IOSH
Managing trauma at work
and
Employment Law Update
5th December 2014
Stephen Robinson
Michelle Gray
Partner
Associate Partner
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Managing trauma at work
By Michelle Gray
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What will the talk cover?
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Statistics
Legal requirements
Other requirements
Practical response
Secondary victims
Benefits
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Current Statistics
•Estimated £14.2 billion - cost to the economy for work related injuries and ill-health
•Estimated 28.2 million - working days lost
•133 workers fatally injured in 2013/2014
•629,000 -injuries at work
•Main industrial sectors that have the highest rates of fatal injuries
o Construction – 1900 (major/specified injuries)
o Agriculture – 292 (major/specified injuries)
o Manufacturing 3159 (major specified injuries)
o Recycling – 486 (major/specified injuries)
-HSE Report 29 October 2014
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A CASE EXAMPLE
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Pyranha Mouldings Ltd in Runcorn
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Alan Catterall, 54, from Runcorn, Cheshire,
had gone into the oven to fix a fault when
operator Mark Francis, not realising he was
still working inside, switched the machine
on and locked him in.
•
Liverpool Crown Court heard that because
there was no alarm Mr Catterall tried to
escape using a crowbar but because of the
noisy working environment no one heard his cries for help.
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What are my legal obligations as an
employer?
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 – SI 1999/3234,
•
Requirement to manage the health and safety aspects of their activities
in a systematic and responsible way.
•
The Regulations include requirements for risk assessment, the availability
of competent health and safety advice and emergency procedures.
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations
2013, SI 2013/1471,
•
The primary purpose of RIDDOR 2013 is to impose a duty on employers
to:
o report to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and
o to maintain records of certain occurrences
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Are there any other steps to
consider?
 Addressing medical requirements – for example emergency services
 Any remaining immediate threat – evacuation?
 Emergency response plan in place?
 Consideration of preserving the scene
 Authorities – who will have control of the site?
 Prohibition Notice?
 Press
 Employers own investigation
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What is trauma?
• Different to stress
• ‘Deeply distressing or disturbing experience’
(dictionary definition)
• Symptoms of flashbacks, persistent anxiety, sleep
disturbance, distraction, nervousness, PTSD
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More statistics - trauma
• 1.5% of all workers suffering in any given year
• 9 out of 10 will suffer a traumatic event in their
lives
• A third will develop trauma-related illnesses
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I work in HR- how should I respond to
an employee dealing with trauma?
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No “one size fits all” approach
Don’t assume
Communicate
Seek professional advice
Keep records
Consider reasonable adjustments
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Policy Considerations
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• However, nothing can beat
being prepared in the occasion
of any traumatic event.
• A specific policy can provide
essential clarity and guidance for
secondary victims and their
managers and are significantly
under utilised by employers
across all sectors.
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Policy considerations
cont……
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Risk assessment
Trigger points
Referral
Monitoring
Training
Review
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TraumaA focus on secondary victims
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Legal-How do the courts define
secondary victims?
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A secondary victim is someone who, when witnessing an accident, suffers injury
consequential upon the injury, or fear of injury, to a primary victim.
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Taylor v A Novo 2013
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Prevented a daughter recovering damages for psychiatric injury following the
death of her mother three weeks after an accident at work.
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Daughter had witnessed her mothers death but not the accident itself.
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Undisputed that if the daughter had been present at the time of her mothers
accident at work, and suffered PTSD as a result, she would have been classed as
a secondary victim and been entitled to recover damages for her injury.
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THINK OUTSIDE
THE BOX
• It doesn‘t take just a physical event to produce secondary victims of
trauma.
• Think about how all your existing working practices could be traumatic
to those with close encounters to them:
•Redundancy
•Disciplinary
•Workplace bullying
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Benefits of trauma
management
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What are the benefits of
trauma management?
In a study at the Royal Mail Group over a 2 year period, 815 RMG workers were
identified as having been exposed to a traumatic incident and then tracked for a 13
month period.
