TUC campaigns for better rehabilitation services at work

Last month the TUC stepped up its campaign for improved rehabilitation for sick and injured workers with the publication of the results of a large-scale survey of safety reps.

The survey found that good practice on rehabilitation was linked with employers having formal policy on the issue, a non-disciplinary approach to sickness absence, co-operating with the unions, adopting an active response to ill-health involving all levels of management, investigating work-related causes, and providing good occupational health facilities (see page 23 for further details).

The findings are backed up by a series of examples, where workers suffering from a variety of conditions (including injury, chronic pain and depression) successfully returned to work with the help of reduced and variable hours, redeployment, changes in tasks, equipment modifications and other rehabilitation measures. A detailed account of the approach taken at nine companies and organisations from finance, manufacturing, energy, housing, courts, local government and the NHS is given in a companion report.

The results of the research, which was carried out by the Labour Research Department and funded by the Department for Work and Pensions, are being submitted to an Association of British Insurers consultation exercise on rehabilitation, launched in June.

Rehabilitation and retention: what works is what matters - download from www.tuc.org.uk or phone 020 7636 4030.