Morning,

I have followed HSG 6 with regards to medical considerations for Lift Truck Operators, and of course I am aware this is guidance and not compulsory, (although would be deemed by the HSE to be doing enough to comply with the law). We have from the guidance produced a medical questionnaire which has been issued with guidance notes to our Lift Truck Operators. However a number of personnal claim the form is intrusive and are refusing to complete the forms, we have only asked that they be completed initially and then every five years until 65 then yearly, also the questions are taken from the guidance notes issued from the HSE.
My question is where do we now stand with pesonnel who refuse to sign the forms. I am fully aware of Section 7 (b), also I believe we are doing everything reasonable with regards to Section 2(2) also Management of Health & Safety At Work Regs Reg 6 & PUWER 1999.
Any thoughs have a missed something ? would you class this as intrusive ? after all an LGV driver would require to carry out a mediacal at forty five and at five yeraly intervals, so what's the difference?

Many thanks

cheers safety smurf, must admit can't really see the issue here, thankfully it's only the minority.

I suppose it depends to some extent on how intrusive the questions are? Assuming the information is needed to assess people's competence, then that is all there is too it - like it or not. The company are obliged to asses people's competence to ensure their own safety and others. Perhaps this point could be emphasised a bit more.

The only similar experience I can relate to is handing out a company health surveillance form. Some of the guys were a bit reluctant to either complete it or to be honest about any ill health. They were suspicious that it might lead to them losing their job. Given the risk of losing your income or aggravating a health problem, many would choose the latter which is understandable.

People are often suspicious of anything that they feel may be used ‘against’ them, and affect their employment prospects, but all employees should be fit to do their work, and depending on the risk there are occasions where health or medical questionnaires and even medical examinations are either reasonable or required. Both questionnaires and examinations are by their very nature, and out of necessity are, and will appear to be, intrusive. If they weren’t, then they probably wouldn’t be very effective.

While doing some work on vibration recently I came across something in L140 (para76) that might be helpful or relevant, in which the guidance suggests “It may be appropriate to include details of health surveillance requirements in your employees’ contracts of employment”.

Before I’m leapt on, I accept that there is a difference between health surveillance and medical checks, but I suggest that a similar approach might in the future be something to bear in mind.

When it comes to medical checks, OH referrals etc, an employee can refuse to have them, but I understand that the employer is then able to base any future decisions on that basis of what information they have available to them. A medical check of some kind, to ensure fitness seems to me to be a reasonably prudent approach by a responsible employer.

No worries, just something that I came across in the last week or so. Thought it might be helpful to others as well. It did make me think.

I believe that you can change a contract of employment; with appropriate notice.

I would like to think that most unions would be supportive of any move that was intended to help ensure health and safety.

I would suggest that there is quite a big difference between a medical carried out by a health practitioner the results of which would be provided solely to DVLA (and, I would suggest, probably in a limited fashion) and a questionnaire completed by an employee and returned to their employer.

I suspect that when the employees say that the questionnaire is "intrusive" what they actually mean is that they are concerned that the contents could be seen by all and sundry. I've recently had a similar issue with medical questionnaires for night workers. Employees had previously returned the questionnaires to their line manager and were concerned about confidentiality. I introduced a system whereby the questionnaires were returned directly to our occupational health provider who then gave us a fit/not-fit indication. If you use an OH provider it would probably be worth having a chat with them about how this could be best managed. I'd also take a look at the Information Commissioners Office guidance here: http://www.ico.gov.uk/up...ut_workers_health_2.html