Regulations on Employee Eye Care Yet to be Understood by Companies
Businesses are spending inordinate amounts of money on employees’ eye care because of a common misinterpretation of the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations, says research released by Specsavers Corporate Eyecare. Surprisingly, the adoption of these schemes continues to be inadequate, despite the overspending.
Though 88% of respondents are familiar with the Regulations, 70% are still unclear about its provisions. The Regulations provide for employees who use visual display units (VDUs) to be given eye examinations and glasses, whenever necessary. But confusion abounds, with 90% of the employers believing they must pay only for eye tests for employees who use VDUs, and about 20% believing that they may offer payment for glasses for employees only if they so desire.
More than 80% of employers think that the total cost of eye examinations and glasses is over £50, though coupons for such services are available at just £17. Further, the Regulations stipulate that employees be given single vision glasses for VDU work, but over a quarter of the employers surveyed believed that the company should pay for bifocal or varifocal glasses, which in fact may not be appropriate for VDU use.
Another drain on the company’s resources is the hefty bills charged by opticians who employees consult for eye examinations. The fact is that the Regulations actually allow the companies to use opticians of their choice for such purposes, which could save them a large amount of money. All these doubts of the employers is proving to be a costly affair for them and not helping the employees one bit.
It is obvious from the study that if the confusion among businesses over the Regulations is cleared, it will not only reduce the extraneous expenditure, but would also promote eyecare of the workers in a more efficient way. A company that offers great training for employment law and health and safety, such as DSE training is Workplace Law Group.