Addressing the conference delegates in Brighton, Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary said: “Mental health is a workplace issue. The way we are treated at work, the security of our employment, our pay and conditions all have a significant impact on our mental health.
 
“In an Usdaw survey of thousands of low paid workers, nearly three-quarters told us that financial worries are affecting their mental health. In household after household up and down the country, workers are worrying that they are not going to get enough hours, that they are not paid enough, or that their job is not secure enough for them to keep paying their bills.
 
“The cost of living crisis is becoming a mental health crisis for low-paid workers, terrified that they will not be able to support their families. With weak employment rights protections; with one-sided flexibility, that always seems to benefit employers and not the workers’ with people living in fear of having their hours cut; it’s no surprise that so many workers feel unable to tell their employer about their mental health problems. Unable to ask for support and unable to stop issues from escalating.
 
“This Government could choose to make work more secure, to give working people more certainty and to reduce their worries about this winter. But rather than the promised Employment Bill, all we have seen is empty promises, dither and delay. And now it seems the Government wants to slash our rights even further back.
 
“We must demand that employers and the Government take these issues seriously. That they protect vulnerable workers and that they deliver guaranteed working hours. That’s why I urge you to support a strong campaign that delivers the protections working people need to tackle the mental health crisis affecting our communities.”
 
Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with around 360,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades.
 
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion