Occupational Health
As a business owner or employer, you have a legal duty to ensure the health and wellbeing of your workers both physically and mentally as a result of your business activities.
About
Occupational health considers the effects your working environment, and the work carried out by your employees has on their health, as well as how their health affects the work they carry out.
When your working environment exposes your workers to health risks, you must ensure you put appropriate controls in place. However even with these controls in place you have a legal duty to provide health surveillance as these control measures may not always be reliable.
In order to remain compliant with health and safety law, there are certain things you must do to ensure your employees are fit to work and that their work does not negatively affect their health, including:
• ensuring workers are medically fit to undertake the role required
• implementing health surveillance to monitor their ongoing health where risks such as noise, vibration and hazardous substances are present
• reviewing risk assessments when a worker returns to work following sickness or declaring a health condition or disability, whether work-related or not
• environment monitoring to ensure your workers surroundings are safe
You can outsource your health surveillance to independent occupational health professionals such as an Occupational Health Nurse who can manage this aspect of health and safety compliance for you. They may also hold certificates of competency for hand-arm vibration syndrome assessments, spirometry, or audiometry testing if this is something your business needs.
For further help and advice, get in touch. We are always happy to help.