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Practice meets perfect
May/June 2023 issue

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Opinion

Why wellbeing programmes shouldn't come before sound OH provision

Open-access content Tuesday 25th October 2016
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Dealing with the "slow accidents" of exposure to harmful agents that may take years to express themselves in ill health is a sensible, rational response to the evidence.

But hang on a minute, what's all this stuff about wellbeing? Organisations that have one-third of work-related ill health attributed to musculoskeletal disorders and another one-third to stress-related mental incapacity, suddenly decide to take health action and begin poster campaigns on the importance of five portions of fruit and veg a day. At board level, heart conditions among staff are discussed for the first time.

As safety and health professionals, we need to take a clear view on such sudden switches from ignoring health to going overboard and saying "I care so much about my workers that we're going to run smoking cessation classes and subsidise gym membership".

Employees' health has a significant bearing on their work performance and their sickness levels. The workplace is the ideal place to provide information on how people can maintain a healthy body and mind -- which is in everyone's interest. But individual resilience is not the foundation of an employer's responsibility to the workforce, though resilience is the buzzword heard at almost every conference now and the subject of much research.

Healthy heart' campaigns, however worthy, should not be the underpinning of any focus on health

Shifting responsibility on to the worker to be more resilient can be a way to pass the buck for employee protection. Doing nothing about a bullying organisation with unrealistic work schedules for staff on zero-hours contracts except running stress resilience classes is not acceptable.

The employer that brings together the workers, the workplace, the materials, the equipment and the work processes has an obligation to manage the risks that arise -- risks to health as well as safety. That, and not "healthy heart" campaigns, however worthy, should underpin any focus on health. Our workplaces are creating the next generation of workers with lung disease from dust inhalation and asthmatics because of their inadequately-controlled exposure to airborne sensitisers. We still allow young people to enter workplaces that cause noise-induced hearing loss, hand-arm vibration syndrome and, above all, mental distress and
musculoskeletal harm.

Wellbeing programmes have their place; they are valuable in themselves and are an effective way to engage a diverse workforce. We saw this at the London 2012 Olympics construction programme, when a campaign to encourage workers to have breakfast, with an emphasis on porridge, raised all sorts of questions about obesity and diabetes as well as the impact of low blood sugar on construction operatives' concentration and its contribution to accidents. Talking to people about their health reinforced the efforts we were making to manage the work risks through good occupational hygiene.

Safety and health professionals should help keep wellbeing programmes in perspective and in their place as a contribution to an OSH strategy. We should not allow a new enthusiasm for doing something about health to distract us into ignoring the fundamental responsibility of employers to provide safe and healthy places of work.

You may also be interested in...

 Our interest in past failures is our most likely safeguard against repeating them

Tuesday 25th October 2016
One of the major lessons that should have been absorbed from the Aberfan disaster 50 years ago (see p 17) had to be restated forcefully in Lord Cullen’s report on the Piper Alpha drilling rig explosion and fire which took 167 lives. That lesson was that when a regulator gets too close to the industry it polices there is a high risk that its regulation becomes slack.
Open-access content

 Accentuating the positive

Tuesday 22nd November 2016
Negative headlines, fines, problems and inspections all focus on what is wrong or what people can’t do. These begin to follow us around like a negatively-charged dark cloud. Perhaps we should reflect on our own behaviour because our words and actions can have a profound effect.Positivity is infectious; it’s motivating, engaging and it makes people feel better about themselves. Negativity makes people switch off and turn away. Let’s encourage what people can do rather than say what they can’t.
Open-access content

 Health budgets may need defending post Brexit decision

Monday 26th September 2016
They revealed there was no decline in domestic spending in the British economy after the vote to leave the European Union in June. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has now rowed back slightly on its pessimism about the initial impact of the Brexit decision, upgrading its UK growth forecast to 1.8% for 2016. Share prices are buoyant and the pound’s post-referendum slide against the dollar has stopped. So far, so good; those who predicted an immediate economic tumble after the referendum have been wrongfooted.
Open-access content

 Government to review GP fit note

Tuesday 8th November 2016
The consultation is seeking views on how to halve the disability employment gap; 4.6 million people who are disabled or suffering with long-term health conditions are currently out of work, it says. Less than half (48%) of disabled people are in employment, compared with 80% of the non-disabled population.  Secretary of state for health, Jeremy Hunt, said the National Health Service spends around £7bn a year treating long-term health conditions that keep people out of work, and suggested that employment could help them recover.
Open-access content

 Balancing risk with personal freedom

Wednesday 31st August 2016
Many of the drivers and some of the teams are lobbying for a new device developed by Mercedes, named the “halo”, to be fitted over the front of car cockpits. The halo is designed to shield drivers from pieces of flying debris, but opinions are divided; Hamilton was quoted as saying it should be optional and that he prefers to take the risk.There is a contrast between apparent personal freedoms being curtailed “because of health and safety” and a society in which people generally feel so safe that they take it for granted and want redress when harm arises.
Open-access content

 The sustainability side of OSH in 2017

Tuesday 20th December 2016
Teams of researchers set about trying to lift the lid on a world of work which you, as a reader of this publication, are very much a part of.The book provides a fresh and current perspective on OSH, recognising it has a rich and colourful history that has increasingly been shaped by public perception. For me, the research enabled us to explore how the OSH professional can confidently respond to these changing needs to shape the future. Adaptability, it seems, is key.
Open-access content
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