Employers should be made to provide health and wellbeing support to workers, report says

In a report published on 21 October, the RSPH said that 47 per cent of the UK workforce cannot access health support such as general health checks or flu vaccinations through their employers. This is especially true for people working in lower-paid jobs in industries such as hospitality and agriculture.

Photograph: iStock/katleho seisa

“As it stands, our workplaces are exacerbating health inequalities,” said RSPH chief executive William Roberts. “This means that millions of people that would most benefit from workplace health support are missing out.

“We know that businesses want to do more to build healthy workplaces and support their employees. This report sets out a clear and actionable set of recommendations that will make a real impact if implemented by policymakers.”

The report recommends that the Government introduces a mandatory national ‘Health and Work Standard’ that would set a minimum level of health support to which employees should be entitled, and that training is provided to HR professionals to ensure that health improvements for workers are introduced across their organisations.

It also calls for smaller businesses to be incentivised to invest in the health of their workers, and for the Government to collect data on the health of the workforce so that the effectiveness of interventions can be measured. The RSPH wants to see sick pay being made available from day one of a person’s employment and for it to apply from the first day they are off sick.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that a record 2.8 million people are economically inactive due to ill health. The RSPH argues that putting an emphasis on building healthier workplaces could help reduce the economic cost of ill health, which it estimates is about £100 billion each year.

“With record numbers of people dropping out of the labour market and around 185 million working days lost to ill health in the UK each year, supporting health through workplaces couldn’t be more important or timely,” said the RSPH.

The report follows analysis published earlier this year by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), which found that the cost of worker illness to businesses in the UK increased by £30 billion between 2018 and 2023. The IPPR has called for a “reimagining” of the role that businesses play in the health of the UK population. It wants to see the introduction of a tax incentive for companies that commit to “significant improvements in the health of their workforce”, as well as new compulsory reporting on worker health.

The IPPR report said there was a “unique opportunity” for the UK to transition to a “health-led economy”, whereby employers would be expected to “do more to ensure good workplace health across the economy”.

In its new Employment Rights Bill, the Government said that workers would be entitled to statutory sick pay (SSP) from the first day they are ill, instead of the fourth day as is currently the case. It also said the lower earnings limit to quality for SSP would be removed.

“The Employment Rights Bill is a big step in the right direction, but we need to go further and quicker,” said the RSPH’s Roberts. “We need to think about how we use our workplaces to build health, keep people well and prevent people being signed off sick.”

Safety Management has approached the Government for comment.