date: 23 December 1998 embargo: 00.01 hrs, Tuesday 29 December 1998 Trades Union Congress Attention: health editors, labour correspondents, health and safety media three pages the hidden workplace epidemics Employers are ignoring the massive cost to their businesses of RSI and back strain at work according to a report published today by the TUC (Tuesday).

With over a third of a million sufferers taking ten million days off from work a year, Government statistics show musculo-skeletal disorders (mostly RSI and back strain) are the second most common work-related diseases in Great Britain. And the cost of this epidemic is now over £2 billion a year.

The TUC survey of trade union safety representatives from 500 workplaces across the country - The Hidden Workplace Epidemics: back strain and RSI - shows that employers are not recording the number of sufferers or the amount of days lost due to RSI and back strain, nor are they are providing treatment for sufferers.

Using the survey results as evidence, the TUC is calling for action on a variety of fronts. In the New Year it will be:

. pressing Government health ministers to mount a major campaign against back strain at work;

. encouraging managers and safety representatives to monitor sickness absence due to back strain and RSI, and calculate the costs;

. pushing for insurance companies to encourage employers to increase the rehabilitation and treatment offered to back strain and RSI sufferers; and

. urging the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to take more enforcement action to ensure that employers assess the risks of RSI.

Commenting on the survey results, TUC General Secretary John Monks said:

"Employers have a legal and moral responsibility to prevent RSI and back strain. But they also have a financial responsibility to their firms, and our research suggests they don't even know how much the RSI/back strain epidemic is costing them. If they knew the truth, I'm sure they

would want to do something positive about it."

The TUC's findings show that:

. only 17% of businesses had calculated the costs of back strain - and even fewer (11%) had costed the impact of RSI;

. under a third of employers provide treatment, physiotherapy or rehabilitation to workers suffering from back strain (31%) or RSI (22%), despite the cost effectiveness of such interventions;

. fewer than half the employers in the sample monitored the number of workers suffering from back strain (44%) or RSI (32%); and

. even fewer employers were monitoring the number of days lost due to back strain (43%) or RSI (29%).

Other results from the TUC survey indicate that:

. back strain is increasing fastest in the North West, closely followed by the South East and North East;

. back strain is increasing fastest in manufacturing, and faster than average in education;

. RSI is increasing fastest in the North West, and faster than average in the South West and South East; and

. RSI is increasing faster than average in manufacturing, education services and local government.

Regional figures are set out in the attached tables.

The TUC found that risk assessments were being used to deal with back strain in 56% of workplaces (more often in large than small firms), but in only 38% were they being applied to RSI. One way to encourage action on risk assessments is enforcement action by the HSE or local authority inspectors. The survey found that one in ten workplaces had been served with an Improvement Notice for failing to carry out suitable and sufficient risk assessments, compared with 4% for breaches of the Display Screen Equipment Regulations.

The most common step taken by employers to prevent back strain was training for staff (65%),

but providing new equipment was the commonest preventive step for RSI (34%). The survey shows that employers take back strain more seriously than RSI.

Regional statistics

Table A: Increased back strain by region over the past few years Region Increased Reduced Net increase North West 47% 11% 36% South East 45% 10% 35% North East 44% 11% 33% Midlands 45% 21% 24% South West 41% 18% 23% Scotland 41% 22% 19%

Table B: Increased RSI by region over the past few years Region Increased Reduced Net increase North West 42% 4% 38% South West 41% 6% 35% South East 40% 8% 32% North East 40% 10% 30% Midlands 42% 14% 28% Scotland 36% 8% 28%

S:\OSD\MSDSSURV.PRS

Press release (800 words) issued 24 Dec 1998