Health and Safety - VDU Use

More and more workers are spending a large part of their day looking at a computer screen. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 specifically deal with the health and safety issues associated with working with VDUs.

The Health and Safety Executive has a free leaflet, ‘Working With VDUs’, which gives advice for employers and employees on minimising risks and ensuring compliance with the law. It covers both conventional (cathode ray tube, TV-style) screens and the newer, flat panel displays such as those used in laptop computers.

Regulation 5 covers the employer’s responsibility for providing eyesight tests for employees.

Employers have a duty to ensure the provision of appropriate eye and eyesight tests, on request, to VDU users and to any employees who are to become users.

Accor Services, which runs an eye care voucher scheme for employers to provide to employees for use at most opticians, has published a free information booklet, ‘Developing a Company Eye Care Policy – Your Options and Legal Obligations’.

As well as guidance on developing and writing an eye care policy, the booklet covers the main points of the law, gives advice on ways to minimise the effects of VDU use and contains general information on eye care.