Timed to coincide with Workers’ Memorial Day, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called on organisations in the UK to provide staff with better occupational health assistance.
According to the industry body, every year, two million workers believe they become ill as a result of their jobs.
In order to tackle this phenomenon, the TUC and unionlearn – its learning and skills organisation – are publishing a guide for union safety representatives to aid with occupational health matters.
Entitled Occupational Health: Dealing with the Issues, the manual is designed to enable such reps to assess the extent of ill health in their place of work and how it can be imporved.
"Using this workbook, union reps can learn about all the aspects of occupational health," stated TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.
He added: "Then they can use it to encourage their employers to do much more to make employees feel they are getting a decent level of support from work when they are ill and again when they are on the road towards a full recovery."
Claiming to represent almost seven million employees, the TUC describes itself as "the voice of Britain at work".
