Transcript The OSH situation in Europe

The OSH situation in the EU
An overview
“How to make the working environment more human friendly?”
6 October 2011, Ljubljana
Eusebio Rial González
Head of the Prevention and Research Unit
Overview
 EU-OSHA and its network
 Contextual factors affecting the future of OSH
 Exposures and outcomes
 Overall trends
• A fragmented future
 Some needs identified from the data available
Aim of the Agency
 “In order to improve the working
environment, (…) the aim of the Agency
shall be to provide (…) technical,
scientific and economic information of
use in the field of safety and health at
work.”
 Tripartite Governing Board, with all 27
Member States represented + EC
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
A network agency: Focal Points
Eurofound
Eurostat
ECHA
EU Focal Points
Candidate & Potential
Candidate Countries
EEA/EFTA
Focal Points
Introduction
 Key issues
• Important not to lose sight of contextual factors &
underlying trends that give rise to different patterns of
exposure to risks
• Employment issues impact on OSH (e.g., gender
segregation: different jobs, different risks)
• OSH status impact on employment (e.g., are we healthy
enough to work until we are 67? How do we achieve the
Lisbon objectives, or sustainable/smart growth?)
Employment and contextual factors:
workforce
  rates of employment
• long-term trend, despite the economic crisis
  rates of female employment
• but still unequally distributed across the workforce
  ageing  reduced pool of workers
•  need to improve workability of those who may
have previously easily gone into early or medical
retirement. Health issues > accidents
  migrant workers, likely to continue despite
recent dip due to the crisis
• Double demographic drive: older EU & extremely
young populations in emigrant countries (with weak
economies, unable to generate jobs for them)
‘The greying of Europe”
EU27: 2010 and 2060
(Demography report 2010, EUROSTAT)
Younger immigrant populations alleviate the problem
– for now
Population change by component, EU-27, 1961-2009
(Demography report 2010, EUROSTAT)
Median age of the total population, EU-27, 1990-2010
(Demography report 2010, EUROSTAT)
Population age structure by major age groups, EU-27
(Demography report 2010, EUROSTAT)
Employment and contextual factors:
labour market
 Non-standard employment
• Part-time jobs, especially among women
• Multiple jobs (especially in personal services). Likely
growth area:  need for child & elderly care,  State
provision  from large public sector providers to private
sector SMEs  harder to monitor, inspect, etc.
• Self-employed: 4%-21% depending on MS; average
16%; stable % of the whole workforce (2004-09)
• Increase in ‘economically dependent workers’ (or
pseudo self-employed): lack of information about their
potential specific OSH issues
• Undeclared work: usually performed by the most (socially
& economically) vulnerable groups: women, migrants,
unemployed. Often concentrated in some sectors.
 Tertiarisation
Changes in industrial structure
Distribution of employment by activity branches, 2000-2009, EU-27.
Agriculture, industry and services (%).
100
80
70,5
69,5
69,1
68,9
68,4
68,1
67,5
66,9
66,2
65,9
60
40
26,8
26,6
26,1
25,7
25,4
25,2
25,1
25,1
24,9
23,9
20
7,3
7,1
7,0
6,9
6,5
6,3
6,0
5,8
5,6
5,5
0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Agriculture
Source: Eurostat
2005
Industry
Services
2006
2007
2008
2009
- Employment decreasing in agriculture
- Impact of the economic crisis
Annual employment growth, 2000-2009, EU-27.
Total, agriculture, industry and services (%).