RMG were using a combination of:
•Early crisis management on the day of the
incident,
•SPoT ‘support post-trauma’ meetings and
•Further ongoing support from a medical
professional.
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RMG study continued…
37% of the respondents reported receiving some form of crisis management on the day of the
incident and SPoT and those that did scored significantly higher on three important aspects of
post trauma management:
1.Reassurance that symptoms were normal
2.Knowledge of where to go for further information about their reactions
3.Knowledge of who and where to go in the organisation for further support
Absence was found to be significantly correlated with perceived organisational support, with
those who felt supported immediately post trauma having lower absence 12 months later.
- Early Intervention Following Trauma (2006) British Occupational Health Research Foundation
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What are the other benefits
to trauma management?
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Minimise exposure to legal implications
Operational services will recover more quickly
PR
Reassure employees
Minimise management time
Reduce cost of recruiting temporary staff
Reduce sickness absence
Productivity
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Employment Law Update
(from a health and safety perspective)
By Stephen Robinson
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During National Health and Safety at Work Week at the beginning of
November 2014, the 11th biennial TUC survey of union health and safety
representatives was published. It looked at the top-five hazards.
They were stress in first place, then bullying and harassment, overwork,
back strains and slips, and trips and falls on a level.
Over two-thirds of safety reps (67 per cent) taking part in the survey said
that stress, and the effect it is having on their colleagues, is one of the
main concerns they have to deal with at work.
One in six of the workplace reps who completed the survey say their
employers are failing to conduct risk assessments in breach of health and
safety law.
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Stress
The latest YouGov polling for the TUC has found that:
• Two thirds of employed people say the amount of work they are expected to do
has grown over the past few years
• More than a third are expected to do unpaid overtime
• One in five say they have seen at least one person sacked or made redundant
without good reason.
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Stress accounts for 40% of all work related illness
Total number of working days due to stress,
depression or anxiety was 11.3 million in
2013/2014
OECD estimates the cost of mental ill health to UK
employers at £26bn each year
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Solutions to stress
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Try to identify the cause if possible!
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Provide guidance to line managers and managers to spot the symptoms
and warning signs of stress amongst employees
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The Stress Management Society suggest that for every £1 you invest in
staff well-being, there’s a return of £3 in improved efficiency and
productivity
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Ensure employees have regular one to ones and/or appraisals
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Remote working culture can be difficult to monitor – keep lines of
communication open as always
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Google is one employer who have
introduced creative solutions to
stress management from offering
free food and massages while on site
to nap pods for employees to take a
break in…
… BUT, some have commented that
these unique solutions only serve to
provide more stress on employees,
making them feel that now there is
no ‘excuse’ to leave the office at all
and promoting the long hours
culture.
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A poll from One Poll surveyed more than 2,000 people and found that
more than 50% of all workers believe being open about a common mental
health problem would damage their career prospects.
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ABSENCE MANAGEMENT
CIPD Annual survey on absence management 2014:
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The number of days taken by employees as sick leave has fallen from an average of 7.6
days in 2013 to 6.6 days this year
There has been a fluctuating downward trend in absence rates over the last five years in
all business sectors other than production and manufacturing which have remained
largely constant
The median cost of absence is £609 per employee (which has changed little over the last
few years)
Minor illnesses such as colds, stomach upsets and migraines are the most common cause
of short term absences
Stress is a common cause of long term absence
Two fifths of employers reported that stress absences had increased over the last year
with workload being cited as the most common cause of stress
The average absence rate in the private sector is 5.5 days per year
Public sector organisations have the highest absence rates with the average number of
sick days in these organisations falling from 8.7 days last year to 7.9 days this year
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•
When junior doctor Ed Holloway took time off
sick, colleagues were happy to cover for him.
•
But after he returned to work with a suntan –
even though the weather at home had been
miserable – they became suspicious.
•
However, when one of them recognised his
voice on the TV commentary for a showjumping event in the US that they realised they
had fallen for an audacious con.
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Far from being at home recovering from his
illness, the urologist had been moonlighting by
making TV appearances at top eventing
competitions.
