Unite the union has today written to Minister Costa to request an “urgent meeting” to begin a root and branch review of how the issues of employee health, safety and wellbeing are addressed by the employer across the health and care sectors.

The call follows an emergency meeting on Monday of the Unite Gibraltar Health Branch to discuss the employment tribunal judgment last week, which upheld a complaint of bullying at work against the Gibraltar Health Authority.

A statement continued: “In the letter to Minister Costa the union states that concerns were raised at the meeting “that the published culture and values of the three organisations, GHA, ERS & Care Agency were not consistent with the reality in the workplace on a day to day basis” and that “issues were highlighted around the lack of accountability of senior management to display the same level of behaviours as all employees across the health and care sectors, to lead by example and set a positive, inclusive environment across the organisations”.

“The letter goes on to explain that “concerns were also highlighted as to whether the current policies and processes are fit for purpose, do they properly support both the complainant(s) and complainee(s)” and that the “challenges related to not tackling these negative cultural issues are numerous, less productivity, higher absence and presenteeism rates, higher turnover which feeds into further costs of recruitment to replace lost skills, low staff morale and this all then has a damaging impact on the excellent service provided by members across the GHA, ERS and Care Agency to those living and working in Gibraltar”.

“Moving on from the employee to employee relationships the communication to the Minister also highlighted the debate at the branch meeting “around the perceived lack of robust management support where employees are subject to verbal or physical abuse from service users” and that this “led members to not raising issues of abuse and personal safety due to their concerns that these reports would not be taken seriously”.”

Stuart Davies, Unite National Officer for Gibraltar said: “There was a full and lively debate at the branch meeting which developed wider concerns as to the health, safety and wellbeing of our members working in the GHA, ERS and Care Agency. The union is seeking urgent dialogue with the Ministry to positively tackle bullying behaviour in the workplace and to commence a root and branch review of how the issues of employee health, safety and wellbeing are addressed by the employer.

“The key challenges are how we tackle the apparent disconnect for some members who perceive that the strong messaging around acceptable standards of behaviour is not always practiced, to ensuring that the highest standards are established and displayed across the GHA, ERS & Care Agency. How we embed the clear message that abuse of employees by service users is unacceptable and will be tackled, to create a positive and safe working environment.

“The health and care sectors should be amongst the standard bearers and be leading the way culturally on this agenda. I am of the strong belief through constructive work between Unite and the employers we can tackle these damaging issues and ensure that the GHA, ERS & Care Agency remain not only excellent organisations to be a service user, but also an employee”.