Why should a company use travel health services? Because things can go wrong. Millions of Australians travel overseas every year. Most overseas trips are trouble free, great experiences and the Travel Health Fremantle would like to keep it that way. But things can and do go wrong, as evidenced by the following real life experiences:
An Australian company invest $50 000 in relocating an employee and his family overseas. Within a few months, the employee resigns due to the stress of expatriation. Recruitment and replacement of the employee costs the company an estimated $200 000.
An Australian businessman falls ill in Sri Lanka due to a pre-existing condition. As a result, he is not covered by the company’s travel insurance, and the company had to pay for out of country hospital expenses and medical evacuation back to Australia.
An employee suffers serious health problems after contracting an illness (shigella dysentery) after being sent to Ghana by her organisation. After her illness and absence from work, she sues her employer. The employee is successful in claiming for damages stating that the employer failed to warn her of the health risks related to overseas travel and that it was negligent for not ensuring that she had the proper vaccinations or providing her with dietary and other preventative health advice.
The Financial Times reported that employment lawyer Gillian Howard concluded: ‘Either companies should makes sure employees get inoculated, or they should provide advice so that the employees can make an informed choice, without any pressure, on whether to travel’. This case was settled out of court for a six figure compensation payment (Kate Cawthorne v Freshfields).
Because employers have OHS obligations The above examples represent a small sample of health and safety related incidents that Australian Businesses face when undertaking international business travel. If an employee is involved in an incident while overseas on business related travel, the employer will not only be threatened by the loss of a valued member of its team, but also with legal liability – an employer assumes a substantial level of responsibility for keeping its employees safe while they are at work, whether in Australia or abroad. Employers are both morally and legally bound to ensure that they do not cause death, illness or injury to those they employ. The moral obligation is self-explanatory; the legal duties have two sources – statute and the common law. The travelling or expatriate employee should be viewed as operating in a non-traditional work environment, where normal OHS risks are harder to both identify and control. In regards to Australian OHS legislation, the implementation of a travel health management procedure addresses a company’s legal responsibility, so far as it is reasonably practicable, to provide and maintain for employees a working environment that is safe and without risks to health. Employees also have the right to receive relevant information, instruction, and training to enable them to perform their work in a way that is safe and without risks to psychological and physical health. As such, oneof the most important things an employer can do is focus OHS obligations toward prevention, preparation, education, training and adequate response procedures.