TUC responds to consultation

“Wellbeing washing really is a thing”, the IOSH institution of occupational safety and health has reported after more than 400 respondents in a snap online poll accused their employers of the practice. IOSH describes wellbeing washing as “offering free fruit, gym memberships and yoga classes and the like with one hand while pushing staff towards unsustainable workloads, long hours and burnout on the other”.

In the poll, which attracted responses from nearly 60 countries, workers referred to wide-ranging examples of staff “benefits” they did not want. These included online “wellbeing services”, employment assistance programmes that focus on out-of-hours issues but don’t deal with work or office-related matters; discounts on holidays, which are still too expensive; wellbeing walks they don’t have time to go on; fruit and ice cream; and mental health first aid (MHFA). They described MHFA as a “’box-ticking’ exercise that can sometimes see untrained volunteers do more harm than good”.

The benefits workers say they would actually welcome, but are not getting, include work risk assessments for stress; access to a wider variety of healthy lifestyle classes, not just gym membership or yoga; more support for women on menopausal issues; better mental health support; better management; flexible working; and a more responsive attitude to worker surveys.