Union calls for mass testing of power station workers

A leading energy union boss has urged mass testing of power station workers for coronavirus as the government includes utilities workers in its list of essential staff whose children will still be allowed to attend school following today.

Justin Bowden, national secretary at the GMB, told Utility Week that more widespread testing for the virus would make it easier to keep staffing levels up by identifying who can work safely.

He said: “We need to increase our capacity to test people and direct that at key industries and sectors. Some are very obvious and others are more subtle because you have to think about the wider implications.”

“The real problem is you are going to have people going off falsely. If one person in a family thinks they have it, you will have a rolling situation in a large family where it spreads over literally months because somebody might have it.”

Bowden said that the industry’s resilience planning is in “uncharted territory” because it has never before had to grapple with a situation that could result in large numbers of staff being absent for long periods of time as opposed to short shocks like 2018’s ‘Beast from the East’ cold snap.

“We haven’t had a complete shut down like this and we don’t really know how many people will get sick.”

His comments follow the government’s announcement last night that utility workers will be classed as key workers who can take their children to school or nursery during the wider shut down, which takes effect at the end of today.

The Department for Education said that those employed in the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors, including sewerage plants, would qualify as key workers.

Eligibility also covers key staff working in civil nuclear sector and includes but is not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff as well as IT and data infrastructure.

However, the government also said those parents who are able to keep their children at home safely should do so.