Health and Safety Update Dec 2011

 

Lofstedt review released

The Lofstedt review has been published.  Professor Lofstedt was commissioned by the government to examine the scope for reducing the burden of health and safety regulation on business, whilst maintaining the progress that has been made in protecting people.  The review made the following key recommendations:

• self employed people should be exempt from health and safety law if their work activities pose no potential risk of harm to others
• that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) should review all its approved codes of practice (ACoPs)
• the HSE should undertake a programme of sector-specific consolidations
• legislation should be changed to give HSE the authority to direct all local authority health and safety inspection and enforcement activity, in order to ensure that it is consistent and targeted towards the most risky workplaces
• that regulatory provisions imposing strict liability are reviewed and either qualified with ‘reasonably practicable’ where strict liability is not absolutely necessary or amended so that civil liability cannot attach to a breach of those provisions.

To view the report visit:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/lofstedt-report.pdf

Sickness absence review published

According to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), around 140 million working days are lost each year to sickness absence in Great Britain.  A government commissioned review of the sickness absence system in the UK has been published.  It includes a number of recommendations to reduce the £13 billion a year spent on benefits.

In addition to requesting further research, the report recommends:

• a new job-brokering service to help long-term sick employees find new work rather than claim benefits
• banning pre-employment health questionnaires
• modifying employment law to make it easier for both employers and employees to end an employment relationship
• using ‘protected conversation’ to allow employers the chance to have an honest, without prejudice conversation with their staff about their condition
• a government funded Independent Assessment Service (IAS) to assess individuals’ physical and mental function and give advice about how they could be supported to return to work
• revising fit note guidance to ensure that judgements about fitness to work move away from only job-specific assessments
• expenditure by employers to keep sick employees in work (or to speed their return to work) should attract tax relief, targeted at basic-rate taxpayers
• retaining the existing tax relief on employee assistance programmes (EAPs)
• removing record-keeping obligations under Statutory Sick Pay to reduce the administrative burden on employers
• updating the Employers’ Charter to address misconceptions around sickness absence management and legal uncertainty

 For more information on the review visit:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/policy/welfare-reform/sickness-absence-review/

Drivers take more risks in company cars

New research from uSwitch.com has found that drivers behave differently in company cars than in their own vehicles.  67% of the drivers surveyed said they are more likely to take bigger risks when they are driving a company car.  52% are more prone to speeding than when driving their own car.  83% admitted that they would be more likely to use a mobile phone and 67% said they were more likely to ‘lane hop’.  Two thirds confessed to driving through a red light when in a company car.  The survey highlights that employers can lower their insurance premiums by managing the risks associated with driving for work effectively.

Inefficient managers costing business

A new survey published by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has found that ineffective management could be costing UK businesses over £19 billion per year in lost working hours.

The study found that 75% of workers wasted almost two hours each working week due to inefficient managers.  Poor management practices responsible for the lost time include:

• unclear communication (33%)
• lack of support (33%)
• micro-management (26%)
• lack of direction (25 per cent).

 All of these poor management behaviours are key factors that can contribute to employee stress.

Taking the average hours wasted in a week across the 48 weeks a year that most workers work, this equates to a loss of £900 per employee per year and a total loss to UK plc of £19.3 billion.

The research also showed that 13% of those surveyed had witnessed managers discriminating against employees because of their gender, race, age or sexual orientation.  27% have witnessed managers bullying or harassing their employees.

By communicating effectively with employees, giving them clear standards and goals to attain, giving them autonomy and consulting with employees, managers can reduce these stressors and the costs associated with them.  Managers should be the champions of an organisations’ policy and values, rather than the people breaking them!

City stress claims soar

The HSE estimates that 18,000 workers in UK financial services and insurance sector suffered from work-related stress, depression or anxiety caused by their job in the last 12 months.  Legal cases concerning stress in the City routinely involve multi-million pound claims; they can be in the tens of millions.  Stress claims by employees normally fall under personal injury and disability discrimination rules, which means that the damages are uncapped.

GQ Employment Law have found that the tough trading conditions and volatility of the last four years have increased the number of legal claims by employees in the City who claim they have suffered from stress.

In one of the few City cases to go to court in recent years, a secretary for an investment bank with an annual salary of £45,000 won £835,000 from her employer after she was badly managed following a bout of stress.  This equated to nearly 20 years of lost income.  Many City employees are on much higher salaries and bonuses, meaning any successful claims would be much higher.

Stress-related employment claims typically arise when an employee who has returned to work after an initial stress-related absence has been poorly managed and relapses.

This shows the importance of making reasonable adjustments to an employee’s working conditions when they return from a stress-related absence, to keep them healthy and in work.

Safe maintenance campaign finishes at Summit

The European Occupational Health and Safety Agency officially closed its two year campaign on safe maintenance at the Healthy Workplaces Summit in Bilbao, Spain.  For information on the safe maintenance campaign and useful resources visit: http://osha.europa.eu/en/campaigns/hw2010/news/@@slc.telescope?path=/osha/portal/en/teaser/healthy-workplaces-summit-2011

IOSH li£e savings

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) have launched a number of resources as part of their Li£e Savings campaign to help members make the case to senior managers that good health and safety management can save serious money, as well as lives.  The resources include:

• a new one-day continuous professional development (CPD) course called ‘Meaning business’, which covers creating and presenting the business case which will be presented by System Concepts
• an interactive online quiz called “Save a Million” to help you to challenge board room perspectives on health and safety
• a leaflet called “Can you afford to waste money?”, with facts and figures about the money squandered on poor health and safety management.

The new tools and other free resources can be found at: http://www.iosh.co.uk/news_and_events/campaigns/new_campaign_life_savings/resources.aspx