Chapter 10
Occupational health
[ch 10: page 198]An occupational health scheme is a service which gives access to a range of professional advice and services to staff.
The European Union’s Framework Directive (EEC/89/391) requires that all workers have access to preventive occupational health services. However, the way this duty was transposed into UK law meant that, in practice, only a small minority of workers had access to comprehensive occupational health support at work. According to TUC figures, two million people are suffering from a work-related condition but only one in eight UK workers have access to an occupational health doctor.