The use of pre-employment health checks could be made illegal if a Lords amendment to the Equality Bill becomes law. The House of Lords recently introduced the ground-breaking clause into the Equality Bill that would, for the first time, prevent employers asking candidates questions about their health that are unrelated to the job role.

The proposals focus on pre-employment inquiries and their place within the recruitment process.

The proposals suggest that employers should not be permitted to make use of pre-employment health-related questions that are not directly relevant to the candidate’s ability, in particular for the job for which he or she has applied.

According to the law firm Eversheds, employers who ask candidates about their health pre-job offer will be required to prove at tribunal that they did not discriminate against the individual if they did not get the job.

However, employers who ask candidates about their health after a job offer, and then discover they are not fit for the role, can make reasonable adjustments or justify their need to withdraw the job offer.

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The HSE, in launching a hard hitting campaign, has identified that around 40 people lost their lives in the workplace last year from slip, trip and fall incidents. Overall the cost to society is estimated £800 million each year.

HSE figures show that slips and trips are the most common cause of major workplace injury in Britain. More workplace deaths are triggered by falls from height than any other cause, according to official statistics. In addition to 40 fatalities, there were over 15,000 major injuries to workers, as well as over 30,000 workers having to take over three days off work.

As well as the tragic human cost, preventable slips, trips and falls are having a serious financial impact on the UK.  In response, HSE is launching a new phase of its Shattered Lives campaign, aimed at reducing slips, trips and falls in the workplace. The hard hitting campaign involves raising awareness of the impact of slips, trips and falls in the workplace and direct people to the new Shattered Lives websitewww.hse.gov.uk/shatteredlives for practical advice and guidance.

The campaign is targeted at those sectors where there are a high number of slips, trips and falls incidents each year, specifically, health and social care, education, food manufacturing, food retail, catering and hospitality, building and plant maintenance, and construction.

On the new campaign website, people will be able to find out information on how they can easily, and cost-effectively, reduce the risk of slips, trips and falls in the workplace, and see what other organisations have done. Advice ranges from how to deal with spills and other slip risks, to the importance of using ladders correctly to reduce the risk of falling from height.

Does your organisation suffer with slips, trips and falls and is it an area of health and safety that you don’t know how to deal with? At MESH we have extensive experience of helping companies to improve their health and safety controls; why not contact us to see how we could help you?

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According to a health employment specialist people have grown increasingly complacent over the threat of swine flu, especially in the workplace. The concern has been raised that despite recently released Government figures have shown the number of new cases of the virus are falling, that employers still need to be on their guard.

There are still 211 patients in hospital with swine flu in England, 62 of whom are in critical care. The Health Protection Agency overall estimate of the number of cases in the last week remains below 5,000, which it has been for the last three weeks.

The advice is that employers need to be aware that, as long as people are still contracting swine flu, there is every chance that they will be running on empty with a seriously depleted workforce at some point in the near future. Where employers do not take adequate steps to manage this situation then it may be necessary to suspend workers with pay, on health and safety grounds.

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A care home firm has been fined £100,000 after a disabled teenager was fatally scalded in what a judge called an “easily avoidable” accident.

Paraplegic Yelena Hasselberg-Langley, 18, died in hospital four days after being lowered into the “excessively hot” water at a supported living centre in Owens Way, Oxford. London-based Lifeways Community Care, which runs the home, admitted health and safety breaches at a hearing last year and was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £45,000 costs plus £15 victim surcharge at Oxford Crown Court.

On sentencing the judge said: “The case evokes a great deal of pity for her suffering and a sense of outrage that her ensuing scalding injury and death could have been easily avoided. She was blind, paraplegic, epileptic and severely disabled. She had some power of speech but couldn’t clearly communicate her distress when placed in the bath and she would have suffered excruciating agony before being taken to hospital.”

The Health and Safety Executive, which prosecuted the company, said the water was “excessively hot” at more than 44C (111.2F).

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