Promoting employment through safety and health measures
Promoting employment through safety and health measures
Keywords: Health, Safety, Employment legislation, Europe
A new report from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work highlights for the first time how safety and health measures can contribute to increasing the employability of European workers. The report brings together 26 case studies from 13 Member States that emphasise a proactive approach through"prevention", "rehabilitation", "reintegration" and"health promotion":
preventing occupation-related injury and illness through major programmes that deal with health and safety hazards, such as the Finnish national programme to maintain the workability of older workers which has led to an increase in the labour market participation of elderly workers;
rehabilitation of sick workers by providing services or adapting workplaces to help the sick or injured worker to recover from their complaints and reintegrate into the workplace – this has been the case with Danish Novo Nordisk, which has shown a rehabilitation rate of 55 per cent for workers suffering from long-term illness;
reintegration initiatives for longer-term disabled people, as is the case with the Spanish National Organisation for the Blind (ONCE) which employs over 45,000 workers with visual impairments and other disabilities, of whom over 15,000 have been assisted in securing employment in the open market by its business corporation;
workplace health promotion initiatives which use the workplace as a setting to undertake activities aimed at improving the general health of the workforce.
According to Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, Director of the European Agency: "This report demonstrates that safety and health measures can contribute to an active labour market policy. As demonstrated by the 26 cases, the employability of European workers can be increased through targeted prevention, rehabilitation,reintegration and health promotion. The cases indicate clearly that safety and health policies and expertise do play a key role here. This is good news and will no doubt encourage similar initiatives throughout Europe including those companies which take their social responsibility seriously.
"But it's not just a question of human and social benefits as it provides potential cost savings for employers and governments alike."
The report, Occupational Safety and Health and Employability, is available in English with a summary fact sheet in 11 languages.
A printed version of the English report (ISBN 92-950007-18-2) can be ordered from the EC's Publications Office EUR-OP in Luxembourg, or from its sales agents at the price of 13.5 Euros (excluding VAT).