6
4
2,4
2,6
2
1,5
1,5
1,4
1,2
0,9
0,2
0,4
0,4
1,6
1,5
0,9
0,7
1,8
1,7
1,92,1
1,2
1,5
0,9
0,0
0,0
0
-0,1
2000
2001
2002
-1,1
-2
-1,7
-1,6
-1,7
2004
-0,3
2003
-1,2
-1,4
2005
2006
2007
-1,3
-1,8
-4
-4,0
2008
-1,6
2009-0,4
-1,8
-3,6
-4,7
-5,5
-6
Total employment
Source: Eurostat
Agriculture
Industry
Services
Impact of the economic crisis – only personal services on
the increase
The gender dimension
 There is still significant gender segregation across
sectors, occupations, and tasks
• Need to challenge assumptions about ‘typical’ female jobs
and their risks/exposures
•  accident statistics may under-estimate the impact for
women (public sector health & education; agriculture; undeclared
work)
 Also differences across the age cohorts
• different sectors & with different educational attainment
 Over-represented in part-time or temporary jobs
• Lower pay, less access to training, limited professional
development & preventive services
 ‘Combined vulnerability’, at higher risk of social
exclusion
• Older, female, migrant workers (e.g., cleaners)
 Gender should be a transversal aspect
• in policy, implementation (e.g., gender-sensitive risk
assessment), data collection/analysis…
Exposures and outcomes (1)
 Accidents still a (decreasing) concern, but the figures
are worse for health problems
 Top concerns: MSDs & psychosocial
• e.g., BAuA 2009 report on OSH: early retirement due to work
incapacity increased by 8.1%; notably in mental and
behavioural disorders (2006-2009: 32.5%  37.7%), women
are particularly concerned (43.9% of all incapacities among
women linked to these causes);
 Road traffic accidents
 Accident and health data need closer analysis
• Effects on ‘vulnerable groups’ may be masked in the
(improved) headline figures
 Effects of reduced workability or incapacity on
individuals, companies and the EU/MS economy
• Psychosocial issues have a larger effect: usually longer-term
absence + more frequent in younger cohorts
Exposures and outcomes (2)
 Forecast reports on physical, biological,
psychosocial and chemical emerging risks
 ‘New’ risks, but traditional risks still a concern
• Need to strike a balance when tackling old & new
risks: different actions needed, depending on degree
of knowledge (causes & solutions)
• e.g., BAuA 2009 report on OSH, workdays lost: 22.8%
linked to MSDs, 14.8% respiratory disorders; 12.2%
accidents and injuries; 11.4% mental health
 REACH does not replace workplace legislation
 Combined factors: e.g., MSDs + psychosocial
• Tackle underlying issues & risk factors (both physical
& organisational: work organisation)
Overall trend: a fragmented future
Fragmented working lives, workplaces and workforces
• Large impact on occupational health and public
health
Overall trend: a fragmented future
Fragmented working lives, workplaces and workforces
 Longer working life, but no longer a job for life
• A challenge for effective health surveillance  risk
of weaker evidence base of harm to worker health
• Working beyond 65  effects of work-related
diseases become more apparent
• ‘Atypical careers’: harder to balance private &
working life (particularly, still, for women)
Overall trend: a fragmented future
Fragmented working lives, workplaces and workforces
 Atomised industrial structure: MSEs
 Multiple worksites, especially in growth sectors
(e.g., personal care)
 Teleworking
 “Mobile workers”
 Global workplace
 ICT: 24/7 availability, work  home spillover
How do we maintain effective prevention?
Overall trend: a fragmented future
Fragmented working lives, workplaces and workforces
 Diversity: more women, migrants, older
workers, workers with disabilities, workers
with chronic illnesses…
• New risks, and old risks in new guises
• How do we help enterprises to manage this
increased complexity to ensure a sustainable
working life and a healthy workplace for all?
• 3 needs…
1. Need to have a more accurate picture of what’s happening
 Unlikely to have more resources for data
collection in the near future
• Make better use of existing resources
 ‘Statistics in focus’: strong statistical rigour
+ good OSH knowledge to interpret the data
 Check behind the headlines
• Detailed analyses, e.g, for vulnerable groups
 Maintain time series: trends
 Complement official/administrative data with
surveys, scientific studies and estimates
 Better analysis  more targeted and effective
prevention
2. Need to have a better idea of what helps or hinders
implementation
 Process and implementation indicators
 Enterprise-level OSH management
• Large variation; worse as enterprise size decreases
• RA too focused on traditional risks, misses out some
key factors (and emerging risks)
 Drivers and barriers
•
•
•
•
Drivers: legal obligation; supply chain
Key factor: employee representation
Need to encourage better management involvement
Main barrier: lack of awareness of risks (esp. MSEs)
 OSH resources & needs
• What expertise is used/available/needed
• Need help with tools and implementation of measures
3. Need to make implementation (prevention) easier
 The moral case
 The legal case
? The tools: especially using the Internet, digital tools,
multimedia information
Trends: then and now
What next? A more ‘human-friendly’ work
environment?
?
Due to the (understandable, historic) emphasis on
risks, we often miss: how do we promote a positive
work environment?
• Management leadership + worker participation
• Better trained managers
• Enhance salutogenic factors
Management commitment
Prevalence of a documented policy, established management
system or action plan on health and safety
% establishments
100
98
97
96
95
91
90
89
90
89
88
87
85
83
83
81
79
80
78
78
76
76
74
73
73
70
70
65
64
63
63
59
60
54
50
53
46
33% of managers state that the
policy has a large impact and
52% that it has some impact
40
30
20
38
- 24% and 56% in Slovenia -
10
EL
TR
LU
CY
DE
M
T
CH
FR
PT
PL
AT
LT
EE
T O CZ
TA
L
31
RO
EU
-2
7
BE
NL
HR
SI
IT
HU
SK
DK
LV
FI
NO
SE
BG
IE
ES
UK
0
38
Management commitment
Health and safety issues raised regularly in high level
management meetings
% establishments
100
80
60
40
20
LT
EE
SI
LV
CH
EL
TR
PT
AT
HU
PL
DE
HR
IT
M
T
CY
ES
LU
CZ
FI
TO B
TA G
L
31
RO
EU
-2
7
FR
BE
SK
DK
IE
NO
NL
UK
SE
0
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http://osha.europa.eu