Developing a company eyecare policy – your 8 point plan

Employers have a legal responsibility to look after the eyecare of staff using VDUs. They also have a duty of care to make sure employees using company vehicles are safe to drive.

Of course paying attention to eye health pays other dividends too.  Sight tests can often uncover other conditions, such as diabetes, high cholesterol or low or high blood pressure, which may otherwise go undetected.

Developing a comprehensive company eyecare policy helps to ensure that managers are clear about the company’s legal responsibilities – and employees know what’s on offer and what the business is doing to comply with its obligations.

Accor Services has published a comprehensive guide to ‘ Developing a Company Eyecare Policy – Your Options and Legal Obligations’. The guideexplores these issues and identifies other sound business reasons for developing and communicating an eyecare policy:

Liability:  Rightly or wrongly, almost two thirds of workers attribute a deterioration in their eyesight to use of a computer a work.

Productivity:  70 per cent of workers experience blurred vision, headache, migraine, dizzy spells or nausea as a result of using a computer at work.

Attendance:  1.5 million workers have gone absent with eye-related illness.

Recruitment: Two-thirds of workers say benefits packages have a clear influence on their career decisions.  86 per cent would take advantage of help with their eyecare.

Reputation: 90 per cent of employees believe workers rights should be openly communicated.  Failure to inform employees of the right to free eye tests could damage your reputation, while offering tests and  other support and information could help to enhance it.

So how should you go about putting an eyecare policy together?  The following eight point plan – taken from the Accor Services’ guide – summarises the key areas you should cover:

1. Purpose and scope of the policy
   Explain why the policy has been introduced – i.e. to ensure that employees who use VDUs regularly minimise any risk to their health or eyesight.  If you plan to make sight tests available to all staff – whether VDU users or not – explain your reasons.  This might be to promote general health and well-being, for example, or to ensure the safety of company car drivers.
   
   
2. Explanation of the key legislation
   Your policy should explain that as a responsible employer, you have put measures in place to comply with relevant legislation.  The key regulations are The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 and The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.  The Corporate Manslaughter Bill is also relevant for those organisations running company vehicles.
   
   
3. Definition of key terms
   Make sure the policy is easy to understand and that important terms such as ‘DSE’ (Display Screen Equipment) and ‘workstation’ are defined.
   
   
4. Employer and employee responsibilities
   The policy should clearly define the role of the employer in meeting the regulations – i.e. paying for eye tests, arranging regular breaks.  Explain what processes you have in place to meet your obligations (i.e. Eyecare Voucher scheme) and how employees can take advantage of them.  You can also use the policy to set out the steps employees themselves can take to minimise the effects of VDUs.
   
   
5. Risk assessments
   Explain what the features of a safe workstation actually are (i.e. good lighting, adjustable chair, screen height) and set out the process the organisation has in place to assess risks and needs.
   
   
6. Training
   The policy provides an excellent opportunity to give employees general background about VDU health and safety and if relevant, the importance of driver eyecare.  You can also include information about training sessions on offer to employees.
   
   
7. Monitoring and review
   Include information in your policy about how and when you will assess workstations and how often you will run training sessions.
   
   
8. Record keeping
   Make sure you develop a system to log all employees who have been provided with eye tests and ensure they are followed up at the required time (normally two years).

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