Indeed, joint committees of cooperating union and employer health and safety experts are increasingly common at large worksites, observers say.

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"What you need in any modern employer in the 21st century is a joint approach towards sickness absence where you combine preventing abuse on the one hand and fairness on the other, " Mr Dromey told the BBC.

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Petitioner and Mr. Haggerty used a joint checking account in which her paycheck was directly deposited by her employer.

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In a joint project, The Partnership for Workplace Mental Health and Employers Health, an Ohio-based employer coalition, are designing a new workplace human resources toolkit.

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