Online Safe Spaces

We are pleased to announce that our ‘Online Safe Spaces’ portal, which provides support for victims of domestic abuse, is now live on myroyalmail.com.

The creation of the portal demonstrates our ongoing commitment to highlight domestic abuse and guide colleagues to dedicated support.

The initiative was developed by senior legal advisor Charlie Ryan, following his involvement in the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Global Legal Hackathon Challenge. The challenge asked participants to produce the most pioneering solutions to societal problems posed by the Covid-19 crisis.

‘Online Safe Spaces’ is a discreet portal that opens in a pop-up window, which can be installed on company websites and provides a variety of helpful support, advice and contact information for those at risk of, or experiencing, domestic abuse. It also features a quick exit button and leaves no internet history, ensuring the safety of those using the service. The portal is already live on www.royalmail.com and www.parcelforce.com and can now be found at the bottom of every page on www.myroyalmail.com.

The campaign’s chosen logo is a blue circular ‘Safe Spaces’ pin, which was launched as part of the ‘UK SAYS NO MORE’ campaign.

Chief HR officer, Sally Ashford, said: ‘We have developed the “Online Safe Spaces” portal to help victims of domestic abuse access vital support if they need it online. By placing the link on high- traffic websites like Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide, we hope that victims will be able to use the service discreetly if required without placing themselves at further risk.

‘We are encouraging all our partners to install the portal on their sites too. We hope that the portal will inspire affected individuals to feel confident enough to seek help.’

Employees who are experiencing domestic abuse are encouraged to report this to their manager, a union representative or another colleague. The aim will not be to counsel the employee, but to offer support and the relevant information through signposting them to specialist organisations.

First Class Support is the confidential and independent helpline provided free to colleagues and available 24-hours a day. Call 0800 6888 777, visit www.rmgfirstclasssupport.co.uk or download the ‘Lifeworks’ app.

New users of the website or app can ‘sign up’ using a unique invitation code, which is the RMG- prefix and their payroll number, for example RMG-12345678.