The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health has called on the Government to put greater emphasis on good occupational health and wellbeing.
The statement coincides with the political party conference season, with Glasgow currently hosting the Liberal Democrat’s event. Richard Jones, head of policy and public affairs at IOSH, has underlined the importance of better awareness: “We need a national wake-up call to make sure health and wellbeing is taken more seriously,” he said.
IOSH will be meeting with politicians at all three of the main political party conferences, and will communicate the message that health and safety must no longer be the ‘Cinderella’ of workplace management.
“Health and safety professionals have lots of practical advice for making life better for everyone, helping to improve health and preventing a multitude of disorders,” said Mr. Jones.
Though illness is less instant or as dramatic than injury, he said, it can be equally devastating and more must be done to tackle them.
The IOSH stand at the conference, with a display inspired by the board game Operation, taking a lighter hearted look at common workplace injuries.
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Stress management is the next asbestos like risk in terms of a seemingly intangible inert everyday element of the working environment that represents a significant hazard to well-being, performance and productivity.
If we can just eliminate doing nothing and/or denial as an option then doing something, anything, is going to be better than sleep walking into another occupational health nightmare of biblical proportions.
Occupational health has and continues to be given less priority as the effect generally is longerterm that many employers do not heed due to short term thinking and other constraints.
SHP please ensure that you get IOSH name correct, it is “Institution” of Occupational Safety & Health, NOT the “Institute” of Occupational Safety & Health
Hi Jay, I’ve made that correction. Thanks for flagging it up.
How can ‘greater emphasis’ be made on Occ Hlth matters when noise and hand-arm vibration, for example, are suitably regulated. The fact that I’ve never seen a proper noise assessment (apart from my own!) in my 22 yrs in the profession, leads me to believe that, apart from asbestos, HSE’s priorities have not been focussed on Occ Hlth matters. In any event, I strongly suspect that any political involvement will fall on deaf ears!