Employers should be fined for unhealthy
workplaces, says thinktank
================================================

Employers should be fined if they create
unhealthy workplaces, as part of Wes Streeting's
plan to get unemployed people fit to work,
according to a leading thinktank.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
said employers that fail to provide a healthier
work environment for their staff, such as
subsidised nutritious food, should face
regulatory action, including fines and public
censure.

The proposal comes after the health secretary
announced that weight loss jabs, such as
Ozempic, could be given to unemployed people to
help them get back into work. Streeting added
that this would also ease demands on the NHS
caused by obesity.

But Chris Thomas, head of the IPPR's Commission
on Health and Prosperity, said that it would not
be effective to send people back to work after
medical treatment into a workplace that was
detrimental to their health.

He said that employers and the government should
agree standards for good health in the
workplace, with firms then taking responsibility
for monitoring their compliance with those
objectives.

Employers that failed to take reasonable steps
to mitigate any harm to employees' health, which
Thomas described as a "do no harm duty", should
face regulatory action by the Health and Safety
Executive.

For example, the regulator could take action
against large firms where there were
"unacceptable rates of people leaving the
workforce" because of poor health.

Thomas said the role of the HSE should be
expanded to deal with poor health caused by
work, including obesity, anxiety and depression,
in the same way as workplace accidents, such as
falling off a ladder.

He said the approach would be similar to the
Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) consumer
duty that requires financial services to avoid
causing foreseeable harm to their customers,
with those that failed to do so facing fines or
public censure.

"One of the big factors we find in whether a
workplace is conducive or detrimental to
someone's weight and their nutrition is access
directly to healthy food," said Thomas, co-
author of a recent IPPR report on obesity and
the labour market.

"There are still some workplaces that are pretty
good at providing subsidised nutritious food,
but not the vast majority. If you work in a very
high-pressured office environment, are you going
to be able to take the time to prepare your
food, to eat lunch properly? Working on a shift
pattern, are you going to be more reliant on
takeaways open at four o'clock in the morning
when you're travelling home?

"If we send people back after medical
intervention to an environment that made them
sick in the first place, then we're not doing
the most effective thing."

Thomas added that smaller firms should be
offered financial incentives to help improve
their employees' health. He pointed to a
programme run by the West Midlands combined
authority, made up of 18 local councils, where
some small and medium-sized businesses were
given funding to improve employee health and
wellbeing, as a possible model.

Sir Norman Lamb, the former Liberal Democrat MP
and health minister, who chaired a mental health
action plan that preceded the West Midlands
programme, suggested that if the government did
raise employer national insurance contributions,
this could be waived for those companies that
improved workplace health and wellbeing.

"Or you impose a levy on employers that you
don't have to pay if you engage in evidence-
based approaches to keeping your employees
healthy," Lamb added. "So you incentivise
employers to behave well."

Joanna Hofman, deputy director employment,
skills and equality at RAND Europe, which
evaluated the West Midlands programme, said
companies that received financial incentives -
of GBP 100 or GBP 200 per employee - did more to
improve the health and wellbeing of employees
than firms which received no additional funding.

But she noted that this did not necessarily lead
to employees adopting healthier lifestyles. "We
didn't find changes in self-reported health and
wellbeing behaviours among the staff. Employers
might provide facilities or services to improve
physical activity or advice about nutrition, but
whether and how that's going to be taken up by
their employees is not entirely within their
control."



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