The sector has a protracted workforce crisis, especially in the energy networks. The workforce is ageing and employers are struggling to replace retiring staff. It remains stubbornly white and male, and gender pay gaps remain significantly above average.
Some employers have exacerbated these problems by holding down real pay and workforce numbers while racking up substantial returns for their shareholders. This has precipitated an epidemic of stress.
Prospect surveyed its members in the energy sector. One in three said they felt overwhelmed or highly stressed at work either every day or most days, and roughly 75 per cent described their typical workloads as heavy or extremely heavy. Two-thirds of those who said they sometimes felt too tired to work safely also said they were not comfortable reporting this to their employer.
Health and safety is a perennial concern in potentially dangerous industries like electricity and gas supply, and official statistics from the Health & Safety Executive show that energy utilities continue to have a high rate of deaths and serious injuries relative to other sectors. Injury rates have fallen significantly in recent decades thanks in part to the strong role played by trade union safety representatives, but stress, excessive workloads, and persistent understaffing are hampering efforts to make networks safer.
This is the background to the recent deeply troubling decision by Britain’s energy regulator, Ofgem, not to introduce new measures to tackle the workforce crisis in the next phase of the network price controls. Prospect and other stakeholders lobbied hard for Ofgem to take the workforce crisis seriously in the next price controls, but the regulator has said that companies should deal with this crisis as part of “business as usual”.
But business as usual is precisely what has led us to where we are now. There is a real risk that employers will try to preserve returns for shareholders by pushing workers ever harder. This will have disastrous consequences for energy workers, and will only make it harder to recruit the best new talent into the sector.
It is not too late for Ofgem to rethink its approach. Prospect and its partner unions have put forward concrete proposals to tackle the workforce crisis, including ring-fenced funding for skills training and new targets on workforce diversity. There are undoubtedly other steps that could be taken as well. What is clear is that “business as usual” certainly isn’t good enough; Ofgem must recognise this and be prepared to take meaningful action on the workforce crisis.