Posted By clez
Try Specsavers, you can buy vouchers off them. £195 is excessive

Posted By Jonathan Breeze
Unfortunately Steve, you will probably need to speak to an optician to find out costs, although you are quite at liberty to shop around.

Assuming you have paid for the eye test, you should at least know the prescription you are looking for.

Paragraphs 85-89 of the HSE published guidance (cost £8.95 from HSE books) does cover this issue.

Briefly it states the employer is responsible for the cost of a basic frame & the prescribed lenses and only then for those bits which are attributable to the job requirements.

There you go, clear as mud!

Posted By Steve Conway
Thanks for that last point Ron. I had just reread the guidance about the use of bi and varifocals and the potential problems. I suspect the problem could be resolved by the indivudual using a document holder rather than looking at printed materials on her desk. Her problems seems to stem from changes in focal length.

Steve

Posted By Jonathan Breeze
But of course Ron, that's only your interpretation of the Guidance.

Para 88 says "employers need contribute only the costs attributable to the requirements of the job."

Which could of course be read in contradiction to your para 82.

Especially if the individual was taking the specs home or driving or reading a paper set of work instructions not available on the IT system.

Here's a question, if the company pays for the specs, must they be returned on termination of a work contract?

Like I said, clear as mud.

Posted By Ron Hunter
Fair points Jonathan - guidance is far from clear and I'm aware from previous threads on related issues that there are different interpretations and opinions out there. I would only add that if I were one of the very few employees who, do to the nature of the work, required a specific prescription for work purposes to be added to my existing prescription, then I'd be a bit miffed if I had to fork out my own hard-earned cash!
Good point on ownership - these specs would be the 'property' of the employer!

Posted By Jonathan Breeze
Conversely Ron, as a glasses wearer who would be unable to get to work without them, let alone read a VDU screen, I think it's pretty darn cheeky for an employee to request their employer to pay.

What next, my employer to pay for dental treatment on the grounds that I cannot do my job while suffering toothache?

Posted By On Site Occupational Health Care
I have had a number of years experience in this area - including having owned my own optical practice so hopefully I can throw some light on it.

The directive is unfortunately not specific enough and could be subject to interpretation, however we do not for sure that there is no scientific evidence that using a display screen causes eye damage - it can cause eye strain and can make users more aware of pre-existing visual defects.

The number of people needing a prescription SPECIFICALLY FOR DISPLAY SCREEN USE is very small (around 2%). Many people may need to use their glasses for display screen work but that does not mean their prescription is specifically for display screen use.

It is important that you ask the employee's optician to specify clearly on a prescription whether spectacles are needed SPECIFICALLY FOR DISPLAY SCREEN USE.
(i.e) intermediate distance.

The legislation requires the company to provide a basic pair of frames and lenses if the employee falls into the small percentage of people who do need them specifically for intermediate distance. But even it is varifocals or bifocals the employer is theoretically only required to pay for the 'intermediate' part of the lens.

In my experience employers deal with this by offering the following:

either:

(a) a basic pair of frames and lenses with a single vision intermediate prescription cost around £45 - £60

(b) a contribution of around £45-£60 towards the individuals own specs whether they are single vision, bifocal or varifocal.

It is confusing, not least because people who need to wear glasses for vdu work cannot understand that this does not necessarily mean they have a 'specific prescription' for intermediate/vdu. Hope this helps.