A think-tank has urged the government to make access to occupational health mandatory for large employers as part of its review of health-related inactivity.
The government’s ‘Get Britain Working’ white paper has outlined a ‘Keep Britain Working’ review to look at the role employers and government can best play in tackling health-related inactivity and in creating healthy workplaces.
The report by The Work Foundation has highlighted that 9% of workers who experience a decline in their health will have left the labour market within four years, half of them within the first 12 months of falling ill.
As a result it has called for a “strategic transformation of occupational health services”, including making offering access to OH mandatory for large employers.
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The foundation, which is based at Lancaster University, tracked the employment journeys of 9,169 UK workers aged 16-60 from 2017/18 to 2021/22, focusing on those who became ill within the first two years of the study. It also found men were more likely to leave within the first year (4.7%) compared with women (3.9%).
The ability to access flexibility at work was key for those with health conditions being able to remain in work, it concluded.
Employees without any flexibility in their job roles were four times more likely to leave work after a health decline, while those with low levels of control over their working hours, pace, tasks, order and work manner were 3.7 times more likely to leave their job.
Being affected by multiple health conditions made it significantly more likely that workers would leave employment, the research also concluded.
Those with a single disability or health condition were 1.5 times more likely than those without a health condition or disability to leave work following a negative health transition.
However, this likelihood of leaving work increased to 2.4 times for those with two disabilities or health conditions and to 5.6 times for those with three or more conditions.
In addition, workers with poor mental health who experienced the onset of a disability or health decline were nearly twice as likely (1.9 times) than those with good mental health to leave their job.
The report, Stemming the tide: Healthier jobs to tackle economic inactivity, has outlined a number of key recommendations for government, including urging ministers to:
- ensure the Employment Rights Bill enshrines secure and flexible working from day one of employment;
- revise the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to reflect current modern workforce challenges, including psychosocial risks and mental health issues, and enhance enforcement of mental health risk assessments and preventive measures;
- lead a strategic transformation of occupational health services focused on improved and extended coverage for all workers, with mandatory provision by large employers;
- establish a UK-wide network of one-stop workforce health hubs, offering funded SME services and integrated with public health initiatives;
- strengthen and increase Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) to promote retention and enable a phased return to work; and
- examine the practicalities of extending the duty of care for employers, subsidising the cost of long-term sickness absence, and incentivising vocational rehabilitation.
Foundation director Ben Harrison said: “It’s vital that the Keep Britain Working review identifies new ways for the government and employers to work together to provide this early intervention.”
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