Employers to urge staff to lead healthier lives

Employers will be called on to encourage their workers to bring healthier lifestyles to the office, shop and factory floor as part of a controversial health-work balance campaign to be launched by the Government in the new year.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Alan Johnson said that maintaining the health of the workforce was in the interests of employers and society. The Health Secretary's comments came as the Government prepares to release the findings of a two-year study by Dame Carol Black on the health of Britain's workers.

Employers are to be urged to provide more workplace showers to encourage more staff to jog or cycle to work, and encourage their staff to go to the gym as part of a drive to reduce days off work through ill-health and the "sick-note culture".

Mr Johnson said it was "incredible" that 175 million working days a year were lost to sickness absence. "It is a big cost to the economy. But employers can cut the amount of sick absence by doing quite modest things," he said. Measures include consulting staff about the things that would help them. "For instance, having a shower available at work could help them cycle in or jog in, because they are reluctant to do that if there is not a facility for a shower afterwards," he said.

"Employers could engage with staff about why they are feeling ill, and ask what they can do to help them, because they spend a lot of time in the workplace. We think that could have enormous benefits.

"In the prison service, they introduced an absence policy which encourages officers back to work, with safeguards for employees with serious conditions and disabilities. They have seen a 25 per cent reduction in sick absence in the past five years. The National Audit Office said it was saving 38m."

The TUC, however, warned against employers moralising over lifestyle issues in its submission to the Black review. Drug and alcohol issues were a concern, but the TUC said employers should not attempt to interfere in what staff did outside the office if it had no bearing on what they did at work.

The TUC was also sceptical about the value of modest measures, such as healthy food in staff canteens, subsidised gym membership or access to counselling for those with drug or alcohol problems. Lunchtime yoga classes are no substitute for reducing stress at work, it said.

Access to fresh fruit was a good thing, but it would be of limited value to employees who could never take a lunch break. Nor would gym access be a benefit to those who work late, night after night, the TUC added.

Some employers, meanwhile, are expected to complain about the additional costs on business of providing more facilities for their workers to keep fit.

Mr Johnson has been working with Peter Hain, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on using the report by Dame Carol in February to give impetus to the strategy for getting incapacity benefit claimants back to work.

GPs who issue the sick notes are also being pressed to open for longer hours by Mr Johnson to enable workers to go to their surgeries at weekends or in the evening. Mr Johnson is planning for half of Britain's GPs to offer longer hours.

"We are talking to the BMA about 50 per cent of GP surgeries being open for three or four hours longer during the week, at night and at weekends," he said.

Fitness regimes

* Boots: Offers a "People Pack" to every employee which includes a free pedometer, fruit snack, Vitamin C and a tape measure. "Wednesday Walks" promotion encourages employees to take 25-minute power walk around the HQ.

* Ministry of Defence: Has set target to reduce absence by 2.5 per cent, partly by ensuring early intervention by occupational health specialists.

* Cadbury Trebor Bassett: Offers staff on-site weight management, smoking cessation, stress and back care workshops. Also on-site running clubs and Tai Chi.