Plant installed in the Health and Pharmaceutical sector has been put on hold, and regardless of the Prime Ministers Advice, we do not see that changing until the “doors” are fully opened to external contractors, not withstanding the application of full P.P.E.
I voted that I will continue to work remotely. I’ve been plotting the daily figures posted by WHO and I’ve yet to see any positive sign of a reduction in the number of daily reported confirmed Covid-19 cases, and only a slight reduction in the daily number of deaths reported. Where do the government get their figures from, and why are they different to those published by the WHO?
In a word, NO.
It is virtually impossible for most manufacturing and similar industries to do so because many industries do not have the available space to do so, and much of this is due to the costs of having plenty of available space to do so and being forced to downsize their premises. Most industries have to rely upon incoming materials and they have to be handled numerous times, by numerous people, and for many “just in time” industries it would be virtually impossible to mitigate such risks when Government advice clearly states that the virus can remain active for up to 72 hours on solid surfaces.
How do you lay concrete foundations and slabs and maintain distancing, how do you erect large portal frames and maintain distancing, and how do you clad these portal frames and maintain social distancing, you cannot, so how cam major elements of the construction industries and manufacturing industries comply with safe working practices?
interesting did a report on rebooting as i work globally and seen the impact already in other countries. Key issues have been
1 Unions have played a major part in working solid solutions for rebooting PPE safe working, saw one client in Italy up to full capacity in one week.
2 Supply chain is still on a dock as priority given to emergency supply of PPE globally
3 Cross boarder supply chain France is open but all others no. They wont be able to dock and move goods via other euro ports due to restriction in 14 day rule in the UK and locked boarders in the EU effecting raw materials finished goods etc
4 Transporting people to work was an issue in china getting people to work
5 Industries that need to get back to work are those with committed orders. They are focused on finishing to get paid. Construction – Auto etc. We dont seem to have a plan for what happens after. Its a domino effect if you dont have an outlet to sell you cant make.
6 Seems a bit of a rush back to stand waiting for bits to arrive moment. It will be things like electronics that will be a problem for many as they just wont be available.
7 good bit is we may have near sourcing opportunities come in
Here in the real world we’ve never stopped, and get quite tired of people complaining about the time off, when for us, not much has changed. We had a couple of days of looking at how things must work, established staggered breaks, shifts etc. Ensured everyone understood what it means with the option to go home if they weren’t happy (some did) and carried right on manufacturing. Admittedly customers became a bit thin on the ground but the ones still going are generally ‘essential’ (food industry) and its been so long now it seems quite normal.
Typhoid Mary did not present symptoms, she just infected everyone she came in contact with.
No one should be returning to work without having first been, tested to demonstrate that they do not have the virus, thus reducing the chance of spreading the virus amongst the work force.
All should be transporting themselves, or being collected by company transport, to avoid the general “untested” populace.
This still leaves the problem of somehow sourcing the necessary raw production materials, and ensuring that these materials are decontaminated before being handled.
If you are just a part of a chain in a product, how on earth are you going to sell your output on.
This seems to be just another ” back of a fag packet” calculation by No.10.
In reality, eventually everyone is going to have to catch this bug. Given the number of cases of infection that we already know about, it will not be possible to prevent infection among the entire (planetary) population. If you manage to avoid infection you will be in a similar situation to the indigenous south Americans before the conquistadors arrived – decimation awaits.
The best we can do is apply commonsense and minimise the impact on the NHS. If you are fit, healthy and with no underlying health issues you in all probability have nothing to worry about. It’s the Government and Media that have stoked up this unjustified fear which is needlessly destroying the economy, we have to move forward.
Until schools and childcare establishments are re-opened fully, many people won’t be able to go back to work.