Some council staff have been left "absolutely frantic" and in tears at being made to come into work at Newcastle Civic Centre during the coronavirus outbreak, a union has claimed.
Unison has accused Newcastle City Council of not taking employees’ concerns over the disease seriously, demanding the authority allows more non-essential staff to work from home.
Paul Gilroy, the union’s local branch secretary, has called for urgent action to help his members follow social distancing guidelines and said he was aware of staff in non-essential services choosing to stay off work, despite being told to come in, for fear of contracting the virus and spreading it to their family.
However, council leader Nick Forbes has urged everyone to “pull together”, saying that older staff and those with underlying health conditions have already been asked to work from home.
Coun Forbes added that essential frontline services like social care and bin collections are “simply not deliverable from home”.
While Mr Gilroy said he “absolutely understands” that the council cannot simply shut down like other organisations were, more had to be done to stop some staff coming to work at the council’s city centre headquarters and using public transport to do so.
He added: “We have not had any answer saying what is considered to be an essential service or who is considered essential staff.
“Some of my members are absolutely frantic. Some have been in tears saying that their partner is at high risk, but they are still having to come into work at the civic centre on the bus. Some of those people are not in essential services.”
The Unison official said he had been accused of “scaremongering” by some senior council staff, but that many people had become “increasingly troubled” by the authority’s policy.
One council employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said staff are "needlessly" being made to come to the Barras Bridge offices every day and were "dismayed at the lack of action".
In a letter to Coun Forbes, Mr Gilroy added: “I would urge you to encourage your senior managers to take the legitimate concerns of your staff seriously. This disease can kill, particularly those people in high risk groups, your staff want to protect these people, be they staff or connected to staff.”
The Labour council leader said the Unison letter was “unhelpful and doesn’t reflect my experience of the mindset and attitude of the vast bulk of people who work for the council”.
He added: “I am immensely proud of the response from our staff so far. They are showing true spirit, grit and an unwavering determination to serve the people of Newcastle.
“We have already taken steps to protect the council’s most vulnerable employees. Those over 70 and with underlying health issues have been asked to work from home and we are encouraging further teams to follow national guidance in order to remain safe and healthy.
“We have held briefings with managers, are providing daily updates and constantly adjusting our internal guidance and policies to move quickly as this rapidly changing situation develops.
“However, some services are simply not deliverable from home. You cannot collect bins from home. You cannot deliver hot meals to vulnerable residents from home. You cannot provide vital support for looked after children from home. We are putting in place extra protection measures to frontline staff working in such services to protect themselves and the public.”
Council chief executive Pat Ritchie added that most of the council’s thousands of employees were “very keen to work with us and be as flexible as possible”.
She added: “It is a big organisation to suddenly turn around and do things completely differently. That will take a bit of time to work through.
“We have people working flat out to do this and a lot of directors, managers, and other staff are completely off their day job doing different things to make sure we do right by our staff. That is fundamentally important to us.”
