Aileen,

The guide published by the DTI 'Your guide to the working time regulations'
Section 4 - Health Assessments for Night Workers Para 1 States
 " If you are an Employer you must offer night workers a free health
assessment before they start working nights and on a regular basis while
they are working nights and on a regular basis while they are working
nights.  In many cases it will be appropriate to do this once a year."

This says to me that you need to offer it annually, or more frequently if
you have just cause.  Here we have an intranet site that all workers can
access that tells them they can have a health assessment at any time they
choose - they only need to ask. No one has taken me up on it yet. I have
included the night assessment questions in the Pre- placement questionnaire
so all new employees are screened before they start work.  There are always
cases that need special consideration - pregnancy for example, but I deal
with these as and when they arise.

Regards,

Jeremy R F Smith
RGN AIIRSM BSc Hons (OHN)
Occupational Health Advisor - Dover Harbour Board


-----Original Message-----
From: Aileen Stewart [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 07 June 2001 10:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Working Time Regulations -requirement for health screening


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


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