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Mr Holloway was sacked and has now been
struck off after a disciplinary panel ruled his
repeated dishonesty was ‘fundamentally
incompatible’ with working as a doctor.
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United Biscuits Strike
Absence levels are apparently at 3 times the industry average but the GMB Union
has hit back and blamed poor management style for low morale and high levels of
absence.
A spokesman for the company has said that "No employee is in any way worse off
in relation to the proposals being discussed. Casual absence at Aintree is running at
8%, the highest levels we've seen since 2006 and three to four times the national
average. This means that at any given time one in 12 of the workforce
at Aintree is off sick, costing the company 16,000 working days a year.
This is unsustainable.”
The firm wants to use a points system, known as the Bradford
Factor, which gives a higher score for staff who take frequent
short absences.
The GMB fears the new system will result in more staff with
high scores losing their jobs and being penalised for absence.
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Dealing with absence management
• Maintain a clear and concise policy and stick to it
• Ensure all employees are aware of the policy and/or any plans to change
it and why
• Be consistent
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Contagious diseases and
Ebola
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Sometimes absence can’t be helped or avoided
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Nurovirus, flu and in extreme cases life threatening disease
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Ebola is an extreme but topical example – how would your company fare if the
infection reached UK shores?
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There is still no known cure to Ebola
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Just four NHS Hospitals are on standby to deal with cases
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What to do?
Few companies in the UK have taken specific advice or implemented a specific
policy in relation to the outbreak and there is no definitive guide.
Here’s our round-up of the best advice out there:
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Monitor advice from agencies like the HSE and WHO.
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Update contact details of employees and circulate the emergency contact
details for key employees
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Displaying signs of the symptoms and the steps employees should take if they
suspect they may have come into contact with someone with Ebola
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Ask employees to report to HR if they have been to a high risk destination or inn
in contact with someone who has been to a high risk destination regardless of
whether or not they are exhibiting symptoms.
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Conduct a risk assessment to identify areas of standard business practice which
would make the workplace vulnerable in the event of either an isolated
incidence of Ebola or a wider pandemic
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Review health and safety policies and workplace hygiene practices.
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Review contingency plans for staff absence arising from employees or
dependents suffering from symptoms.
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Consider how to deal with employees who refuse to attend work through
fear of contracting the virus from colleagues or in the belief that they are
unreasonably exposed as a result of their particular duties.
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Review the effectiveness of IT and communication facilities to support homeworking. Systems should be adequately stress-tested to potentially hold up to
significant numbers of employees working remotely where possible
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Review relevant HR policies. In particular, sickness absence and dependent
leave policies should be revisited. Consider whether more flexibility will be
required, and ensure that relevant policies and any changes made to them are
clearly communicated to employees.
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Be prepared to enforce absence and to ask employees to stay at home if
necessary to avoid the spread of infection until they and/or colleagues have
been medically cleared to return.
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Those with organised workforces may need to consider whether to involve their
respective employee forums or trade unions in planning and communicating
advice effectively to employees. Some employers will already have plans in
place but they should still be kept under review to ensure that the contents are
appropriate in the current circumstances.
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Caution on being too
overzealous however…
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A security guard has been told not to go to work over
fears he may have ebola because he visited Africa.
• Sam Ogunnoiki, 46, went to Nigeria – 2,000 miles away
from the nearest country with the disease – but faces a
three-week quarantine.
• He was told by bosses at Stout Security Ltd that he needs to
get the all-clear from a British doctor before he can go back
to work.
• The letter said: ‘Several members of staff have now voiced
their concerns about the possibility of your carrying the
Ebola’.
• He is on a zero-hours contract so now worries about not
being paid.
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Any questions?
Please feel free to approach us at the end or email us
with any further queries
Stephen.Robinson@laytons.com
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stephenrobinsonemploymentlaw
@Srobinsonlaw
Michelle.Gray@laytons.com
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/michellegrayemploymentlawyer
@MichelleGEmpLaw
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