I would welcome the views of the group on the requirement for health
screening night shift workers under the working time directive.
When we first looked at this requirement several years ago, we assessed that
it wuold be sufficient to send out confidential questionnaires to 1500 of
our nightshift workers to establish whether they suffered from any medical
conditions which they felt were exacerbated by working nightshift as per the
DTI guidance on the Regs (In fact many of our employees work a rotating
pattern of days and nights so would therefore be classed as nightshift
workers under the Regs)
On receipt of the completed questionnaires,we arranged to see only the
individuals who felt they had conditions which were exacerbated by night
work.
However the WTD Regulations do not prescribe the frequency of the intervals
to repeat the screening- they merely state that it is to take place "at
regular intervals"
I am interested in what the group would view as a regular interval and what
other Occ Health services are actually carrying out in this area.
I would be very grateful for your comments.
Aileen Stewart
Occupational Health Manager
Nec Semiconductors (Uk) Ltd
|