Energy workers are key workers- it’s time to appreciate them

The COVID-19 pandemic has enhanced awareness of many of the jobs that will all depend on in our daily lives. Rightly, it has massively ramped up appreciation for health and social care staff who are doing extraordinary work in the most difficult of circumstances.

I hope it will also lead to enduring support for the work of many others – across the retail, distribution, telecoms and postal sectors and for government staff.

The crisis has brought home to us that many of the things we take for granted about modern life only happen because of the work of others, work now being carried out in much more difficult circumstances.

Boiling the kettle, switching on the lights or powering up Zoom. None of these could happen without the infrastructure and power connecting our homes. So, it is also time for a shout out to the energy workers keeping our lights and heat on whilst we’re locked down at home.

I have the benefit of regularly speaking to the Prospect members who carry out this work – part of a 90,000 strong workforce across the UK – so already appreciate their skill and commitment.

However, this was really brought home to me by very recent personal experience of a complete power failure that required hours of diagnosis, investigation and restoration work. It was all undertaken efficiently, safely and courteously by a team who had both to enter my home and dig up the footpath outside to resolve the problem. Without them I would have been cold, hungry and unable to work from home.

These are the self-same workers who have in recent weeks been challenged by members of the public who simply don’t understand that they are also providing an essential public service throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

There are other vital functions that need to continue including new connections for temporary hospitals and to ensure the resilience of our electricity network for next winter. However we are very clear that this cannot, and should not, be business as usual.

Safeguarding our critical national infrastructure, particularly at a time of national emergency characterised by heightened sickness absence, requires an agile and socially responsible response from employers. It also requires regulatory tolerance and flexibility.

Prospect has already written to Ofgem seeking a suspension of licence conditions in order to prioritise essential service delivery at the same time as safeguarding the resilience of the workers on whom this depends. One option would be to reopen the current price controls to amend or relax performance targets and to adjust revenue mechanisms.

At a time when unprecedented decisions are being taken on a daily basis, this would be a moderate  step to take. At the very least, Ofgem should convene discussions with the companies and their unions to find a sensible way forward.

Unions across the economy, not least Prospect, have already proved that we are part of the solution.  From working with employers, engaging with government and helping individuals, unions have been at the heart of Britain’s response to the crisis. The not so very old days when the interests of workers were portrayed as divergent from those of customers now look irrelevant and out of tune.

If we’re really all in this together, let’s act as if we mean it.

Sue Ferns is Prospect’s senior deputy general secretary