FM service providers are signing the C-19 Pledge
FM giant Sodexo has signed the Pledge and per i-fm.net it has been part of the industry-wide response to the crisis in the UK from the early stages. It has set up drive-through testing centres for self-isolating NHS and key workers (who must first make an appointment to use the services) and is working closely with NHS Trusts to operate them. Sodexo is also working with the DHSS to find other ways of supporting the national effort to combat the virus. So far, 250 organisations employing almost 3m people have signed the Pledge.
The C-19 Pledge's website provides a basic idea of what it means to sign up
Businesses are being asked to help in three areas:
Employees - provide support and advice on financial security, mental health, and personal wellbeing, with assistance with reintegration for those who have been off work for a long time.
Customers - publish clear and simple advice, and support people who have problems with payment, etc. by setting up dedicated helplines.
Community - combat loneliness and isolation, provide cash grants to community enterprises and help in practical ways by providing food deliveries.
Why should anyone sign a pledge to be socially responsible?
Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, has been around since the days of the great philanthropists. It has been extensively theorised as a branch of ethics and as a component of business studies. It is one of the planks of modern conservatism, i.e. that private enterprise is better placed to assist with social issues than the government. As an ideological position, it has a lot of traction but in practice, people pick and choose who to assist and how, leaving many individuals and groups lacking the support they need. Now that millions of people are out of work and small enterprises are folding, the argument about whose job it is to help the poor and vulnerable is a moot point; they need help now and those of us who are in a position to assist should ideally do so. The question I'm asking here is, shouldn't businesses be doing all this already?
Furloughed workers are being made homeless
Many Britons have been furloughed through the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme which awards workers 80% of their pay, or up to £2,500 a month. However, some with low-paid service sector jobs and zero-hour contracts have fallen through the cracks. - Hotel staff homeless after losing jobs and getting no help from government, by Emma Brazel for The Metro 28/04/2020
Casual workers and those on zero-hours contracts are being laid off — with catastrophic results. Many of them are now living rough on the streets, unable to access the services promised them. Foodservice staff, cleaners, and gig workers have all been suffering. Companies operating on low margins are already struggling to stay afloat. It is unreasonable to expect them to support those workers they don't have on full-time permanent contracts, so they fall through the cracks in the social safety net.
Calls to reopen the economy are growing louder
As the number of cases in the UK begins to drop, some people are talking about a cautious approach to reopening the economy. With robust hygiene and social distancing still the best defence against the Coronavirus, it may be possible for people to return to work as long as they can sit or stand at least two metres (6ft) apart and hand santitisation stations are provided. However, since asymptomatic transmission is one of the main drivers of the pandemic, sending someone home if they show signs of illness is like locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. We need more mass testing so that healthy people can go back to work if we're going to avoid a second wave of sickness and death.
Staying in lockdown indefinitely is not an option; we are heading for a massive recession due to low economic activity. However, if there is a second wave of infections, our health services could be overloaded and business would suffer anyway.
We all need to pull together
I have no doubt that we all need to work together to create real solutions to the problems created by the Coronavirus crisis but I'm certain of this: the only value in signing a pledge to help workers, customers, and the community, is in being held accountable and facing shaming on social media if the signatory fails to live up to its promises. I am firmly of the belief that it's the government's job to solve social problems while it's the work of business to solve economic problems by providing jobs, and thereby wages, to feed into the system. It doesn't hurt to put your name to a pledge to assist the vulnerable, but as I said, we need to be doing this anyway as part of CSR, not to signal our virtue to all and sundry.
We can start reopening the economy now if we adhere to best practice in social distancing, work from home where possible, observe hygiene guidelines, and wear masks, etc., to help reduce the risk of infection.
Many Britons have
been furloughed through the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention
Scheme which awards workers 80% of their pay, or up to £2,500 a month.
However, some with low-paid service sector jobs and zero-hour contracts
have fallen through the cracks.
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