Work environment damaging health, says study
published on 08/05/2007
Work environment damaging health, says study
A large number of UK employees suffer some sort of ill health as a result of their working practices, affecting their firm’s productivity as well as their own well being, a new study has found.
Visual display firm ViewSonic said that around 77% of office workers suffer eye fatigue, while 71% suffer backaches and 61% headaches.
It warned employers that failing to promote good working practices could cause problems in the future, adding that almost half of employees said they had been given no advice on healthy working practices.
Almost two thirds of workers said that they would consider taking legal action if conditions at work caused them to suffer a long term illness.
"Not only are employers ignoring the clear productivity benefits of better IT equipment and ergonomics, they are also ignoring their duty of care responsibility and may be opening themselves up to serious legal liabilities in the future," said Mel Taylor, vice president and director of European marketing at ViewSonic.
"We urge both employers and employees to change this casual attitude to ergonomics, companies can do a lot more to instill better working practices but armed with even a little more knowledge, employees can look after themselves a lot more effectively too."
Reference source Westbury Accountants and Business Advisers (01 May 2007)
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