How Good An Employer Is The MOD?
What would you do if you worked in a physically challenging environment and discovered that your employer was coming under continuous criticism over its safety record? It would be understandable if you thought about leaving. But what if you believed passionately in the work you did, had a strong sense of duty, were locked in by a contract that was difficult to break and your employer was the only one of its kind? There would be nowhere else you could go. That sadly is the dilemma facing servicemen today.
The Ministry of Defence has once again come under severe criticism for cutting costs and compromising safety, this time over the crashing of a Nimrod airplane in 2006 which killed 14 service people. In September they were criticised for fires on submarines. Radioactive waste has leaked from Britain’s nuclear submarines nine times in the past 12 years. 10 members of the armed forces were killed when an RAF Hercules crashed into the desert in central Iraq in January 2005. Four soldiers lost their lives mysteriously at Deepcut Barracks. The list goes on and on.
THE MOD is no ordinary employer and service personnel do no ordinary job. This seems to be the root of the problem. Because increasingly the armed forces are trying to move away from their old, authoritarian, self-aggrandising image. They now promote themselves as outstanding employers who strive to do the best for their staff. The Army’s website says: We’ll invest time in your training, give you the space you need for your family and friends, and provide plenty of opportunities for you to learn new skills and broaden your horizons.
But the MOD’s safety record belies this new image. It is the safety record of an organisation which has not come to terms with funding cuts, an organisation which believes its own self worth is greater than its duty to any one individual, an organisation which has modernised in the way it speaks, but not in the way it acts.
This cannot continue. In the 21st century the MOD is just one of thousands of employers. It has a duty of caret to its staff which far exceeds anything it has demonstrated to date. It is time it changed.
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Tags: Army, Health & Safety, MOD, Navy, RAF
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