Mick Antoniw MS: Can I ask the First Minister particularly about
his contacts with the Health and Safety Executive and the trade
unions, particularly in respect of the well-being of those tens of
thousands of people who are now working from home, who previously
wouldn't have been working from home, often in very non-ergonomic
environments, but also the actual mental health risks that are
there now from the considerable long hours and the fact that we now
seem to be very heavily regulated by,...Request free trial
: Can I ask the First Minister particularly about his
contacts with the Health and Safety Executive and the trade unions,
particularly in respect of the well-being of those tens of
thousands of people who are now working from home, who previously
wouldn't have been working from home, often in very non-ergonomic
environments, but also the actual mental health risks that are
there now from the considerable long hours and the fact that we now
seem to be very heavily regulated by, or controlled by,
Zoom and Teams and other technology, rather than
the other way around? It seems to me that there hasn't been
adequate consideration of that. Can I ask whether you think that
now is the time that probably the Health and Safety Executive ought
to be devolved within Wales, because it forms such an important
part of our public health?
(First Minister of Wales):...On the Health and
Safety Executive and trade unions, we, of course—Mick Antoniw will
know—have a new national health and safety forum in Wales until the
time when the HSE is devolved. I'm very grateful to it for agreeing
to participate in that forum and making sure that staff are
available to contribute to those discussions, including the
discussions of the health and well-being of people working from
home. I'm certain that I am not the only person who, at the end of
many days, suffers from Zoomfatigue, and I don't
just mean that in terms of just the toll it takes on you, but just
literally, where your eyes are burning and you feel you've stared
at that screen for longer than is sensible for any one individual
to do. And that is experienced by other people working from home.
That's why the health and safety forum will take an interest in it;
that's why we're accelerating our programme of local hubs, where
people will be able to work remotely, but not within their own
homes...
