Employers urged to help British workers stay healthy

Employers who provide vending machines stocked with junk food and fail to encourage their employees to take exercise could be contributing to increasing levels of obesity and absenteeism in the UK, warns leading income protector, UnumProvident.

Apart from the obvious disadvantages of an unhealthy workforce, including increased absenteeism and reduced productivity, the insurer warns against the risk of a rise in group income protection premiums due to obesity-induced ill-health. UnumProvident is calling on employers to provide healthy eating options in the workplace and to provide facilities to encourage employees to take more exercise.

As a rule, foods provided in vending machines are high in calories, fat and sugar content. For example, a popular confectionery bar contains approximately 294 calories and 11.4 grams of fat; a packet of ready salted crisps contains approximately 183 calories and 11.7 grams of fat; and a can of cola has approximately 139 calories and nine teaspoons of sugar.

However, most office jobs are sedentary and excess calories are not burned off. For example, an office employee would have to sit at his or her computer for 49 hours to burn off one confectionery bar, and 30.5 hours for a packet of crisps.

These warnings to employers come after research, commissioned by UnumProvident in the US, revealed a staggering 10 -fold increase in the incidence of disability claims attributed to the obesity epidemic over the past decade.

US employers currently lose more than $12 billion (£6.4 billion) per year due to the consequences of obesity, which include increased healthcare use and increased absenteeism, as well as elevated health and disability insurance premiums.

Dr. Mike O'Donnell, Chief Medical Officer for UnumProvident, said: "In the UK we are on the brink of a similar epidemic, which it is in employers' best interests to avert. Choice is the answer. Workplaces should cater for healthy eating, not just junk food, and employees should be encouraged, through discounted gym memberships or other sporting activities, to exercise.

"With the decline of traditional manufacturing jobs which involved manual labour we have seen a huge increase in desk-based jobs involving technology. In the past, people seeking information form a colleague would have got up and walked to their office for a discussion - now people often just send an email to someone sitting just around the corner.

"There has also been a massive growth in call-centres with staff sat at their desks for large parts of the day without any exercise. The temptation to snack on confectionery and crisps from handy vending machines must be enormous."

UnumProvident says it is in the interests of both employers and their staff to take positive action to avoid obesity.

Dr O'Donnell concluded: "We would encourage employers to help their workforce stay fit and healthy in as many ways as possible. Providing facilities for cyclists and access to exercise equipment or membership of a nearby gymnasium are worth considering. If catering facilities are provide then healthy options such as salads and fruit should be readily available."

In the UK, it has been estimated that obesity costs the NHS £0.5 billion per annum in in-patient care, with a cost to the wider UK economy through sickness absence already reaching £2 billion.

With rising levels of childhood obesity and predictions that a quarter of women and a fifth of men could be obese by 2005, Britain could see a considerable increase in the number of claims due to obesity-related illness. UnumProvident warns that this could result in a significant increase in premiums on both individual and group income protection policies.

(SP)