A guide for safety representatives and other trade union representatives offering practical advice on long-term sickness absence and return-to-work issues has been published by the Health & Safety Executive.
It outlines six key actions that union representatives can take in partnership with employers to reduce sickness absence and help sick employees to successfully return to work.
Actions recommended include helping to identify measures to improve worker health, and suggesting the development of workplace policies for managing sickness absence.
It also advises on helping to keep workers who are off sick in contact with work, helping to plan adjustments to enable a return to work, supporting and empowering sick workers to return to work and helping to promote understanding of ill health and disability at work.
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The leaflet, Working together to prevent sickness absence becoming job loss, can be found on the HSE website.
Go to www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/web02.pdf
