Media and Press

Are employees dying for a suntan?
Wed 7th Jul 10 - 15:51

A recent landmark case in Australia came to the attention of Factor 50 as providing a common sense and welcome clarification of employer's obligations to employees.

A group of Australian workers had contracted skin cancer after having worked for long hours outdoors under the sun.  The employees sued their employers for failing to have provided adequate sunscreen which would have protected them against sun damage.

The Australian Court held that the employer was liable to their employees for their failure to provide adequate protection against the sun, holding that as result the employer was liable to pay damages to the employees for the resultant skin cancer. 

The question is: could this situation arise in the UK?

Initially anyone would think that the UK climate would not give rise to such a claim.  Even though we might regularly see people working outdoors, probably without adequate sun protection, is the UK sun really hot enough to merit employers protecting their employees against a foreseeable danger such as skin cancer?

The answer is a resounding yes.  The sun is the same wherever you go and its cancer causing properties are well known.  After all, only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun……

Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK. The main cause is exposure to the sun's ultra violet radiation. Of the 100,000 new cases each year, 8,000 relate to malignant melanoma and these figures are very sadly rising fast.

The risk therefore to those working outdoors is clear.

Employers are bound by a number of regulations to take steps to ensure their employees are reasonable safe at work.  Consider the following.

"Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of the employees to which they are exposed whilst at work".  (Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations).

"An employer is to guard against specific risks to their employees and must make all relevant health and safety information available to their work force". (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations).

"An employer must provide appropriate personnel protective equipment and training in its usage to their employees wherever there is a risk to health and safety". (Personnel Protective Equipment at Work Regulations).

Therefore it does not take a huge amount of imagination to consider that a UK court may well find an employer to be in breach of any of the above Regulations if they fail to guard against dangers caused by the sun.  An employer only needs to take what steps are reasonable, why then is the provision of sun cream to all employees working outdoors not a very minor yet effective step?

It's time employers wised up and protected their employees against a very obvious danger.