Sainsbury's urges contractors to screen health of workers

Sainsbury's wants its supply chain contractors to carry-out occupational health screening of their workers using the Constructing Better Health (CBH) scheme.

The supermarket giant is about to embark on a 12-month programme to screen 1,700 operatives - about 10% of its supply chain workforce - across 50 sites.

Depending on the success of the programme - which starts next month - Sainsbury's could be insisting on 100% compliance across its supply chain.

The news follows months of negotiations between Sainsbury's and CBH, which hopes other clients follow suit.

CJ understands that CBH is already in discussions with more blue-chip clients in other sectors who are looking to come on board.

"This is a tremendous development," said CBH chairman Trevor Walker. "It is a wonderful opportunity to start to improve the health of the workforce."

CBH will launch a national rollout of its scheme in August and will be looking for contractors to join up as members so that they can access services such as toolkits and industry standards, developed by CBH.

The organisation has now given accreditation to three occupational health providers, with another nine or 10 currently in the process of receiving accreditation.

Workers who have been screened will be issued with a card and their data will be stored on a database, which can be accessed, through CBH, by an employer or site manager.

"One of the fears from workers is that they will be deemed unfit for work if an employer sees a health issue," said Michelle Aldous, CBH chief executive. "This is not the case. The information will not say people should not do certain work altogether. It will state ways to manage an individual into work - not out of work."