- Conference
- 2014 Police & Justice Conference
- Date
- 26 June 2014
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Police forces across the country in an attempt to save money due to this governments disproportionate budget cuts are looking to rationalise their estates. This has lead to many forces selling off buildings and moving into a centralised location. These new ways of working have seen more staff moving into open plan buildings with hot desking being introduced in these workplaces. Greater Manchester Police are already using these new ways of working with our own force in the process of introducing what is happening in greater Manchester.
This is particularly true of call centre operations where staff are accommodated on a first come first served basis. However the use of hot desking is now more widespread and affects large number of our members who are forced to desk share simply to avoid unnecessary additional business costs.
Hot desking has two distinct disadvantages. Firstly there is a health and safety issue where staff work in close contact with their colleagues often resulting in an uptake of airborne related illnesses. Secondly the denial of quality personal space has an adverse effect upon our members’ well-being who often feel they are treated as the equivalent of battery hens and may find this experience de-humanising.
We call upon the Service Group Executive – to conduct a survey into to how prevalent the use of hot desking has become and to highlight our growing concerns over health issues and the denial of personal space at the workplace which is adding to stress to our members.