As recently reported in the CIPD People Management magazine, the results of a poll of 2,000 organisations by Specsavers Opticians found that 78% of employers were unaware of the recent development in legislation passed by the EU parliament that will come into force in 2011. These require commercial driving license holders to have eye tests at least every 5 years.
Specsavers report that as many as 1 in 3 individuals that work as part of their job may have substandard vision.
Currently legislation provides that employees may request a free eye test and a contribution to any glasses required if they are an eligible user of VDU’s but there is currently no specific provision for commercial drivers.
Each EU member will have until 2013 to implement this as National Law but in the mean time it seems good practice to encourage colleagues to have regular eye tests especially that these are now free on the NHS in Scotland.
As with all such legislation it is likely that the burden of proof will fall on business owners, for guidance on how to comply with this legislation email info@simplehr.co.uk
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