Accor Services - Life@Work: Driver Eyecare - Are you Meeting your Legal Obiligations?

The Corporate Manslaughter Act has fuelled debate around whether sight tests for drivers of commercial vehicles � including employees driving company cars � should be made compulsory.

Previously, unless the employer was asking the employee to do something illegal, such as make a journey in a time that would mean breaking the speed limit, the company could not be held responsible for any accidents. A company could only be convicted of manslaughter if a managing director or chairman was personally responsible for allowing the person to drive.

The new law allows for prosecution arising from management failures when an accident �at work� results in a death, explains Andrew Adams, eyecare voucher sales manager at Accor Services.

�For the first time in the UK an employer can be held accountable for a fatal accident caused by an employee as a result of poor eyesight if significant management failures could be identified and proved against the company. Ignorance of the need for a driver to wear glasses certainly would not be a good enough excuse,� he explains.

Although there has not been a test case on this issue, driver eyecare is certainly something organisations need to consider as part of their duty of care towards employees and steps should be taken to implement an appropriate policy.

Accor Services� Andrew Adams recommends the following four sections are included in any driver eyecare policy:

Purpose and scope: explain what the policy is designed to do, for example, ensure the people who drive vehicles as part of their role minimise any risk to their health or the health of other road users when driving on company business.
Employer and employee responsibilities: define the role of the employer as the provider of sight tests because the individual�s job role requires them to drive on company business. Make the employee aware of the steps they can personally take to make them safer on the road.
Monitoring and review: state the need for employees to provide proof they have had their eyes tested and that they are not required to wear glasses to drive. Alternatively, require those who do wear glasses to sign a document stating they will wear these at all times when driving on company business
Record keeping: develop an appropriate system to log all users who have been provided with eye tests and ensure they are followed up at the appropriate time, for example, every two years.

To enable companies to better understand their new legal obligations and develop an appropriate driver eyecare policy, Accor Services has developed a Driver Eyecare White Paper. The document details the issues that should be included in the policy and the options available for employers to manage an eyecare scheme.

Driver eyecare – are you meeting your legal obligations?

October 2008 marks the six-month anniversary of the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter Bill. Yet even though this legislation has put the spotlight firmly on driver eyecare, few companies have acknowledged the significance of the issue and put in place a suitable driver eyecare policy.