Occupational health
Occupational health services (OHS) focus on the health and wellbeing of employees in the workplace, preventing accidents, injury and illness and promoting good mental health.
Everyone has the right to work in a safe, healthy atmosphere and your employer must provide safe systems of work and appropriate equipment.
UNISON provides advice and support to members who have health problems that affect their work and helps them navigate the occupational health process, including accessing assessments and making reasonable adjustments.
On this page
What is occupational health?
Millions of workers in the UK are made ill each year because of their occupations. More than half of this is the result of musculoskeletal conditions such as back pain. Stress also affects more than 500,000 people a year. Most of these illnesses and injuries are easily avoidable.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has identified two elements to occupational health for employers to concentrate on. The first and most important element is the effect of work on employees’ health and the health of others. This includes:
- Identifying what can cause or contribute to ill health in the workplace.
- Determining the action required to prevent people being made ill by work, based on a well-informed assessment of the risks.
- Introducing suitable control measures to prevent ill health, such as back pain arising from working conditions and bad practices.
The second element is to make sure that:
- people with health conditions, or who have a disability or impairment, are not unreasonably prevented from taking up job opportunities;
- people at work are fit to perform their required tasks, for example, by adapting work practices for people with conditions such as epilepsy or asthma, or making sure that those who carry out manual handling tasks are fit to do so.
All of this means nothing unless occupational health addresses the adverse health effect of issues such as poor work organisation, long working hours and lack of employee control over their workload.
What are your employer’s responsibilities?
Every employer must provide a safe workplace and must assess risk at work. There is a whole range of health, safety and welfare legislation that requires such action.
Many employers consider that they meet their legal requirements by having a safety policy and a health and safety officer. However, no single person could have the combination of skills necessary to provide the kind of service required by law.
Employees have a right to protection from hazards in the workplace. Employers must take steps to ensure that they know about the hazards.
What are your responsibilities?
You also have a responsibility to minimise the risks to you and others in the workplace. The most important of these are:
- To take reasonable care not to endanger others at work.
- To use equipment or systems of work in the way you were trained.
- Not to interfere with equipment or processes provided.
- To report injuries, illnesses or accidents at work.
- To report any aspect of your life that may affect safety at work (such as being on medication that can affect your ability to carry out your work).
The role of UNISON branches
The importance of occupational health, the type of services provided and the way it is provided should all be seen as negotiating issues in the same way as any other conditions of service.
UNISON branches can do their bit to promote a healthy workplace. Some UNISON branches have a social club; often this means just a bar. Consideration could be given to healthier activities such as sponsoring sports tournaments, organising lunchtime aerobics, yoga classes or a trip to a local swimming pool.
Also, joint employer/UNISON initiatives on issues such as smoking, health screening, blood donations and other health-related issues could be far more effective than just an employer’s initiatives.
Employers, as well as UNISON members, could benefit from good occupational health schemes, as it would stem the flow of work-related illness. With good schemes in place and a structured approach, prevention would also be of great significance.
External advice and support
Frequently asked questions
Legal disclaimer
The information contained within this article is not a complete or final statement of the law and is based on the laws of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
While UNISON has sought to ensure that the information is accurate and up to date, it is not responsible and will not be held liable for any inaccuracies and their consequences, including any loss arising from relying on this information. If you are a UNISON member with a legal problem, please contact your branch or region as soon as possible for advice, or for non-employment matters call UNISONdirect.