Ethics Guidance for Occupational Health Practice 9th Edition - Book - Page 85
4.72. Where a worker is clearly unfit to engage, and this is supported by treating
clinicians, occupational health should avoid duplicating assessments unless
there is a clear clinical rationale. In such cases, the occupational health
professional’s role is to guide the employer toward a proportionate and legally
sound approach, balancing organisational needs with the duty of care owed to
the individual.
Ill health retirement
4.73. Occupational health input is often sought to advise on whether the criteria for
enhanced benefits payable for medical retirement, and in some cases for injury
awards, are met.
4.74. Ethical responsibilities in this area are complex because stakeholders include
the pension scheme administrators and trustees as well as the workers and the
employers. Occupational health professionals must understand where their
responsibilities lie and must be able to communicate this effectively to all
stakeholders. There must be a clear separation between the employment and
the pension aspects of the case. In larger schemes this is often achieved through
physical separation of functions i.e. the medical advisor to the pension’s
Trustee about the case is different from occupational health professional
advising the employer about the same case, but smaller schemes may have to
rely on the employer’s occupational health physician to act also as the medical
advisor to the pension scheme as the only source of competent occupational
health advice. If so, occupational health physicians must take care to act
impartially.
4.75. Occupational Health Physicians advising pension schemes must remember
their duties to the trustees of the scheme; this adds complexity over the usual
dual responsibility to employer and worker. Occupational health professionals
must take care not to offer gratuitous advice on eligibility for benefits when it
is not their responsibility to do so, since that may raise false expectations and
thereby cause distress and harm.
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